By donmitch on March 5, 2009
Your character traits make an enormous difference in what and how much you accomplish. Harmful traits hold some people back from achieving what they might: –An impatient person will become frustrated and spend more time complaining than seeking improvements. –An undisciplined person will randomly switch from one thing to another before accomplishing much of lasting [...]
Posted in Business
By donmitch on February 27, 2009
A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators. –Malcolm Bradbury We decided to put our knowledge of breakthrough processes to good use to ensure that our latest book would reach best-seller reading levels. At the time of its publication, sales of 50,000 copies normally constituted [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By donmitch on February 27, 2009
While in college, I had the good fortune to visit the sponsors of my scholarship, executives at the Santa Fe Railway. On that day, my hosts asked if I would mind going with them to a business lunch. I wasn’t quite sure what they had in mind, but I quickly agreed. I was curious about [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By donmitch on February 23, 2009
Before starting college, I anticipated that my roommates would be excited to learn as much as possible about everything. To my surprise, their goals were quite different. One roommate planned a four-year vacation during which he would do minimal academic work and maximum partying. Another roommate primarily looked for new experiences, tried many non-academic activities, [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By donmitch on January 28, 2009
Many people yearn to stand out from the crowd, but draw comfort from fitting in with everyone else. What life path should they follow? Some people enjoy straddling the gap between the desires to stand out and to fit in through continually innovating in ways that appeal to many other people. Their innovations allow them [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By donmitch on January 27, 2009
Famed golf course architect Donald Ross knew how easy it is to mislead casual golfers. Before there were huge earthmovers to make brute-force changes in holes, Ross made courses more challenging by relying on subtle psychology. One of Ross’s favorite techniques was to shape the tee box so that it pointed well away from the [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By donmitch on January 20, 2009
Business leaders find thousands of ways to improve their business models. When you look at the most successful innovators, however, you find that more often than not they rely on three strategies to succeed. One of those strategies is to increase value without raising prices or increasing costs. Less than five miles from my home, [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By donmitch on January 20, 2009
In the field of business model innovation, the top priority for today’s CEOs and business owners, one of the three best ways to improve is by getting rid of costs that affect customers or other stakeholders in ways that create harm. Often those costs don’t show up on your own profit-and-loss statement and balance sheet. [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By donmitch on January 20, 2009
In recent days, Apple announced that co-founder Steve Jobs would be leaving the company for a time to deal with some health issues. Investors and analysts closely eyed how the stock price responded. In interview after interview, people wanted to know whether Apple could maintain its cutting edge innovative abilities while Jobs is out of [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By donmitch on January 17, 2009
The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just. –Anita Brookner By 2002, it was clear that the most adept and successful CEOs shared one common element: They had prospered by repeatedly upgrading their business models (these seven elements of their commerce: who, what, [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
