Dig Deeper.
Articles, book reviews and thoughts on executive coaching, communications and the world of business.
You can’t argue with success?
Seth Godin argues that you have to argue with success. That's what builds the next success. Besides, failure has nothing to say. More here: Seth's Blog
Why Can’t We Solve BIG Problems, 140 Characters or Less?
We can make a difference and some of us do. Why can't we make more of a difference in the things that really matter? Jason Pontin asks why in the MIT Technology Review. He points [...]
Why the FedEx Logo Works
Great article in Fast Company Co.Design, from Michael May's new book The Laws of Subtraction, on why the FedEx logo is so powerful. It's the story of Lindon Leader, the designer who created the FedEx [...]
You Won’t Find Innovation Just By Asking For It
Great article by Gianfranco Zaccai on why focus groups don't deliver great product innovations. "Focus groups aren’t useless. They can be insightful for fine-tuning something for the short term. But true innovation is about more [...]
Can You Design an Organization?
What's coming in the future that could make your business--even your entire industry--obsolete? How do you respond? Can you see it coming? Can you design a new organization to take over from inside your current [...]
How to Write About Issues So People Get It
My next book, due in Spring 2013, presents many of the leadership lessons of Nanovation in the form of a comic novel. Titled Affluenza, it's the story of a guy who casually tells a joke [...]
The Meaning of Life, Continued
From a very interesting short interview with a Dominican monk. The most attractive thing on the planet is a person filled with gladness. The modern world doesn’t know how to take this; it’s so completely [...]
Present Company
How You Can Build Your Leadership Presence The speech didn’t start off well. We were in a Midwestern city at a trade group conference of equipment dealers, where I was working with an executive of [...]
On Being Good Enough
It was 10:30 in the morning when I walked out of my room in the convention hotel and headed down the extraordinarily long hallway. It was unusual for me to sleep so late but I [...]
Doing More with Less
Elegant design -- hallmark of the best products and organizations -- is the art of doing more with less. This is the story of radical innovation designed to serve the bottom of the pyramid ... [...]
Innovate or Perish!
The pace of change in business is moving so fast, every company has the same choice: innovate or perish. This video, the first in a series from a recent keynote I gave at a financial [...]
What Business is Yahoo! In?
Last week, I pointed out three things Marissa Mayer has to do to win at Yahoo!, one of which was "Know What Business You're In." David Carr at the New York Times agrees and he [...]
Marissa Mayer, Continued
Got some great reader comments that are worth sharing. Charles Dunn is a serial CFO in California: Here's what I think she needs to do, and words in your piece are a clue: they were [...]
The Three Things Marissa Mayer Must Do to Save Yahoo!
(And they’re the same three things you better be doing in your company!) A new leader taking command at a struggling company has challenges way bigger than cutting costs or raising the stock price. If [...]
When the company is the leader, not you.
Great article in the New York Times business section about how to build a culture from the bottom up, rather than trying to impose culture from the top down. A great quote from Cathy Choi, [...]