Why Trusting Your Gut Instinct Might be the Best Thing You Ever do
Fifteen years ago I started a business from the second bedroom of my apartment. I had very limited funds and no experience in the sector that I intended to operate in. Before I started I shared my business plan with my friends and family. The majority of them advised me against proceeding. A good mate [...]
Why Common Wisdom is Often Unwise
Heard this recently; “There’s always room for improvement”? What about “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? W. Edwards Deming was an American engineer and statistician who educated the Japanese about quality control for the best part of the last century. Imagine that. He was worshipped in Japan for his ability to find continual improvements [...]
We can all learn a lot from the humble ant.
Have you ever watched ants close up? It’s an interesting study. A few months ago I watched a group of ants converge on some food scraps in a park. Over the course of several hours they carried all of the scraps away presumably back to their colony. Fascinated by this I set up a few [...]
An Eclectic Office Made up of Shipping Containers in Geneva
This eclectic interior architecture of an office building in Geneva was recently realised by the internationally acting practice Group8. The office is called Cargo and Group8 worked with the furniture manufacturer Dynamobel to create this insanely cool space. Old and disused cargo containers are stacked one upon the other in order to provide some silent work and [...]
Why Every Restaurant Should Allow Bill Splitting
I love a damned good plate of spaghetti marinara. In fact I’ll drive half- way across town to get a good one. Fresh seafood, garlic, a splash of wine and chilli served with al dente pasta really hits the spot for me. Two weeks ago I had one of the best ever in one of [...]
Leading vs Lagging and the 5 Negative Barriers that Destroy Business.
I read with interest a recent article from the Bull on ‘Men and Women Behaving Badly’ where he outlined the five negative behaviors which will destroy a business’ culture: dishonesty superiority narcissism fence sitting Johnny-come-lately. All true and it would be a foolish person to suggest any of these behaviors are good for business in [...]
The Bull’s 10 Rules for a Successful Business
The first thing I’ll say is that the above title is written with a heavy dose of irony and my tongue wedged firmly in my cheek. The truth is that I’m not a big fan of rules generally and even less for those that get in the way of sensible progress. Break them and create [...]
Is “Creativity” the most effective trait in business?
IBM’s Institute for Business Value has shown that CEOs value “Creativity” as the most effective trait. For too many companies, their customers are becoming more and more connected to the gloabl community but unfortunately, they are becoming less connected to the company. With the world interconnected from an economic, social, and political persepective, its about time [...]
Electrolux – Cleaning Up the Oceans, Turning Garbage into Vacuums
Home appliance manufacturer Electrolux is setting out to clean up plastic-covered marine environments and turn the spoils into a limited range of vacuum cleaners. Causing the deaths of over a million seabirds and 100,000 mammals and sea turtles each year, Electrolux hopes ‘Vac From the Sea’ will raise much-needed awareness on marine trash and ‘environmental [...]
The Four Pillars of Awesomeness… fed by Passion
Lets talk about awesomeness. However, lets start with awareness and what it means? Surely it is the ability to uncover and pursue what you can do best. Such as knowing know what drives you. How does your drive scale throughout your life? Your company? Your market? Does your definition of awareness or drive differ from [...]
Want to know the Environmental Impact of your Levi’s 501s?
Sustainability has proven to be a powerful motivator for consumption of everything from Prius vehicles to conflict-free diamonds and Method household cleaners. The Wall Street Journal reports has written an article on the recent devlopments of around 100 companies in creating software/ eco index to emasure the impact of your Nikes versus your Adidas. The [...]
Is Information Overload Getting You Down
Information overload is a common complaint these days. Too much data, too many reports. In reading some insights from Dee Hock (founder of Visa), he showed a model that has helped liberate me from this deluge. I love it, and wanted to see if it might help anyone else… generally called the DIKW hierarchy, it [...]
From the Bull | Which levers should I pull?
When you break business down to its fundamentals it is actually a simple concept. Basically, you need to have a product or service that solves a market problem, that you can sell in large enough quantities and at high enough prices to earn an acceptable return on investment for the owners of the business. It [...]
FROM THE BULL | I’ve lost my job. What do I do?
Economists believe we are currently in the worst global economic times of the past 70 years. World growth rates are low or negative and unemployment has increased significantly. Some sectors have been hit harder than most with massive job losses in the finance and manufacturing sectors. The once-revered USA car makers have been fighting for [...]
The Honest Tea Campaign Tests Boston.
OK, ignoring the painful soundtrack for a brief moment, The Honest Tea campaign is a good idea and a lot of fun. The company makes the claim social responsibility is central to Honest Tea’s identity and purpose. Nice to see 96% of Boston locals are supportive of the honest approach. Lets hope the cool kids [...]
Are you fit enough to create purpose?
For all but the most committed, an engineering degree is a hard slog. Dry math, laborious labs, drivelling lecturers; no wonder we have a reputation for drinking. So I’ll save you all that, and just pass on my single best lesson from those 5 long (long) years: Quality = Fitness for purpose Yep, 5 years, [...]
Infograph | An Interesting Look at Price Drops Since 2000
This is a great infographic that looks closely at the changes in prices heading south since 2000. Sourced via Mint, the graph indicates what lies behind many of the prices are business strategies: Starbucks, for example, has made it’s basic coffee cheaper on the theory that it’s better to bring more people through the doors, [...]
Is PUMA Creating a Social and Environmental Approach to cool?
Puma’s New Line of City Bikes The bikes were designed by Biomega and Jens Martin Skibsted (whose recently founded design firm we featured here). In all there are five different models, and when you factor in all the colors and sizes available, there’s 120 configurations. Though many of the designs are loud and style-heavy, there are [...]
Value. What it is and how to get it.
If you have a bit of entrepreneurial flare, you really should check out Paul Graham’s essays. Paul is a start up godfather, experimenting with start-up ‘factories‘ as he tries to find new ways to create value. A while back he wrote on wealth – what it is and how to get it. If you have time, [...]
Bec-a-licious | Entrepreneurial mum creating amazing cakes
Have you heard of Bec-a-Licious cakes? Never? We find that hard to believe however we are quite proud that we have now addressed that problem for you. We stumbled across the Bec-a-licious facebook fan page looking for a cake for a friends party. Whilst the site doesn’t give much away, it does however share some [...]
Infograph | Economic and Sales Productivity During the World Cup
Sales intelligence firm InsideView has been gathering dataabout our economy and productivity during the World Cup. Globally, we’ve been a bunch of slackers over the past month. Around 80% of the world’s population has been watching at least some part of the games, which have been going on since June 11, 2010 and will continue until July 11. [...]
14 of the Best Business Cards of All Time
It was not that long ago that we talk about the redundancy of the business card. Whilst we will stick by that post, we would however make room in our wallets for remarkable cards such as these thanks to Web Designer depot. We have picked out our favorite 14. To see the top 100, head [...]
From the Bull | “when the competition is drowning, stick a hose in their mouths”
Recessions and economic downturns can sometimes provide the best growth opportunities for a business, especially if it is at the expense of your competitors. Downturns can be tough for everyone but smart businesses won’t ignore the fact that during these times their competitors may be at their most vulnerable. They’ll smell their weakness and go [...]
TIME magazine list the best Blogs of 2010
From the savvy to the satirical, the eye-opening to the jaw-dropping, TIME makes its annual picks of the blogs we can’t live without. For the record, we have added uncluttered white spaces covertly into the list. It is an interesting list with a few surprises in here. Certainly for us, it is a crime not to see [...]
