Jim Collins, writing with his research associate Morten Hansen, has written a new book called Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All. And it’s, well, great. And by choice, I might add. You see, I think the most brilliant stroke by Collins is that the arc of his work–having published three books that are a breed apart–follows his own themes. His books are everlasting bestsellers–he’s had books on the bestselling …
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Google Gets Subtractive
The downside of being unplugged for a week is catching up on my reading. I subscribe to over 75 daily blog feeds. I came back to about 2500 items waiting for me in my reader…and it was a short week! (At least in the U.S.) My filter is, of course, subtraction–looking for instances where impact is improved through removal. One of the things that caught my eye was the list of products being tossed out …
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Solving Healthcare Through Subtraction & Simplicity
Too often we overlook the power of small business solve the world’s most wicked problems. We’re starting realize that the solution to our unemployment challenge lies not with the Fortune 500, but with small businesses and startups. In honor of the American Express Small Business Saturday this past weekend, I’d like to showcase WellnessMart MD. This small retailer in my local Southern California has successfully addressed some vexing areas of the national health care tangle. …
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Small Business Saturday!
To all the small businesses in the country: thank you! I should have two columns up today on OPEN Forum. The first is my “favorite 15″ books of 2011. The second is dedicated to a local small business in my community that has solved the healthcare crisis. You should be able to view my columns here. (I hope) Scroll down to “Recent Contributions.”
The Art of Creating Buzz
Few people would argue with the notion that the most effective kind of marketing is that of word-of-mouth. Most of us would love to have all the world talking about our products or services, but how many of us know exactly how to go about creating that kind of “buzz”? Until recently I was under the impression that achieving the desirable but elusive tipping point of viral world-of-mouth was more luck, mystery and magic than …
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Will Google Add Autos?
When it comes to trying new things, Google is one of the more visible dabblers on the planet. They don’t seem in anyway daunted by media and shareholder scrutiny around experiments run out in the open–experiments that often fail. So I had to chuckle at the recent story about Google which ran on the front page of The New York Times, Google’s Lab of Wildest Dreams. I chuckled because it centered on Google X, the …
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R.I.P. The Spec
TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler posted a very important essay yesterday entitled “The Death of the Spec.” It’s more than important, it’s mandatory reading…for every product company and product reviewer on the planet. His point is that product features, aka specs, don’t sell stuff, and don’t really help us. Us being users and consumers. And reviews that focus on specs, versus the user experience, likewise don’t help–they don’t help the consumer better understand and evaluate their …
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The Lean Startup
It’s a fact that the vast majority of startups fail. But according to Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, those failures can be prevented if you take a structured and scientific approach. “Startup success can be engineered by following a process,” he says. And if there’s a process, that means it can be learned. Ries’s goal is to teach that process to entrepreneurs everywhere. “Lean” is the term James P. Womack and Daniel T. …
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Can Apple Save Publishing?
I finally got around to upgrading my iPhone to the new iOS5, and discovered a new folder on my home screen called Newsstand. The iOS had automatically placed my various magazine and newspaper app subscriptions in the folder. I only had a few, and the the empty shelves (the app screen looks much like iBooks bookshelves) seemed to invite me to fill them up. Which I did. It was super easy because Newsstand includes a …
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