Monthly Archives: November 2008

The New York Times is fading away

Seth Godin picks up on the long established, death by a thousand cuts currently infiltrating the US newspaper industry. What is interesting about this piece is not so much the blow by blow account of the declining circulation and advertising … Continue reading

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Starbucks has been foolish [in spite of McKinsey's endorsement!]

Kim Warren has a wonderful expose of the current state of Starbucks and how they have ended up where they are now. The summary is that having focused very successfully on building a highly engaged and productive workforce which served … Continue reading

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I have utterly nothing new to say

Michael McKinney points to a piece in the FT, ‘Lunch with Tom Peters’. I haven’t read the full interview, but a choice extract made me stop and think. Few have criticized what [Tom Peters] does for a living as ferociously … Continue reading

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More on collaboration

Johnnie points out a piece by Penny, both of whom talk about collaboration in its various forms. Penny sets the scene with the idea that; By recognising the nature of the interactions, we can better understand the restrictions of, and … Continue reading

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From analysis to action

George Ambler explores the language around strategy, analysis, decision making and action. There are plenty of salient points including ‘Analysis Paralysis’ and ‘The Paradox of Choice’. George wraps things up by saying The underlying principle is that: Simplicity allows people … Continue reading

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The rebirth of values and philosophy, can it be done?

Nick Carr has been writing plenty on computing and the move towards a new approach called cloud computing. A recent piece from Nick seeks to compare Google with Microsoft and their respective attempts to win business customers for their respective … Continue reading

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Where next for hedge fund managers?

Psychometrics says Paul Wilmott! Surely not! I doubt whether it will catch on, sadly, but I’ve also been advocating for years that there should be a process of psychometric testing, along the line of Myers-Briggs, for fund managers. This is … Continue reading

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Two gaps in the HR and talent space

Katherine Jones points us to two gaps in the HR and talent space, via research from Hewitt and the Human Capital Institute. 88% of businesses hold executives responsible for results, while only 10% hold the same group accountable for developing … Continue reading

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Human Values, Financial Values and the Credit Crunch

What happens when human values and financial values are seriously misaligned at the operational level? Keysha Cooper once of Washington Mutual reveals all to the New York Times. “If a loan came from a top loan officer, they didn’t care … Continue reading

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Leadership is all about… (enter your own answer here)

Miki Saxon tells us that she’s no fan of the cult of individual leadership. Likewise we’d also agree with the following when Miki says; ‘Leader’ and ‘leadership’ lost their meaning when the media latched on and started using them as … Continue reading

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