Posts Tagged With: monday morning memo
1. Improvisation 2. Innovation 3. Imitation
We tend to think of imitation as the opposite of innovation but I don’t believe this is true. “Opposite” indicates opposed positions, left and right. But my observation is that innovation and imitation are usually the second and third positions in a continuing circle that has improvisation as its starting point. Here’s how that circle &hellip Continue reading
Do You Know You?
When you find your mind wandering, ask yourself these two questions: What am I thinking? Why am I thinking this? And when you’re busy, ask these three: What am I doing? What do I hope to gain by it? Why does this matter to me? Ask these questions and you’ll sidestep the bullet Socrates fired &hellip Continue reading
Fortune’s 500 or America’s 5.91 Million?
Wal-Mart is the biggest company in America, followed by 3 oil companies and then Warren Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway, Apple Computers, General Motors, and General Electric. Yep. Apple today is bigger than both General Motors and G.E. “Yippee, Skippy, call the press. Oh, you did already? And the press said Nash-Finch is number 500? Who the hell &hellip Continue reading
The Snowy Truth of Advertising
Every employee has opinions about the advertising that represents their company. This is natural I suppose because those ads, by extension, represent the employee as well. And so they tell the boss what they think, “and all of our customers think that, too.” But if the development of successful advertising were as instinctive as most &hellip Continue reading
“When We Don’t Fly, People Die.”
“So there I was, first time in Iraq, officer in charge, first time under fire. I had been studying at the Air Force Academy for 4 years. I had a master’s degree in leadership. And I was scared. You know, the first time I heard the BOOMs, the sirens. And I was hunkered down by &hellip Continue reading
Roses for the Living
You and I are aware of the superficial motives we have for the things we do, but only rarely do we consider the deeper motives that hide behind the superficial ones. Pennie and I have been discussing the future and how it revolves around you. Yes, you. Today, July 8, 2013, is the vortex of &hellip Continue reading
The Insightful Advice of David McInnis
I’ve had a handful of memorable moments. Among them is a meeting with Zig Ziglar in 1986. Zig stood at a whiteboard and smiled at the 20 of us staring back at him with big eyes. Zig had written several bestselling books and created America’s most popular sales training program. The 20 of us were &hellip Continue reading
The World’s Ugliest Website And the People Behind It
In the world of bricks-and-mortar, 1. a spectacular building, 2. good signage and 3. an excellent location are the best advertising money can buy. In the binary world where Ones are bricks and Zeroes are mortar, 1. your website is your building, 2. your masthead is your signage and 3. your domain name is your &hellip Continue reading
The Apathy of Leisure
A person capable of creating is happiest when they are creating. Artists create visual and auditory artifacts that affect our thoughts, moods and attitudes. Riddle-solvers perform feats of engineering and invention. Teachers create new understanding in the minds of their students. Entrepreneurs create businesses that offer us new and different experiences. Communicators create stories and &hellip Continue reading
Why Principles are Better than Rules
Laid side-by-side, a stick and a rope of the same length share a similar appearance. Likewise, rules and principles look alike even though they have virtually nothing in common. Rules are like sticks. You can prod people with them. You can threaten people with them. You can beat people with them. But you cannot lead &hellip Continue reading
