Leadership & Business Wisdom

MANAGING ONESELF: IDENTIFY STRENGTHS IT TAKES FAR LESS ENERGY TO MOVE FROM FIRST-RATE PERFORMANCE TO EXCELLENCE THAN IT DOES TO MOVE FROM INCOMPETENCE TO MEDIOCRITY. You can learn to identify your strengths by using feedback analysis. This is a simple …

HITTING THEM WHERE THEY AREN’T “HITTING THEM WHERE THEY AREN’T” OUTFLANKS THE BY CREATIVE IMITATION. Here, the innovator doesn’t create a major new product or service. Instead, it takes something just created by somebody else and improves upon it. This …

UNREALIZED BUSINESS POTENTIAL “OPPORTUNITY IS WHERE YOU FIND IT,” NOT WHERE IT FINDS YOU. Luck, chance and catastrophe affect business as they do all human endeavors. But luck never built a business. Prosperity and growth come only to the business …

MANAGING CASH IN THE NEW VENTURE THERE IS AN OLD BANKER’S RULE OF THUMB ACCORDING TO WHICH ONE ASSUMES THAT BILLS WILL HAVE TO BE PAID SIXTY DAYS EARLIER THAN EXPECTED AND RECEIVABLES WILL COME IN SIXTY DAYS LATER. Entrepreneurs …

SOCIAL INNOVATION: THE LAB WITHOUT WALL STEINMETZ’S TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN SCIENCE IS ANATHEMA TO MANY ACADEMIC SCIENTISTS. Steinmetz’s innovation also led to the “lab without walls,” which is America’s specific, and major, contribution to very large scientific and technological programs. The first …

TUNNEL-VISION INNOVATION OFTEN A PRESCRIPTION DRUG DESIGNED FOR A SPECIFIC AILMENT SOMETIMES ENDS UP BEING USED FOR SOME OTHER QUITE DIFFERENT AILMENT. When a new venture does succeed, more often than not it is in a market other than the …

MANAGING THE NEW VENTURE EVERY NEW PROJECT IS AN INFANT AND INFANTS BELONG IN THE NURSERY. Innovative efforts, especially those aimed at developing new businesses, products, or services, should normally report directly to the “executive in charge of innovation.” They …

DIVERSIFICATION SHOEMAKER, STICK TO YOUR LAST!” The old cliché is still sound advice. The less diverse a business, the more manageable it is. Simplicity makes for clarity. People can understand their own job and see its relationship to results and …

ELIMINATING COST CENTERS WOULD THE ROOF CAVE IN IF WE STOPPED DOING THIS WORK ALTOGETHER? No matter how well a business prevents cost inflation, it will still have to cut costs. This is because businesses are like people, and people …

RESPECT FOR THE BUSINESS AND ITS VALUES THE ACQUISITION MUST BE A “TEMPERAMENTAL FIT.” No acquisition works unless the people in the acquiring company have respect for the product, the markets, and the customers of the company they acquire. Though …