Month: August 2013

Labor Day: A Briefing

August 31, 2013

Before I began some research on the subject, I did not know that, until Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, laborers who chose to participate in parades to celebrate anything had to forfeit a day’s wages. I am grateful…

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Don’t Listen to Customers — Observe Them

August 31, 2013

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here. * * * Every business wants to know what influences their customers. So,…

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Jason Averbook on “Big Data: HR’s Chance to Matter”

August 31, 2013

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Jason Averbook for Talent Management magazine. I share his concern that, more often than not, the data HR brings to the table is in the language of HR, not business. To…

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Leading the Starbucks Way: A book review by Bob Morris

August 30, 2013

Leading the Starbucks Way: 5 Principles for Connecting with Your Customers, Your Products and Your People Joseph A. Michelli McGraw-Hill (2013) How one coffee shop in Seattle became 20,891 in 62 countries This is the second book in which Joseph…

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Geoffrey Moore on “Open Innovation: Top-Down Meets Bottom-Up”

August 30, 2013

In Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology (2003) and then in Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape (2006), Henry Chesbrough explains that a business model “performs two important functions: it…

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What really (REALLY) motivates people

August 30, 2013

I am among those who are convinced that workers must be self-motivated to become actively, productively, and happily engaged in the given enterprise. However, it is possible to create a workplace environment with appropriate supervision within which people are most…

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City Slickers: 5 Books About The Urban Experience

August 29, 2013

Here is a brief excerpt from an article by Franklyn Cater for National Public Radio (NPR), “A thriving media organization at the forefront of digital innovation, NPR creates and distributes award-winning news, information, and music programming to a network of…

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Josh Bersin on “Employee Retention Is Now a Big Issue: Why the Tide has Turned”

August 29, 2013

Here is a brief excerpt from an especially timely article by Josh Bersin for LinkedIn. He observes, “I can tell the economy is recovering: we’re suddenly seeing companies tell us that ’employee retention’ has become a critical issue. Let me…

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The Smartest Kids in the World: A book review by Bob Morris

August 29, 2013

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way Amanda Ripley Simon & Schuster (2013) Valuable lessons to be learned from how school children are educated in Finland, South Korea, and Poland Amanda Ripley shares what she…

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Scott Berkun on “What To Do When Things Go Wrong”

August 29, 2013

In Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management (O’Reilly Media 2008), Scott Berkun provides an abundance of information, insights, and counsel on how to master project management, whatever the nature and extent of a project may be. Inevitably, problems develop once a…

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