There is this song by Joan Manuel Serrat, the Catalonian singer/songwriter. While his musical style wasn’t ever my favorite, I have always been touched by his deep -sometimes jarring- lyrics. The song I am referring to is “Caminante no hay camino”,...
Today, I will tell you a little anecdote. “Once upon a time” I was invited to a meeting with the company’s CEO. A man known to be strong, with quick decision-making skills. Maybe even scary. The meeting was supposed to be a “feedback and...
Making the right decision is always desirable, it is even more important to make any decision at all. Decision making is the most important aspect of the CEO’s job and one of my favorite sayings goes “as long as you are making decisions, you are moving...
The concept of “backward compatibility” requirement in the tech world is well known. In the past, I haven’t made the connection, but recently I realized that this is very much present and an unavoidable requirement everywhere else. Electric vehicles...
“the system will take care of it”. If it only would be that easy. For sure, many systems and software developed by some vendors, come with already built-in best-practices in business processes that have proven to work in diverse scenarios, and sometimes...
How do you find inspiration? How do feel motivated to get up and pursue the goal? How about aspiring for a better goal? The espresso machine commercial that came up today on the feed echoes this “coffee so good you’ll turn into a morning person”. If...
There is a lot of talk about leadership, but what is it? What defines it? It is definitely not a title, and most of the time it has to do nothing with Management. It is more of a mindset. The “stuff” that leadership is made out of, is the willingness to...
I. Cannot. Stop. Talking. About. This. One. Ryder Carroll has been working on this idea for a while. I got first introduced to it through fine journal maker Leuchtturm1917. Carroll has come up with a method that makes paper journaling flexible and multi-purpose. When...
Probably one of the most powerful incentives that can exist, is peer pressure. As individuals, we want to belong, and to belong, we cannot stick out. UK’s “Nudge Unit”, made famous by the Freakonomics guys, was created specifically to exploit...
Ah! My fixation with the proper way to load a dishwasher… I know. Bear with me a bit. At home, I insist that all silverware loaded into the dishwasher is classified at the moment when is placed into the machine. My reasoning is that, at that time, each and every...
I wrote about this some time ago, but I believe it is worth a repost. Some of you may dislike any manual labor, I understand, but bear with me. I remember how my dear friend Victor once embarked in painting his parent’s house. “It is the one job I have...
Dings, beeps and popups? Constantly interrupted? Cannot get real work done? Seem to have a fog in your mind? This is the book for you. In today’s always-on culture, we are constantly at the mercy of the Inbox, whatever it may come from.Work evolved from memos...
During the recent efforts by many governments to get more people vaccinated, one of the most visible ones has been the “vaccine lottery”. There are a couple of things to learn here from the results. First, the overall premise of the vaccine lottery is that...
When I was contemplating launching this 365 effort, I needed some kind of system/process support to handle several requirements in an automatic fashion. Being a one-man effort, I needed the system to be almost a “set it and forget it” thing, and in that...
A lot has been said and written about this one. Solution-selling was also in-vogue about a decade ago. At the time, it meant selling working systems instead of their individual parts (or at least this is how I remember it). This came with the uptake of professional...
This is one of the classics in management and accountability. If you haven’t heard about it yet, you certainly should! In a world of endless follow-ups and verifications, you will appreciate the simple virtue of Message to Garcia. I heard it is apparently a work of...
Partnerships give you the immediate benefit of being present in the markets where your partners are. This is not something to be taken lightly, it is a tremendous advantage for doing business through partners. It is also a great responsibility. Presence in new...
Citing Wikipedia : (this concept) “… originated in an anecdote set at the time of British rule of colonial India. The British government was concerned about the number of venomous cobra snakes in Delhi. The government, therefore, offered a bounty for every dead...
“A good product that you can make money on”. That’s a good start, but in my experience, it is sometimes not enough to establish a partnership. When partnering, business leaders should be aware that, while partners have a common interest in serving...
I don’t think I am going out on a limb saying that there are very few products in the market that work on their own. Most things need other products that work together with them and in many cases, they even have to be part of an ecosystem, “integrated” or put...
They say feedback is gold. And sincerely, how do you know you are not doing a good job if you are so enamored with your own plan, and you never hear it from others? But to get criticism when we need it the most, not only should we be able to withstand it, but we must...
When partnering, it helps to be aware of all the things partners are capable of doing. Keeping a constantly updating file on these is ideal. It is very likely that at any given time, partners will have just the appropriate skills that we don’t, but that we desperately...
I lost count on how many times did I trip over on the skateboard when I was young. When your wheel hits a big enough rock, it will stop. You could apply more power to the axle or pull on the cart with increased force, but there are times when just giving it a slight...
Every community needs a place to gather, that’s how they are built and nurtured. Businesses -including partners- are no exception. In a virtualized world, where it is increasingly difficult to gather around a table, making available a virtual watering hole can fill...
As you may know, I am deeply into partnerships. Why seek out partnerships? Why spend time developing them? There is nothing that can enrich your experience more than interacting with other people. Especially people who share your interests, and even better, if...
