You are a product. Your resume and interview are your marketing. And a product has to differentiate itself  to have a chance of being noticed and valued. It astonishes me to continually get the same generic resumes, the same attempt to prove diverse skills, and the same generic answers – that I must conclude are… Continue reading →

I finished Dan Pink's book, Drive, today. In it, Dan basically unveils the science behind why freedom in the workplace is going to be this generation's most important business revolution. Here is Dan's TED Talk, which is a good primer for the book. If you are familiar with a ROWE (Results Only Work Environment), think… Continue reading →

Seth Godin had this post this morning. It’s about getting more from school, work, whatever. It’s an interesting thing to mull as an employer. People often think that their employer has a plan for them. And while we might well have some sort of a plan, it’s not nearly as fleshed out as it could… Continue reading →

This is maybe the most important article I have ever read. I’m not kidding. And I read a lot of articles. This is an astonishing testimonial to the power of putting aside your pride and realizing that systems COMBINED with smarts is exponentially powerful. The takeaway: Checklists prevent problems. Checklists for things we already think we… Continue reading →

It looks like Octane. My friends Tony and Diane started Octane less than 4 years ago. Octane is a cool coffee shop, in an up and coming neighborhood. They had a passion for design, style, and general hipness. And they made really good coffee and espresso. And you know what? That could be the whole… Continue reading →

There are 2 truths that I know of in the world for sure: The gifts pharmaceuticals sales reps give to doctors influence the prescriptions they write. I hate voice mail. Here is how they are connected. Gifts influence behavior and opinion. First, for those of you who still hold out some hope that free pens… Continue reading →

Why are mission statements always so lame? Why, when given a very small amount of ink to communicate something clearly, do most companies fail? This is one I saw today: (Company X) was founded to help performance-driven companies improve the effectiveness of their field sales and service organisations [sic] using innovative on-demand wireless and data… Continue reading →

So I had an interesting experience that illustrated to me the importance of structure in storytelling. We had a sales meeting this morning that we knew would be a little rushed, and in the interest of getting through everything we wanted to get through, we shortened our pitch. But we did it the wrong way… Continue reading →

John Moore writes today about various grocery chains and how they are attempting to mimic Whole Foods. He thinks it won’t work because they can’t replicate Whole Foods’ people. I agree. What whole foods has is a culture that creates brand loyalty. A culture that makes people want to work there. And when people like… Continue reading →

A recent Harvard study demonstrates that enterprises with superior IT capabilities have superior revenue growth. The bottom line, both Iansiti and Gomez said, is that the study showed, based on surveys of IT executives, that there is a clear correlation between effective IT operations and growth for an enterprise. Do you think this isn’t true… Continue reading →

The gratitude and re-humanization that airline staff would feel would be 100 times more powerful than all of the lame morale programs trotted out by the airlines to try to fix their service. The airlines send a powerful message when they turn their cheek to such behavior: The lowest person that walks in here with $200 is more important to us that you, our ten-year employee.

So a lot of people ask me why we have fixed fee pricing at Ripple. After all, we come from an industry that bills for time. And bills a lot. Like $150 per hour. But what is the value of time? How can I put a price on the time it takes to fix a… Continue reading →

Seth Godin riffed this morning about The two obvious secrets of every service business. I would add an extension to number two. One of those details is people. People with passion and compassion; folks who actually care. Those are the people who will naturally follow through. Hiring these people doesn’t happen by accident, and it… Continue reading →

I figure if I can rant about doctors, lawyers and a lot of other people smarter than me, then I should probably weigh in on my own job. It’s a pretty fancy title. And it comes with some pretty unique responsibilities. Ultimately, it’s a job you can do just about anyway you want. That of… Continue reading →