How To Work One Hour A Day And Have A Thriving Business
Do you run a small business? Or does your small business run you? As entrepreneurs, there are countless things we could do to grow or improve our businesses. It’s easy to keep busy 100 hours a week. I know—I’ve done so countless times throughout my career. Unfortunately, I’m not the only one who has convinced himself […]
Do You Really Think for Yourself?
The question, “Do you really think for yourself?” isn’t as easy to answer as you might think. When a challenge or problem arises at work and you’re unsure of an answer, you probably rely on the judgment of others. But what if you know the answer to the problem? How likely are you to be […]
Launching a Business? Don’t Leap Before You Leverage
I’ve had a recurring conversation with quite a few friends and colleagues lately. They’re unhappy in their current jobs and want to do something different. For many, this means becoming an entrepreneur and launching their own business. Conventional wisdom suggests they will follow one of two distinct paths: They’ll leave their current jobs and make […]
Book Review by Gartner
Jake Sorofman, a Research Director at Gartner, just reviewed “Best Practices Are Stupid.” His review started… Don’t let its compact size—or snarky title—fool you. It’s a worthwhile read. Unlike so many other books in this particular genre, it doesn’t disguise otherwise straightforward concepts with overwrought explanation. Shapiro gets straight to the point with 40 often […]
Avoid Technology for the Sake of Technology
It seems that all too often, innovation has become synonymous with technology. I was recently working with a company that had a number of challenges they wanted to solve. Most of them looked something like this… “How can we use big data in order to better understand customer needs?” Of course, this is a common […]
Work One Hour a Day
Do you feel overworked? Do you feel as though you never have time to relax? What if you needed to work only one hour a day? I was recently interviewed by Dorie Clark for Forbes.com and discussed how I do this with my business. To be clear, I do not work one hour a day. […]
Everyone Reacts Differently
Back in 1996, I was conducting an important three-day “train the trainer” session for a program we were launching at Accenture. I was personally training 200 top client partners and managers. It was critical that we got everyone’s buy-in. At the end of day one, the partner in charge of program, Bob, asked me how […]
Free Quick Reference Card
On my Monday July 22 at 11AM EDT free webinar, I will be giving attendees my latest creation: The 10x Innovation ROI Quick Reference Card. This 2-page checklist summarizes four important innovation concepts: Ask the Right Challenge [FOCUS] Frame Challenges the Right Way [FRAME] Ask the Right People for Solutions [FIND] Treat Innovation as an […]
Proactive Customer Service
I recently had a problem with my Bose bluetooth headset. I called their customer service department and they solved the problem quickly. They had me return the old one (postage paid) and they sent me a new one. I have had other amazing experiences with Bose over the years…always exceeding my expectations. Staples went […]
Pilots Are Not Experiments
In previous blog entries, I discussed why you need to make your innovation a form of experimentation. Doing this redefines the meaning of failure. Experiments (and as a result, innovation) only fails when you don’t have enough data to support or refute your hypothesis. Disproving your hypothesis is success because you can kill the project […]