Tom SpencerAre you? THE scientific method is a formal way of investigating the world by testing your guess about a certain situation, correcting your mistakes, and thereby improving your understanding of the world. If something doesn’t work out for you, do you get angry? Or do you ask yourself, “what went wrong in this experiment?” Learn, grow […]
Hint: this post has nothing to do with ghosts HAVE you ever seen a ghost? Or been told a ghost story by someone who claims to have seen one? I recently had a conversation with a friend who explained to me that his apartment is inhabited by an unfriendly ghost. How do you ward off a […]
Identify the source, weigh your options, and take action DO you suffer from worry? Worry is an obstacle which can prevent otherwise talented students and business people from setting and achieving goals; even ones that should be well within their reach. Do you ever twiddle your thumbs for five minutes (or an hour) before making a […]
Today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness Look to this day! For it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course Lie all the verities and realities or your existence: The bliss of growth The glory of action The splendor of achievement. For yesterday is but a dream And […]
Accept what you have, visualise what you want, and orient yourself in the right direction DO you ever feel like ‘success’ eludes you? Like you should be achieving more? Like you’re not making progress with your studies, career, or business? There are 3 steps you can use to achieve greater focus: Acceptance: understand where you are […]
Giving you a chance to show how badly you really want it ARE you experiencing unexpected difficulties? Has your progress stalled? Have you hit a wall? You may feel irritated, angry and frustrated, but be thankful. Brick walls are there for a reason. They are there to stop your competition, to challenge and test you, […]
There will always be greener pastures. Accept what you have, and build from there YOU may have found yourself envying the position of others. In a former life, I worked as a finance lawyer and often dealt with investment bankers. They worked about the same hours as I did, their job seemed much less challenging […]
Seize the happiness advantage SHAWN ACHOR explains, in a fascinating and amusing TED Talk about the happy secret to better work, that being more positive in the present is shown to improve performance. Happiness releases dopamine, a chemical which stimulates the learning centres in the brain and enables you to operate with more intelligence, creativity, and […]
Different is Better
Lack of a sustainable ‘business engine’ is a Social Enterprise’s Kryptonite IT’S a charity … It’s a for-profit … No, it’s a social enterprise! Social enterprise is on the rise (the number of social enterprises in Australia has grown by 37% in the last 5 years). Just like a regular business, but with one key difference; a […]
WE wanted to share the above video because it made us smile. Consulting firms are often associated with ivory tower elitism or faceless prestige. It is always refreshing then to find a firm that doesn’t take itself too seriously and appears to clearly enjoy the work that they do. We weren’t paid to share this […]
Happy Australia Day to Dick Smith, a true blue Aussie legend TODAY is Australia Day, a day to spend time with the family, stand around the barbecue, and go for a swim at the local pool or nearest beach. However, while most Australian’s are doing what Australian’s do best, one Aussie veteran is promoting a new […]
https://www.youtube.com/v/5tknowAM50Y Burn all other bridges
Hint: taking audacious action is not the answer THERE are many things worth having. What do you want? You may want to work for McKinsey, start your own firm, or fly to the moon. Be specific. What exactly is your audacious goal? If nothing comes to mind, then don’t worry. The reason that most people have […]
It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward YOU have what it takes to be successful, but unless you believe in yourself, you’re not going to have the life you want, or the life that you know you deserve. Keep fighting. Don’t let anybody […]
The approach a new CEO takes during their first 100 days can determine whether they succeed or fail FIRST impressions count! The approach that a new CEO takes during their first 100 days can largely determine whether they succeed or fail. But how to get it right? In an article in the second issue of the SVA […]
Your passion is what stays with us There was a very cautious man, Who never laughed or played. He never risked, he never tried, He never sang or prayed. And when he one day passed away, His insurance was denied. For since he never really lived, They claimed he never died. ~ Anon.
Disruptive innovations often beat successful incumbents CLAYTON Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, is an authority on disruptive innovation, a process by which a product or service initially takes root in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then moves ‘up market’, eventually displacing established competitors. Christensen gave an insightful talk back in 2009 at the ECS National Forum […]
Arnold Schwarzenegger provides his 6 secrets to success LISTEN UP.
THE market may be down, but not you. Be bullish about the future. Invest in yourself. And stay hungry. Your stock will rise.
Desire can change from one object to another YOU are most likely familiar with the marketing adage, “Sex sells”. The concept is a fairly simple one. Sex is a topic of interest because humans have a biological and instinctive desire to reproduce. This hard-wired desire is exploited by marketers to attract people’s attention and, at […]
Sometimes all you need is a little nudge ARE you holding off on pursuing a new initiative because you’re in your comfort zone? Do you have a friend whose potential is obvious but they spend all of their time talking big, partying and generally goofing around? Sometimes all you need is the smallest nudge to […]
MICHAEL Porter is the thought leader in the field of business strategy. He has single-handedly shaped the way in which the world’s top business leaders think about competitive strategy and success. And his concepts like “competitive advantage”, “value chain” and “five forces” form the bedrock for management thinking about complex business issues. Unfortunately, his frameworks are often bastardised, misused and […]
REMARKABLE products are products that are worth making a remark about. Case in point, the latest version of the NAO humanoid robot. Earlier editions have been sold to researchers for more than $14,600. That being said, I only have one thing to say: “I want one”.
