May 21, 2012
The Facebook IPO has ignited a predictable frenzy. It's certainly true that social media have profoundly changed the way we interact, find information, and network — but the billion-dollar question is whether all this activity is going to generate solid economic returns.
The conversation about the business model behind sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest reminds me of the conversations that took place during the 1990s tech bubble. There is the same faith...
Last month, I learned what Jane Goodall must have felt like in Gorillas in the Mist, surrounded by mysterious creatures and unknown dangers, and yet compelled to edge ever closer. On my right in full costume was someone outfitted as an adorable, and somehow huggable, green hammerhead robot...in a dress. (I later learned she was in the garb of a Japanese video game character from Katamari Damacy.) At a table in front of me...
While I was dubious about J.C. Penney's switch to its Fair and Square Everyday Low Pricing Strategy, even I have been surprised at how miserably the strategy is faring so far.
During its first quarter under the...
Many successful innovations work because they create a new market. This is, of course, hardly a new point. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne of INSEAD have written a whole book about Blue Ocean Strategy as they call it, in which successful companies innovate their value propositions to attract customers who have never engaged with their type of product or service before.
A classic...
May 18, 2012
Until recently, I hadn't really known any great leaders. As a writer, the highest-ranking people I deal with are editors, and they're pretty much just writers who have gotten lazy. The only thing an editor has ever led me into is a bar.
So my images of leadership were based mainly on movies and sports. I figured great leaders did a lot of alpha-male yelling and inspirational speechmaking. To me, the epitome of leadership was when a baseball player is yelling at the umpire and about...
Over the 23 years since we met, my wife Eleanor and I have spent considerable time, money, and energy on our development. Individually and together, we've taken workshops, studied meditation, practiced yoga, written in journals, talked about our dreams, participated in training programs, and gone to therapy.
A few weeks ago, we were taking a walk along a rural road, questioning why we do it. Is all this inner work simply navel gazing? Or does it impact our lives in a real way?...
People talk about Francis Bacon as the last person to know everything. Apparently, these people don't know any 15-year-old girls. Because these girls know everything. And they just can't believe we don't. And parents! Don't get them started. Plus, 15-year-olds are preternaturally alert. Nothing gets past them.
I was reminded of this at MTV recently, where I ran into...
My last HBR blog post, How to Close a Sales Call, reviewed sales call closing techniques. Now let's analyze whether or not you are a natural born closer.
The drive to take command of a situation is instrumental to a salesperson's success. Salespeople with a weak dominance instinct are never quite in control of an account. They operate under the direction of customers or are at the mercy of the competition...
Facebook's shares open for trading today. Chances are, you're holding your breath or rolling your eyes. Whether you're inspired or baffled about the company's valuation and prospects, the occasion is hard to ignore. What we are witnessing, and participating in, is more than an IPO. It's a collective rite. The event will sanction Mark Zuckerberg's place in the pantheon of innovative...
While Facebook's rise took many by surprise, its success was little surprise to the hundreds of researchers who study social interactions in neuroscience labs across the country. Over the last decade, these neuroscientists have uncovered some unexpected quirks of the brain, that all link to one big idea: we are far more socially oriented, at the level of brain structure and systems, than we account for in daily life.
Why does this matter? It certainly matters to Google, or to any...
