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The universal goal of management for companies and startups alike is to reach business objectives with the smallest possible investment of time and money. In a busy environment like a startup, managing the ongoing stream of tasks and goal setting is an art which requires judgement and careful discernment. In
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What does this scene look like from higher up? (Photo credit: Wikipedia) As entrepreneurs, we are always watching changes in our businesses and the marketplace, looking for an edge or insight to improve our performance. Through the day-to-day decisions and events that shape our experience, it is very easy to
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Ever notice that the people that need help the most are often the ones least likely to accept it? This certainly holds true in the world of advising and training entrepreneurs. One of the clearest markers of how long someone has been playing the entrepreneurship game is how open they
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We all learn important lessons, and if we are smart we even remember to use them once in a while. For me, one of the best lessons ever is one of the simplest: Gaylen Paulson, who led an excellent class on negotiation at the University of Texas at Austin, gives
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We create frames for every situation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) In business, problems are a fact of life. Entrepreneurs especially are subjected to major challenges on a daily basis, which stems from the fact that running a business puts you in contact with as much opportunity for mishap as being in
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"The only way to love a person is not ... to coddle them and bring them soup when they are sick, but by LISTENING to them and seeing and believing in the god, the poet, in them. For by doing this, you K E E P the god and the
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is betting everything on an aggressive rebuilding of monetary and fiscal policy. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife) Much is being made of Japan’s resurgent economy, and the phenomenon of “Abenomics”. In addition to the much-ballyhooed monetary and fiscal policies of Shinzo Abe,
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It is often necessary to make big changes in organizations. Companies get locked into old patterns, fall behind competitors, or otherwise end up poorly aligned to their markets and objectives. When this happens, the best course of action may be to pull the plug on the status quo and make
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Japan is one of the most industrious societies in the world, but it has long been considered a land of contradictions. It is a country that changed from being a closed island nation (nearly 100 years behind the times technology-wise by 1870) to defeating Russia, a major European power just
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Sometimes money is not the objective. As a reader of Forbes, I am sure you know that business is focused on maximization of financial returns — that is to say that business exists to make money. The most money per contract, per customer, per year. It is the yardstick by which
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Fear of failure is natural. For startups, entrepreneurs, and company founders, fear of failure and our response to that fear can be critical to our success. Indeed, when viewed from the inside, startups can be scary: They are, by definition, journeys into the unknown. Startups deal with unknown products that
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SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin Texas Austin Texas is overrun by technology and digital media folks this week during the SXSW Interactive festival. The event itself runs from Friday through the weekend and finishes up on Tuesday night, and consists of hundreds of lectures, panels, information sessions, and technology demonstrations.