The Business of Design

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013

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In his seminal 2004 article The Design of Business, Roger Martin helped usher in a new management zeitgeist focused on infusing business professionals with the sensibilities and tools of a designer. “Businesspeople don’t just need to understand designers,” he wrote. “They need to be designers.” Design thinking remains quite the rage, with companies and business schools alike embracing it as a fresh take not just on how to rethink key products and services, but also …
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Forge Your Front Line, Liberate Your Leaders

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

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What if you were able to grow your business confidently in the direction of your choosing? What if you could consistently provide the most innovative solutions to your customers’ problems? What if you could attract your industry’s best talent? What if you could command premium pricing of products and services that are heavily in demand and are far superior to any alternatives? According to entrepreneur Ray Attiyah, author of The Fearless Front Line, there’s only one way …
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How To Be Outstanding

Monday, February 11th, 2013

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A few weeks ago, on a typical Monday, a friend asked me how my weekend was. Normally I give a one-word answer like “great!” or “excellent!” The words don’t really mean anything, as they’re along the line of the knee-jerk “how-are-you-good-how-about-yourself” exchange we make with the cashier at the grocery store. This particular Monday, though, I replied, “Outstanding!” It caught my friend up short, and he wanted to know why. I explained to his satisfaction …
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Playing To Win: How Strategy Really Works

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

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Business strategy is something that eludes most people. But having the right strategy is often the difference between failure and success. Given the high rate of failure for small businesses, strategy is something that simply must be understood. And a new book just arrived in stores that delivers the one thing every entrepreneur needs when it comes to strategy: simplicity. Roger L. Martin, one the world’s foremost authorities on strategy and dean of the progressive …
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Guy Kawasaki Removes The Middleman, Goes APE

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

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In what may be a shot heard around the publishing world, Guy Kawasaki has just self-published a new book, entitled APE: How to Publish a Book. APE is the acronym for the three roles anyone wishing to self-publish a book must play: Author, Publisher, and Entrepreneur. I repeat: self-published. Between folks like Tim Ferriss rejecting traditional publishing to go with Kindle Publishing, and now Guy subtracting the publisher entirely from the equation, we may be seeing …
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Healthcare Kaizen: 5 Questions With Mark Graban

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

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I remember when I first discovered the work of Mark Graban. The year was 2008, and I was preparing to speak to the Massachusetts Hospital Association, an audience of about 400 hospital CEOs and administrators. They wanted me to tie my work with Toyota to healthcare, which I had no firsthand experience in. I ran across a ChangeThis.com manifesto entitled “How Toyota Can Save Your Life at the Hospital,” by one Mark Graban. It was …
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Do NOT Follow Your Passion

Friday, September 21st, 2012

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For decades we’ve been told to “follow your passion” to “find the career meant for you.” “Do what you love and the money will follow.” Such clichés have become a staple of commencement speeches, such as Steve Jobs’ famed 2005 address at Stanford in which he said: “There is no reason not to follow your heart.” But what if the evidence showed that this advice will do your career more harm than good? In his …
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Introducing the 54 Heroes of The Laws of Subtraction

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

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One third of my forthcoming book The Laws of Subtraction was created by 54 amazingly gifted individuals willing to contribute their inspiring thoughts on the subject of subtraction. At the end of 2011, I sent notes to individuals whose work I’ve admired, inviting them to be part of The Laws of Subtraction by sharing their thoughts in the form of short essays or interviews. Within ten days, nearly everyone had said yes. Their essays, which I’m calling …
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Free Playbook to The Laws of Subtraction!

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

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Pre-order The Laws of Subtraction between now and October 26, email me a copy of the receipt (see buttons below), and I’ll send you a free ebook, the companion playbook to The Laws of Subtraction. I am always asked, “where and how do I begin apply the laws of subtraction to my personal life?” This is the answer. Entitled BOX OF LESS: Exercises and Activities to Practice Subtraction, it’s a self-directed seminar-in-a-box, organized around the 6 laws of subtraction. …
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8 Stupid Things Managers Do To Mess Up Their Companies

Friday, July 13th, 2012

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In a business climate where only the best companies survive and thrive, one thing is clear: you must avoid the stupid stuff. You must eliminate the things that leave customers and employees scratching their heads, frustrated and mystified. The problem is that every company, no matter what size, battles to some degree a central tension: people with ideas on how to make things better, and hidden obstacles that keep those positive changes from actually happening. …
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