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“If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” Mario Andretti

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The Lizard is always listening, always watching. It is the voice inside your head that fears and hates. The Lizard wants vengeance. The Lizard is lazy. My Lizard doesn’t like to dance. I try to ignore my Lizard. I try to starve him to death. My Lizard does tricks. He sounds like common sense. His [...]

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Do you really want a $3 haircut? A few years ago, I went to a mall in Shanghai to get a haircut. The menu listed the haircuts according to the city where the hairstylist had trained. Shanghai was 300 yuan, about $3. Singapore was 600 yaun, $6, Sydney was 1000 yuan or $10, and London [...]

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Marketwatch today ran the inevitable story: Apple passes Microsoft for second place in S&P 500. Yes, Apple is now bigger than Microsoft. Marketwatch noted Apple’s $241 billion market cap to Microsoft’s $239 billion market cap. This is what happens when a company manages to attain a high profile based on high quality and unapologetic high [...]

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Advertising will in the future world become gradually more and more intelligent in tone. It will seek to influence demand by argument instead of clamor, a tendency already more apparent every year. Cheap attention-calling tricks and clap-trap will be wholly replaced, as they are already being greatly replaced, by serious exposition; and advertisements, instead of [...]

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I was recently re-introduced to the “5 Whys Exercise” – used by Toyota during the evolution of their manufacturing methodologies. Simply ask “why” five times to get to the bottom of things. “We don’t have the proposal ready”  Why? “Betty didn’t get it done” Why? “She didn’t get started ’till Monday” Why? “I didn’t send [...]

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Here’s a revisit of an article I wrote a few years ago while teaching at WHU in Germany.  I’ve updated it a bit… Cover via Amazon All companies seek growth. Below is a plan of attack for identifying new venture opportunities within the framework of your current business. The key is to start with problems [...]

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