Posts tagged as:

leadership

Distinction may involve what is absent from your business

0 comments January 24, 2012

At a recent meeting I was addressing near Boston, I learned the fascinating story of the Berry family, and their restaurant on Cape Cod, Moby Dick’s. It’s a true story of distinction. You can read on their website how the restaurant came to be — and how the oldest son, Todd, discovered how much he [...]

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If you want to learn more, listen more…

December 8, 2011

During my recent trip to Slovakia, I had the honor of being interviewed by the “Larry King,” so to speak, of that country. Her name is Andrea Vadkerti — and she’s a quite remarkable broadcast journalist and personality. Looking back, I was trying to think of what made her so good at getting her subjects [...]

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Seasonal employees can make an enduring impression…

November 29, 2011

It’s the time of year many organizations are adding “seasonal help.” In other words, they are increasing staff through temporary hires to get them through the busy holiday season. A quick web search revealed many companies adding employees to get them through the crunch of business. Of particular note was the number of newspapers both [...]

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Is customer loyalty dead?

October 27, 2011

After another speaker at a conference where I was keynoting in California suggested “customer loyalty is dead,” I decided to offer you an alternative viewpoint.

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A terrific event in Slovakia!

October 16, 2011

Thanks to all my new friends in Bratislava, Slovakia! The “Big Ideas for CEE” conference sponsored by Soitron — with conference management from Speakers, s.r.o. — featured speakers such as chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, Peter Littmann – the leader who made Hugo Boss a global brand, Joan Laporta – the CEO who took FC Barcelona [...]

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Are you a customer-focused leader, or customer-focused follower?

2 comments October 12, 2011

Given the late Steve Jobs’ (and it’s still strange to write that) famous statement it’s not the customer’s job to know what they want — does that, on its face, mean Apple rejects the theory of customer focus? Of course not. Apple knows what many confuse: FIrst, organizations must make the decision to be customer/client [...]

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The downside of a good decision…

1 comment October 10, 2011

This morning, CNN/Money is reporting that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has decided to abandon the convoluted plan to separate the DVD from the streaming video aspects of the company — and also to kill the horribly named new business called Qwikster. The market is responding positively — as of this writing, shares in Netflix are [...]

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Do your employees know why YOU are in business?

4 comments September 29, 2011

The hero of this story asked me not to use her name, or that of her business. I will explain the reason later, but suffice it to say where she works is just a small place Tammy or I will go to once every week or two — and where we have always received excellent [...]

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Again, the customer ALWAYS wins…

3 comments September 23, 2011

Two stories in today’s New York Times struck me as bellwether examples of why customers — in the long run — ALWAYS win. And, why it does little good to try to “fight” them, if you are a finance or technology manager. Story one — Leo Apothaker is out, Meg Whitman is in at HP. [...]

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Why so many businesses are in trouble…

4 comments September 21, 2011

OK, I realize I am beating this Netflix thing to death — and I promise to take a break on it — however, a new CNN article has me borderline astounded. And, I want to be VERY clear regarding what I think about Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings’ decisions. I think he is EXACTLY right that [...]

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