If you’re talking with cofounders about launching a new business, you’re fundamentally recruiting someone to take the job of partnering with you for the next decade. I see a lot of founders who do less due diligence than I think ideal before making that long-term commitment. Just knowing one [...continue reading]
Are you hiring a cultural fit? Do you actually want to?
Who should you hire: the superstar with great skills who feels like a poor fit with the culture, or the person with weaker skills but who fits in culturally? Even though I believe in hiring the stranger, cultural fit really matters. I once had an interview set up with a candidate who looked [...continue reading]
Partnering Strategy, Subcontractors, and Uber
You can’t hire in courtesy and managerial competence; it has to flow from company management outwards. I'm traveling to Atlanta and Boston this month, so starting to plan my logistics. Part of what Uber’s customers pay for is an easy-to-use layer across multiple cab services in multiple [...continue reading]
The Speed of Trust Review
A while ago I read Stephen M.R. Covey's book, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything . As you would guess, Stephen M.R. is the son of Dr. Stephen R. Covey, who wrote the extremely influential book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The heritage shows. Speed of Trust [...continue reading]
United 93 and Kitty Genovese: Courage in the Workplace
The courageous actions of passengers on the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 on 9/11 flew in the face of a long-standing contention in social science circles that people won't put themselves in danger to right a wrong, e.g., the famous Kitty Genovese case. This fact prompted Monica Worline, a [...continue reading]
Connecting the Corporate Dots: Social Networks Reveal How Employees and Companies Operate
The Wharton newsletter reports: "With the recent disclosure of wiretapping by the National Security Agency and the booming success of sites like MySpace and Friendster, social networking is much in the news today.But serious interest in social networks can also be found among academics, consultants [...continue reading]
The Office Chart That Really Counts
The Office Chart That Really Counts Mapping informal relationships at a company is revealing -- and useful: Two years ago, Ken Loughridge, an information technology manager living in Cheshire, England, uprooted his family and moved to the other side of the world. His company, engineering and [...continue reading]
A New Way to Think: The Best of Rotman Magazine
The Rotman business school is offering a complimentary book compiling the best articles from their magazine , in a book called A New Way to Think: The Best of Rotman Magazine". (yes, i like stuff that doesn't cost anything...) [...continue reading]
Giving Employees What They Want: The Returns Are Huge
How to Give Employees What They Want: The Returns Are Huge - Knowledge@Wharton [...continue reading]
Book Summary: The Six Sigma Way
(book summary written by Scott Lichtman): I recently borrowed a copy of The Six Sigma Way, a book by Pande, Neuman and Cavanagh (consultants to GE, Allied Signal and other corporations). While the book and concept have been around several years, the steps it recommends for services firms are fresh [...continue reading]
360 Review process for CEOs
Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path (which just launched a new blog) wrote a useful summary of the 360-degrees executive review process he uses for himself. [...continue reading]
New Age Project Management: Making It Happen
I just read and enjoyed Mackenzie Kyle's Making It Happen, a simple (but not simplistic) overview of basic project management, in the form of a fable. James Warren has posted what is essentially a summary of this school of project management philosophy: New Age Project Management. [...continue reading]
ChangeThis :: How to Manage Smart People
ChangeThis :: How to Manage Smart People: "After spending nine years at Microsoft managing some of the smartest people in the world, Scott Berkun has a few tips to share on the art of managing the best." [...continue reading]
How "Career Imprinting" Shapes Leaders
HBS Professor Monica Higgins has a new book out on How "Career Imprinting" Shapes Leaders. She particularly emphasizes the long-term impact of the training you receive in the formative stages of your career. [...continue reading]
You Have to Start Meeting Like This!
I really enjoyed reading this article on how to run fun, effective meetings. [...continue reading]
Flex Power:A Capital Way to Gain Clout, Inside and Out (washingtonpost.com)
This is a fascinating article on the social networks of some individuals in the current US administration. It also gives a feeling for how the NGO, private sector, and government power networks all inter-relate. Flex Power: A Capital Way to Gain Clout, Inside and Out (washingtonpost.com)- via [...continue reading]
Inspiring: Japanese gang leader builds global-logistics/teriyaki conglomerate
Lucky JunkiHe has 20 thriving companies, a fourth-degree black belt, and a plan -- always a plan. Which is why this former Japanese gang leader is a teriyaki-sauce-making global-logistics magnate.Only Junki Yoshida; only in America.Inc.com: Lucky Junki [...continue reading]
