Episode 24 of the podcast is now available and this month, I share stories from my life in Management Consulting, where I spent a decade prior to my entrepreneurial journey. And some of my most interesting lessons from that time had nothing to do with the work and everything to do with people.
We’re in an age of division. Everything seems to be either one side or the other. Red or blue. Black or white. With us or against us. You can’t read or listen to the news without hearing about it.
But while the social and political divisions in our discourse feel so much more pronounced these days, the fact is that this type of ‘one or the other’ mindset has been there all along, not least in our economic and personal lives.
If you ask me for my opinion on a particular topic, I like to think I’m level headed enough to tell you if I have a perspective worth sharing or not. If I don’t know much about the subject, it doesn’t bother me to say I’m not up to speed, or it’s not really my area of expertise.
And the reason I do that is because I recognize - and am quite comfortable with the fact - that I don’t know everything. (Hard to believe, I know.)
Episode 23 of the podcast is now available and this month, I share stories from my life in Management Consulting, where I spent a decade prior to my entrepreneurial journey. And some of my most interesting lessons from that time had nothing to do with the work and everything to do with people.
The word “partnership” is used quite liberally these days, across just about all aspects of our lives - from the personal to the professional, whether we’re talking about our relationships, about our work colleagues or our suppliers and customers.
But what do we really mean, in any of these contexts, when we use that term?
I recently heard a talk by Bob Myers, General Manager of the Golden State Warriors, on leadership, values and culture in winning teams. It was a great speech and there were many points he raised that made sense, and really resonated with me. (I’ll write about a couple of them in future posts.)
Episode 22 is now available and this episode wraps up our discussion about Marketing and Sales - specifically, how we casually use terms such as "marketing bullshit" and why that points to a deeper, underlying problem within the company.
Cas Hardware - a small hardware retail business in my neighborhood - closed its doors recently after 41 years. It had become a fixture of the Andersonville community and was a place where “the management” was folks you could get to know, who would be on hand to answer your questions, give advice if you needed it and take care of any purchases you needed to make.
If you’ve ever committed to learning a song on a musical instrument, you’ll know that there’s a certain amount of struggle that’s involved in the process.
Part of this struggle is knowing the technical details - where do I put my fingers, what chords do I play, what are the timings and how should I think about the phrasings here or there.
Episode 21 of the podcast is out now and continues this month’s focus on Sales and Marketing.
Today, we discuss the need to engage and entertain your customers, who have a plethora of options and access, and are forcing marketers to rethink how they attract customers.
It took me a while to get to grips with the fact that “learning” needed to be a continuous process in life. That is, the idea of “learning” isn’t something that is one-and-done but rather is an ongoing activity, a muscle that I should constantly flex and use and build throughout my life.
The other learning that I had about learning was that it could be on any manner of subjects and topics that interested me. It didn’t have to be on subjects that were considered ‘conventionally useful‘ or that didn’t mean much to me.
Back when I was in Business School, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Michigan/Ross Business School universe was a gentleman by the name of C.K. Prahalad. In fact, forget the Ross world, Professor Prahalad was, alongside Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, arguably the best thinker in the world on the subject of Corporate Strategy.
I mean, this was the guy who gave us the term, Core Competence of the corporation, and got us thinking about what it was that a business really did.
Episode 20 of the podcast is now available and today’s episode focuses on the importance of standing your ground when working with a customer. We like to say that the customer is always right, but sometimes, a little tough love goes a long way, even if it puts us at commercial risk.
The song “Born To Run” is probably one of, if not THE, most popular Bruce Springsteen songs ever. Written in 1974 and released in 1975, the song became famous as much for its lyrics as its “wall of sound”. Ostensibly, it’s a love song that, at its core, is about a young man’s desire to get out of Freehold, New Jersey, but, really, it’s about our desire for freedom, our passions and going after whatever we believe in.
It’s one of the most played songs by The Boss and it’s highly unlikely that anyone reading this hasn’t at least heard of the song. In fact, particularly in the days before digital media, when live radio was in its prime
Those Marketing folks - what do they do?
Why do we need to hire another marketing person?
Is it really necessary to spend that on Marketing?
You see it time and time again - organizations have this funny relationship and view of Marketing.
We love the mystique that Apple has built around its business and think it’s entirely down to its products.
Episode 19 of the podcast is now available and this episode kicks off this month's focus on Sales and Marketing - subjects that are both loved and hated.
“Is a dream alive if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?”
I’ve been thinking a lot about Bruce’s words from The River. There’s a gravity in them - a sense of frustration, but more than that, a sense of finality and hopelessness.
Now, I know the specifics of that song and the context within which he sang those words, but as with all things Bruce, his words apply to so much of how we live our lives and the paths we choose to take and the people we choose to love.
In case you haven’t guessed already, the title of this post is clickbait. It’s meant to draw you, the reader, in and make you read this post. And if I’ve done my job right, the post will expand on and explain the title in a useful and compelling way.
But of course, the internet being what it is (one that’s rewarded for clicks and hits), such titles get used to excess and don’t always deliver on their promise.
Episode 18 of the podcast is now available and this episode wraps up this month's conversation around aspirations, a subject that's not only topical for this time of year but also central to our ability to achieve and become who we want to be.
This is going to come out wrong but sometimes I feel the worst thing you can do is tell someone that they’re doing amazingly well.
Now, before you react, let me explain. I’m not suggesting it’s a bad thing to recognize great performance by someone you work with - I think that’s absolutely essential. I’m also not suggesting that we shouldn’t be positive or motivational with family, friends and colleagues - it’s important that we help each other along positive intent and actions.
