Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
Almost every exec and manager hires people – even in the flat organizations common today. Yet few do it well, and many put it down low on their list of favorite things to do.
It doesn’t have to be that way, and there are four simple steps you can take to make the hiring process easier, go smoother, and make better hires.… Read the rest
Things are bubbling in the technology start-up world: not 1998 frothy, but clearly bubbling nonetheless.
And even while there is sobering reality – for example Tom Abate’s piece yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle Why Silicon Valley Faces Fresh Threats – there are telltale signals that things may be changing.
Signs of a cautious optimism can be found from the uptick in the amount of venture capital investment – noted courtesy Chubby Brain here in the highest number of deals occurring in the US in Q4 2009 at US$5.5 B with an aggregate of US$20B for the year – to articles such as Dharmesh Shah’s in OnStartups.com… Read the rest
A chuckle was the first reaction when I saw Ann Handley’s (@marketingprofs) retweet of Ted Minnini’s post – For Sale: Business Culture – on the retailing of the Zappos culture. Zappos founder and CEO Tony Hseih – whose company was recently sold to Amazon – has been offering 2 days seminars for people to learn how to replicate the Zappos (success) story.… Read the rest
Tomorrow is the annual celebration of the Martin Luther King’s birthday, and as I sit here with my 7 year-old son, I wonder what Dr. King would make of aspects of our world today some 40+ years after his death.
Some parts of the world would like strikingly familiar. As chronicled in a trip to south Texas this past year – The Pace of Change: Uvalde, Texas 1953 – some parts of the nation look socially as they must have not only 40 years ago, but 60 or 70 years ago.… Read the rest
We are in one of those periods of great transformational change. Things that we’ve taken for granted, such as hard copy publishing (newspapers, magazines, books, records/CDs) – as well any number the “normal” ways things get done in different sectors and businesses – are morphing in front of our eyes.
The enduring challenge for continuing organizations, even educational institutions like colleges and universities, is to anticipate transformational changes before they occur: gain advantage on any favorable aspects of the change they can as well as figure out how to mitigate the negatives so they don’t sink you.… Read the rest
There are a lot of ways to build a company – some by accident, some products of history, and some by poorly conceived thinking (see Charlotte, North Carolina – who would think Charlotte would become a world banking headquarters?). An obvious goal is to base your business where it’s got good access to customers, talent, transportation or perhaps capital: do none well and you suck up time in travel, recruiting, and moving people that could be otherwise spent toward serving customers and making great products.… Read the rest