12 Shifts of Christmas
Last week I spent day learning about Oracle Data Storage and another day with Google learning about their new Big Query search engine. One of the tech industry’s longest-tenured paradigms—enterprise applications running on fairly generic hardware—is cracking under an...
Customer Service is not a Department
True innovation, as well as customer service, comes from collaboration. It's not a department but a culture. While the results are unpredictable no company, dealing with the public, can ignore the shift in innovation and customer service in our country. The shift has...
Elect to Make Shift Happen in Your Life
Now that the election is over we need to move on with rebuilding our economy and, in many cases, our lives. We must create an action plan with a whole new level of effectiveness for our families, our business, and ourselves. Vote for your own future. Vote for a...
Creative Problem Solving
Time is money. However, most people don’t have much time. We are working harder, earning less and more concerned about our future than ever before. Part of our problem is we are pushed to find solutions before we really understand the problem. We are so busy ‘fighting...
The Pain of Change
Navigating through the challenges of change has never been simple. The new reality is that you have to harness the energy of change. It is the new competitive weapon. It is how successful organizations respond to the changes in the marketplace. The future is based on...
Pruning Your Ideas
Last week I spent a few days with innovative problem solvers from a group of large companies. Each of them recanted the difficulties they experienced when bringing new, innovative suggestions and solutions that could achieve more goals and solve problems. The...
Akin for Change or Biden our Time?
Rep. Todd Akin created a firestorm when he discussed ‘legitimate rape’ and then claimed he misspoke. Akin’s comment is so reprehensible that I can’t foresee a way for him to recover from it yet he has not withdrawn from the election. Certainly it will become a ‘finger...
Lessons from the Olympics
Olympia mania comes every four years and then we forget about it for another three and half years. The events monopolized most of the world's attention and taught us lessons about what it takes to train to win and how to deal with losses. It will take quite sometime...
It’s a F.A.C.T.
As we reach the halfway point in the Olympics I was struck by the fact that many athletes spend much less time competing than others. In fact some win metals by performing for seconds while others take days. Shot put takes thirteen seconds. All around gymnastics seven...
Jump Out of Your Comfort Zone
photo credit: erika.tricroche For years I have advocated that you step out of your comfort zone. There are always references to Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, Lee Iacocca, and other innovators. However moving outside of your area of comfort is not limited to industrial...
