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I'm barely a third of the way through this book and already want to recommend it. Don't wait for me to finish - get reading. Porportedly based on habits that Harnish learned from reading about John D. Rockefeller (say what…

I saw a commercial last night on TV. A guy was pasting up billboards of women dressed in swanky clothes. As he turned away to get the next poster, the women in the ones he'd already posted winked and waved…

You've heard that before right? Well, it's not always so easy. I think one thing that sets big companies apart from small companies are how they use measurement in their decisions. Big companies get it wrong because: A) they measure…

When work is physical you need time & motion studies. Frederick Taylor pioneered this around 1900. He found out, for example, that a guy (it was always a guy then) could shovel more stuff in a day if he didn't…

Not all your customers are good to have. Some are great. Some actually cost you money. Some are just so-so. Dharmesh Shah has some good ideas on ranking your customers. His post is geared toward software companies. For other types…

While we're on the subject of customer service, let me tell you about my BBQ grill. I got my first Weber at a garage sale. It served me for several years. www.weber.com When it finally rusted out I decided to…

The war analogy doesn't work because business is not a zero sum game. A great business makes the pie bigger for everyone. And in war, you're focused on the enemy (ie your competition) but in business you're supposed to focus…

What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bi-lingual. What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Tri-lingual. What do you call a person who speaks only one language? An American. - Old Joke. Numbers are…

Most people don't think - they just think they think. Here are some interesting ideas about how decisions are made. (The first three come from a book about web site design by Steve Krug called 'Don't Make Me Think'). People…

I actually believe most small companies have too few meetings. As a result effort is wasted, ideas aren't shared, mistakes take too long to correct, and the cost is high. The problem is that most meetings are run so poorly…