Sometimes I’m convinced that the most successful businesses have no idea what they’re doing. Oh sure, if you asked an executive about their strategy, he or she would probably give you whatever is in their planning document verbatim, but I think that’s crap. I think they’re telling you what they believe to be the truth but in fact may only be accurate in their minds for that moment. Instead, I think the most successful companies are masters of dealing with the utter chaos of the business world and not being too anchored to any one detail of a plan. Yes, planning is important, but so is reality, and that often means dealing with something for which we had no plan. So why bother planning? Continue reading
Friendors
To end the week in our usual food-themed way, I want to talk about a piece of advice I was given a long time ago. I thought it concerned shopping and it turns out it’s important business advice as well. I’ll admit that it was given to me in a different time, when much of the food didn’t come from a supermarket the size of several airplane hangers. Shopping involved going to the butcher or the cheese store as well as the larger store where one would get grocery items and the advice was to make friends. Despite the change in store sizes, it’s still great advice for shopping and business. Let me explain.
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Filed under food, Helpful Hints
Creative Thinkering
One of the nice things about writing the daily screed is that sometimes I get asked to read new books and offer my thoughts about them. I received a copy of a book called “Creative Thinkering” by Michael Michalko, who has written another book – Thinkertoys – which has been listed as one of the “100 Best Business Books” of all times and which I enjoyed.
Since looking at business from a different perspective is one of the things we often discuss here, I thought you might find what he has to say of interest. Here are a few points he makes in the book for your consideration: Continue reading
Filed under Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud
