I spent a few days of my summer visiting Asheville, North Carolina and spending time with a friend. I got to visit “America’s largest private house” – the Biltmore Estate, built by the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt who had made his fortune in railways. My friend, Bill Treasurer has spent his life exploring, living and writing … Read more
Four false myths of creativity from The Innovation Architect blog: Creativity should be fun – brainstorming and coloured post-it notes are preferred to the hard work of challenging existing practices and solving recurrent problems. As a boss, are you prepared to be told that “you have been doing it wrong”? All ideas are good; all … Read more
I watched the world’s top golfers play in the prestigious PGA tournament over the last 4 days. This is one of the top 4 prizes in world golf and a massive achievement for the overall winner. Winning a “major” is a vital brick in the career of the world’s top golfers. I want golf and … Read more
I am in IESE Business School’s library today. I am reading Jeffrey Pfeffer‘s article “HR’s most important task“. He starts: “Here is a paradox. In the financial markets, investment information is rapidly and efficiently diffused. New product and service innovations, be they junk bonds, new forms of options, or debt securities that allocate and price risk in … Read more
Productivity put simple. This is a guest post by Dimitri Uralov, a Barcelona based entrepreneur and financial coach. When Conor offered me the chance to write a post on time management for this blog, we laughed as I commented that most people would probably find the truth about productivity too simple. “Most people would probably find … Read more
I have a page of notes in my notebook about asking questions. In the spirit of breaking the mold of my blogging, I will dump it here unedited… and a bit of commentary and James Joyce style flow of consciousness thinking to follow. The best answer is a question. Ask question = control power, help … Read more
Why do some employees earn massively more money than others? Does Leo Messi or Christiano Ronaldo work harder than Bob Smith or John Doe? More hours? Better formatted CV? The 5 Forces of More Money In this post I do a quick thought experiment – using a tool from MBA Business Strategy 101 to look … Read more
I just watched Michael Feiner, a professor at Columbia Business school, on Authors@Google. He talked about leadership. Jack Stack, author of the great game of business says that there are two disciplines needed in a company: optimization and innovation. I think that these overlap with the skills of management and leadership. Management is about predictability … Read more
Mr Matz. He taught biology. I was 14. I was living in Chicago having moved from Dublin and going to New Trier Township High school up in the northern suburbs. Mr Matz started the first class by holding up the biology textbook and asking how much it was worth? $30. He told us that if we learnt everything … Read more
There are only three types of work: Bad work Good work Great work I think you probably know what sits in each of these categories. Bad work is pointless. It is a waste of time. It is the basis of Dilbert cartoons. Sadly, most organisations are superb at creating bad work: bureaucracy, meetings to plan … Read more