No One is Shooting at You
Years ago, I was having coffee with an entrepreneur who, at the time, was bootstrapping a software business. He had been a CIA operative during the Vietnam War, and told me about the time he had spent with a multinational special forces unit in Laos.
Increase Your Attrition
Many companies are struggling to find the qualified people they need, so they resort to retaining the people they have whether qualified or not. They fight to eliminate or at least reduce rates of attrition when it is increased attrition that can do the business the most good. Retention of the best is all that […]
Forget Recruiting. Poach.
Don’t recruit. Poach. In a tight labor market, there is no percentage in tentativeness. If there is any time to go on the offense, it is now. I don’t know why recruiting firms call what they do a “search.” Who cares about a search? A search is easy, and often consists of little more than […]
Return on Human Intelligence
Artificial intelligence and expert systems in business can increase organizational capability, but at the same time, despite hype and promise, they are no silver bullet and can also dumb your organization down.
The Acumen of Gender Diversity
Most global companies outside of Japan have targets for increasing numbers of women employees, particularly in management. And even in Japan where women are often given short shrift, more global companies now have such targets as well. However, the leaders of the most successful companies I know achieve their objective by doing things right that […]
Strategy on Your Own Terms
The best military strategists always choose the terrain on which they will do battle, rather than allowing the enemy to choose for them. So, in business, why would you possibly allow others to define the topography of your business environment instead of choosing the topography yourself? Yet, that is often precisely what business people do.
[:en]Empathy Trumps Projection[:ja]投影ではなく共感をすること[:]
[:en]Projection and empathy are not the same thing, but they are often confused. Empathy is the ability to understand how someone is thinking, whereas projection is presuming a person thinks like you. Be careful not to project when it is empathy that you intend.
[:en]Change First, Culture Later[:ja]まず変化に取り組んでから、企業文化を見直すこと[:]
[:en]If you are a leader seeking rapid change in your company, forget about culture. Culture will take care of itself. Focus on new ways of doing things. The genesis of a new culture results from a change in behavior, not the other way around. Change the way people do things. Culture change follows as a […]
[:en]When Risk Aversion is Personal[:ja]個人的な理由からのリスク回避[:]
[:en] There is nothing wrong with risk aversion. It is only aversion to reasonable business risk that is a problem. When a business leader complains of excessive risk aversion in his staff, the underlying concerns are frequently personal.
[:en]No Pain Points, No Problems[:ja]問題を抱えない顧客へのアプローチ[:]
[:en]What if your prospects and clients have no pain points and no problems? Presumption of damage is never a good way to start a relationship with anyone, whether in business or otherwise. Not long ago, I was working with a sales team to help improve their capability to ask questions when meeting with prospects. Without fail, […]
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