Creating an app is not that hard, for a 12 year old DO YOU have an app? Well, do you? … Many leading companies have already jumped on the app-store bandwagon (e.g. New York Times, Twitter and Facebook) but most businesses can still confidently answer this question in the negative: “no apps here.” Given that the […]
Which path are you following? TWO ROADS diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better […]
THIS IS an important question because the answer will affect how you feel about yourself, how likely you are to persist in the face of set backs, and how much enjoyment you gain from the things you do. If you have read any of Seth Godin‘s work then you are probably familiar with the idea of the “linchpin”; […]
TOMORROW, SEPTEMBER 15th, at various public locations worldwide, people will hand out their own money to complete strangers, two coins or notes at a time, asking the recipients to pass one of these coins or notes on to someone else. The aim is to raise awareness and start conversations about the benefits of economies based […]
If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don’t. If you like to win but think you can’t, It’s almost a cinch you won’t. If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost. For out in the world we find, Success begins with a fellow’s will. It’s all in the […]
What do you want to do when you grow up? THIS is a tribute to those people whose actions make our lives possible. Think of an ordinary day of your typical city dwelling person. A school student, university student, office worker or senior citizen. It is very likely that they may need to go somewhere, […]
Are you dancing too fast? Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round, or listened to the rain slapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight, or gazed at the sun into the fading night? You’d better slow down, don’t dance so fast, time is short, the music won’t last. Do you run through each […]
12.50pm AUGUST 1st and I was trying to make plans for lunch (priority #1). No problem, I’ll just check my gmail account and use Google Maps to find the address. Gmail, Google Maps, Google.com, Google.com.au and Google.com.hk failed to respond (for at least 20 minutes). There is some chance that there is just a problem […]
THE advent of blogging during the late 1990s significantly lowered the barriers to entry in the publishing industry. Any person with a computer, a blogger account and a half baked idea could get into the industry, and they did. To shake things up further, the advent of blogging reduced the cost of distribution and the […]
BACK in 1997, Tom Peters talked about “Brand You“. Tom told us that big companies understand the importance of brands and that today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. This is absolutely true, but it is only part of the story. You are not a walking brand, you […]
“Know your [competition], know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.” ~ Sun Tzu YOU are running a company, advising companies or would one day like to be. A company needs to understand its competition, and here are 11 points to help you do that. 1. Identify the competition Who are the […]
THIS post was initially going to be called “finding your competitive advantage”, but I think it goes further than that. Here are 8 factors to get you thinking, and to help find what you’re looking for: Why do you do what you do every day? What makes you tick? What do you believe in? These […]
“One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.” ~ Lewis Carol IF THE GOAL in life (and business) is to help others, then a good first step would be to try to understand the people we are aiming to help so that […]
… do you? YOU may be one of thousands of people who finished a vocational university degree (engineering, law, accounting etc.) and thought, “I need to get some professional experience to my name … and then I’ll branch out and do what I love!” Two years later and you are still an engineer/accountant/lawyer. You’ve learnt […]
A PERSON who wants to work on their leadership ability should work on their self-esteem. The job of a leader is to persuade and inspire. A leader needs to develop and persuasively convey a clear vision of what their organisation plans to do, and to inspire and empower the people who work for that organisation […]
An elevator pitch is a high-level overview of whatever it is that you are selling and is designed to just get the conversation started.
Assigning direct responsibility for productivity improvement makes it much more likely that action will be taken to improve productivity PRODUCTIVITY is important. Every organisation wants to produce more with less. The difficulty is though, that “productivity” is a nebulous term. Who is responsible for this “productivity” you speak of? Assigning direct responsibility for productivity improvement […]
If 30% of your people’s effort is focused on internal affairs and you can redirect it so that only 10% of people’s effort is focused internally, then that is a major boost in productivity.
TEN years ago, what were you doing? For me, I was just entering my final year of high school and gearing up to sit the final exams called the Higher School Certificate. Expectations were high! Our teachers told us that these were the most important set of exams that we would ever take because “a […]
There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does DANIEL Pink puts forward the idea that there is currently a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. Pink presents the Candle Problem, an experiment invented in 1945 by Karl Duncker. The experiment works as follows: I bring you into a room […]
There are six strategic principles which are relevant to any company that wants to be profitable online IN AN article entitled “Strategy and the Internet” published in the March 2001 edition of the Harvard Business Review, Michael Porter outlined six principles that he believes companies need to […]
ON 1 August 2009, at the opening of its new global headquarters in Yokohama, Nissan launched its first fully electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf EV. Nissan appears to have made a long term strategic commitment to electric vehicles. According to one source, Nissan has been busy developing electric vehicles since 1992. Nissan, with alliance partner […]
IN THESE troubled economic times it may be difficult to obtain an offer of employment. There are lots of skilled people competing for a small number of jobs. Be bold, stand up for yourself, and don’t take no for an answer! Dear Employer, Thank you for your letter rejecting my application for employment with your […]
THE ability to find and retain talented employees is vital to sustained business success. Attractive remuneration, stock options plans, medical benefits, and other incentives are attractive enticements for any employee. But what factors are important in attracting, focusing and retaining the most productive and talented workers? Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, in their international bestselling […]
Business Mutualism MUTUALISM, a concept from biology, refers to a relationship between two species or organisms in which both benefit from the association. Following on from the ideas put forward in a recent talk by Robert Full, we can apply this idea to the world of business by considering the idea of “Business Mutualism”. We […]