Successful Workplace

In a recent blog called Digital Disruption I talked about the issues that established companies have from start-ups unencumbered by assets, infrastructure and thinking that locks them in and prevents them from innovating. The ability to look at the current world through fresh eyes and identify the opportunities would seem to be perfect. Now is […]

While we marvel about technology we can easily forget how disruptive it is for many people. Baby boomers are supposedly between 49 and 67 years old and spent some to most of their careers pre-Internet, pre-cell phone, pre-social, -cloud and -mobile…certainly pre-user-friendly analytics and big data. In many cases, we have a population still able […]

We live in a time of disruption. The average lifespan of a corporation is dropping fast, and technology and culture are changing at a remarkable rate. We can see disruption as a negative force, or we can see it the way a classically trained fighter pilot sees it — as an advantage. Fighter pilots have […]

It is easy to think we’re the first to live in such disruptive times. Not even close to true. I recently visited a Civil War battlefield and had a great conversation with one of the reenactment actors who happened to be a history buff.  In our twenty minute conversation, he told me two remarkable, very […]

Sometimes you read something that is so provocative that you go sleep thinking about and even wake with it in your head. For me, it was Jon Evans, writing in Tech Crunch, making the statement America Has Hit “Peak Jobs”.  Evans believes the gulf between the haves and have nots will increase and that the […]

It’s funny how no matter how much times change, many things stay the same…or quickly return to established norms. Marketing has gone through a significant revolution over the past ten years as the Web matured and then social media arrived. But just as before our interconnected days, has settled into a groove of ‘safe’ targets […]

Just kidding, but I got your attention. Also, full disclosure, I’m from Texas. You may have seen the recent news story on the use of RFID student badges (not implanted microchips) in a school district in San Antonio, Texas. You can read a summary here. Enter Financial Pressures The main driver behind the school district […]

I remember the amazement I experienced the first time I saw Google’s autocomplete in action. With this small feature, Google revolutionized knowledge management. No longer did users have the hit-or-miss experience of having to enter multiple searches to figure out the best term. Google provided real time feedback on the the most commonly grouped terms. […]

Kleiner Perkins’ Mary Meeker published her 2012 Internet Trends Year End Report yesterday and it doesn’t disappoint for detail and insight. Here are just a few highlights: The US has 79% penetration by the Internet, highest in the world for percentage but with only the half the users (245 million compared to China’s 513 million) […]

There was a provocative story in GigaOM today: In a world of facetime and kik, what happens to the personal phone number? Driving the piece was an announcement by AT&T that it plans to completely depart from the old-school telephone business that created the company and instead become an all-IP provider. If you don’t know what […]

Little changes are boring and big changes always get the spotlight. The Internet of Things promises to increase internet connections from approximately 2 billion people centered devices today to 52 billion people and “things” within 10 years. Wow, what would our grandparents think of our new world? Has anyone ever lived in such a time? […]

Bah humbug There are many reasons you could hate Christmas; the endless adverts for electronics, clothing and jewelry started in late October and every shop is playing Christmas carols nonstop. The Company Christmas Party which Jeremy Clarkson described as “It is the damp log in the fire, the mould on the smoked salmon, the advertisement in the […]

Our 10-year-old plasma TV died a few weeks ago. Knowing the big deals were about to start, we put off buying another. At the same time, we refuse to shop on Black Friday. In fact, if we can avoid it, we steer clear of anything that looks like a shopping mall, strip mall, department store…it […]

One process that we all hate performing is expense reports. If you don’t hate them, you’re probably an accountant and nothing can be done for you. For the rest of us, it is a dreaded requirement. In my workplace, the process for expense reports is a pretty standard one. We have to send PDF’s of […]

Let me first say that Skyfall is a great film. It restores the Bond legacy after the disappointing Quantum of Solace and finally establishes Daniel Craig as unquestionably worthy of the James Bond role. For the first time, I wasn’t picturing how Roger Moore or Sean Connery would have done it better. Without creating spoilers […]

If you were born in 1700 Europe, you had very few options. There were many, many things that held you back from being whatever your destiny might have been based on your energy and creativity. Fear was the least of your challenges. Flash forward to now. For anyone with even average drive and creativity, fear […]