I take Mark Hurst’s/Uncle Mark’s advice and read The Economist. A couple of weeks ago, there was an interesting piece in the Schumpeter called “The Catalan Kings.” The piece looks at one of the age old questions in sports AND in business: Is it better to buy talent or train your own talent? The article [...]
The Economist: The Catalan Kings by Schumpeter
June 5th, 2011 · 2 Comments · management, Sports, Training
Tags: management·sports·training
“The Art of the Start” on Execution
September 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Books
I really can’t recommend The Art of the Start enough. I consider this a core, must read book. I’m very fond of the chapter: “The Art of Bootstrapping”. It is all about execution. You can have the best idea, the best people but none of it matters unless you can flat out GET.IT.DONE. Kawasaki provides [...]
Tags: books·management·systems·tools
Thoughts from “The Art of the Start”
September 19th, 2010 · No Comments · Books, Uncategorized
I recently finished reading Guy Kawasaki’s “The Art of the Start”. Great book. Must read. Anyone buying, selling or processing anything should read this at least once. One section really resonated with me. Especially since I just completed my series of posts on Running a Successful Turnaround. In Chapter 5: The Art of Bootstrapping, Guy [...]
Tags: books·change·management·tools
Running A Successful Turnaround: Final Thoughts
August 12th, 2010 · 1 Comment · change, operations, tools, Uncategorized
I have been working on a series of posts detailing my thoughts on how I would fix or turn around a business operation. We’ve talked about financials, how to get a handle on your customers and understanding youremployees in an effort to get them more engaged, and finally, we talked about processes. When you walk into a situation [...]
Tags: change·finance·leadership·management·operations·running a successful turnaround·sales·systems·tools
Running A Successful Turnaround: Process Improvements
August 1st, 2010 · No Comments · change, management, operations, tools, Uncategorized
I have been working on a series of posts detailing my thoughts on how I would fix or turn around a business operation. I would take a stab at a scenario an MBA candidate/intern threw at me. So far we have talked about financials, how to get a handle on your customers and understanding your employees [...]
Tags: change·management·operations·running a successful turnaround·tools
FC: Leadership Defined by Randy Komisar
July 28th, 2010 · No Comments · leadership, management
Quick read from Fast Company about the difference between Leadership and Management. When asked to define, Randy Komisar said: Management is more operationally focused. It’s more of a supervisory role of setting priorities, allocating resources, and directing the execution. Leadership is more forward thinking, more about enabling the organization, empowering individuals, developing the right people, [...]
Tags: leadership·management
Running a Successful Turnaround: The Employee View
July 25th, 2010 · No Comments · change, leadership, management, operations, tools
I have been working on a series of posts detailing my thoughts on how I would fix or turn around a business operation. I would take a stab at a scenario an MBA candidate/intern threw at me. So far we have talked about financials and how to get a handle on your customers. Its all about [...]
Tags: change·genchi genbutsu·management·operations·running a successful turnaround·Tom Peters·tools
Running a Successful Turnaround: The Customer View
July 17th, 2010 · No Comments · change, customer service, leadership, management, operations
Last week, I started as series of posts detailing my thoughts on how I would fix or turn around a business operation. Inspired by a promising MBA student that is doing an internship with us, I thought I would take a stab at a scenario she threw at me. Last week-ish we talked about financials. [...]
Tags: change·customer service·management·operations·running a successful turnaround·skills·tools
Managing your self, your team and your company
July 9th, 2010 · 1 Comment · career, personal branding
We’re coming up on the sixth year anniversary of writing this blog. It has come in a few different looks. I started it as “Diligentia” which is just laughable now. I really can’t remember why i thought that was a good idea. BUT – I did start off with a tagline of “a blog about [...]
Tags: dungeons and dragons·gaming·Hannah Morgan·Harry Joiner·leadership·management·Marines·military·personal branding·Rajesh Setty·Seth Godin·Tom Peters·World of Warcraft
Implementation is Politics
June 29th, 2010 · No Comments · career, change, leadership, management
Quote from the latest Tom Peters blog: Implementation—at the level of “chief” of a 4-person project team in IS—is and always has been and always will be primarily about politics. In fact it is axiomatic: Effective implementers are effective politicians, regardless of any synonym you may choose to substitute for politics. Wow. This hit home [...]
Tags: leadership·management·Tom Peters




