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Emergence
People create things. That is what we are always doing in one form or another. In that creating, we often tend to focus on the most obvious types of creation - what we might well call "Direct Object Verb" type creation. That would be like "Hit the
Understanding Failure: Think Like Silicon Valley's Best Entrepreneurs Do
Failure is a Big Topic for entrepreneurs . For some, failure can be a dominant thread in the storytelling and experience of their entrepreneurial journey. But failure is a myth. The Failure Myth comes in many forms — a failed company, a failed project, a failed idea. But there is a powerful
Uber Vs. Austin - Nothing Less Than A Fight For Control Of The Future Of Transportation
The future of ride-sharing is uncertain in Austin, Texas after a May 8th ballot initiative in which the voting public overwhelmingly rejected Uber and Lyft’s demands for city hall to remain 'hands off' and allow them to operate as they see fit. The ballot measure, paid for
SXSW Interactive 2016 - Surprising Trends And Big Changes In Technology
Every March, Austin Texas holds the South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) event, with an estimated 30,000 attendees this year in 2016. Dignitaries, scientists, politicians, entrepreneurs, marketers, programmers, and folks from every walk of life converge every year and make SXSWi what it is: A massive and exciting exchange of
Do You Know The Platinum Rule For Customer Loyalty?
We live in a competitive world. We spend our careers educating ourselves and working year-after-year to make a difference for those around us. As entrepreneurs and businesspeople we commit everything to the bet that we can provide a compelling service to our customers. Through all of these areas, we find
If Everest Was In Your Path, Would You Recognize It? Its An Insight That Saves Companies And Careers
Our companies and careers grow and take place as strings of events. As we progress, some of the things that we think are going to be difficult, turn out to be quite easy. And inevitably some projects that look easy turn out to be exceedingly difficult. Much of the discrepency
How Smart Startups Win At SXSW Interactive
Each March the global tech community comes together to share, learn, and celebrate technology at South-By-South-West-Interactive (SXSWi), Austin Texas’ signature tech event. The Internet, mobile devices, wearables, Internet Of Things (IOT), and thousands of tech related subjects are shared, discussed, and ‘celebrated’ in a way that you won’t see
In Leadership, When Does Your Hard-Earned Confidence Become A Weakness?
Successful executives get where they are because of their ability to make good decisions. The ability to predict the right course of action under even uncertain conditions is the hallmark of good leaders – something that comes from years of experience. Along with experience and the situational demands of leadership comes
Business Management With 'Environmental Beta': The Measure Of Change
Now more than ever, business is an exercise in the management of change. The fields that we operate in are dynamic and hard to predict. Though ‘change is a constant’, it is remarkable how little management conversation goes in to change itself as an explicit factor in business planning. Change
What Makes Google Great? Understanding The Difference Between Bounded and Unbounded Complexity Problems
Value flows from knowledge. This has been taught to all of us since we were kids, and it’s the basis of our drive to educate ourselves and to pursue information – something that all professionals do automatically. The value of our businesses is similarly derived from our knowledge– knowledge gleaned
Looking For A Deal? How Meta Brands Will Change Everything
What do you think of when you think of a Brand? We know brands like Nike, Toyota, and Apple AAPL +2.68% in a very intimate way—they have distinctive personalities and we may even feel like we have “relationships” with them. The power and the meaning of “Brand” has
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A Key To Leadership When Being Smart Isn't Enough
What qualities define strong leaders and managers? Knowledge and experience in their fields, certainly. But in our fast-paced and highly integrated world, communication, more than ever, is a powerful and decisive force for career success. Being good is no longer enough to be successful. Our communication style — how we connect
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Who Are Your Organization's Superheroes? Hint: Look Beyond The C-Suite
As someone who has spent time in both startup and corporate environments, I’ve observed a key difference between them: Larger companies have lots of specialists, while startups are home to folks who are more often fluent with multiple areas of the business at once. Startups naturally live in a
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The New Secret For Being Promoted To The C-Suite
Companies ideally select their executives based on the prospects of optimum performance of the business. Along with the CEO, the C-Suite consists of the executives in charge of the functional specializations at work within the company: legal, marketing, technology, operations, and the like. There is an art to selecting the
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For Startups, Building It Is The Easy Part
Most folks think that building a product or packaging a great service is the hardest part of becoming a successful business owner. The thought is something along the lines of, “If we can just build the web site, or open the restaurant, or create the widget—then we are going
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How Language Can Fool You Into Thinking The Wrong Way About Your Business
Language is a useful and ubiquitous tool. Just as the words in this article are connecting with you (dear reader), words are ubiquitous. Words are all around us all the time, and are in many ways a tool that we take for granted — language always being available to connect with
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The 'Hickenlooper Effect': How Colorado's Governor Recruited Entrepreneurs To Drive An Economic Recovery
It was late, the streets deserted and traffic-less despite being the middle of downtown Denver, home to over 3 million people. Colorado’s 62 year old governor emerged from the stone-columned civic center alone – without fanfare, entourage, or escort, and quietly eased his lanky frame into the back seat of
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Success And 'The Rule Of Three'
Understanding the needs of your customers, coworkers, sponsors, investors, and other important people in your business life is important. Central to this understanding is the idea of Creating Value. Creating Value is at the core of our professional lives, and is the foundation of our ability to prosper and achieve
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The Strange Secret Behind Founding A Business
Being a startup founder is an exercise in a strange and almost inexplicable physics. We are taught not to believe in magic, but looking at how founders create and what happens when they do what they do, incredible and almost inexplicable things frequently happen. Recall the familiar shape of a
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What Blue Chip Companies Are Finding Out The Hard Way: We Are All Startups
The classic corporate business approach for devising a business strategy is to allow a vice president of the company to put forward a plan – complete with financial projections and a slide show; then throw money at it to see what will happen. The plan would then play out for several
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Love The Critics, They Just Might Save Your Business
When was the last time that somebody honestly and directly criticized you or your business? If you have not gotten guidance, feedback, comments, suggestions, or outright criticism from somebody in the last 24 hours, then you may have a problem. Feedback, in its various forms, is the basis of good
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Japan's Rising Tide Leaves Small Business Out At Sea
As an entrepreneur, I am intensely interested in how business operates - not just here in the US- but in other countries as well. As much as business is universal, the perspectives and problems faced in other countries can be unique, challenging, and widely varied. Having recently spent several weeks
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Technology And The (Rare) Joy Of Being Lost
Digital media and technology are ubiquitous today, which means we are presented with an inexhaustible series of messages and opportunities to be entertained and informed. The resulting state of information intensity is generally considered to be a major benefit of living in our age, and to some extent even necessary