Three years ago, I decided to ‘take a leap’ of faith: I said goodbye to my career in media and advertising and said hello to a new world of executive recruiting. I celebrated my work anniversary by posting a reflection of my accomplishments over the last few years on Linkedin. My post went viral with over 5.5 million views and now 50,000 people want to know how I did it. Instead I&r...
Clearly, making decisions is easier for some than others, and it’s human nature to put off hard decisions. But there’s nothing easy about being a business owner, including having to make lots of decisions that are difficult, frightening, and sometimes even professionally and financially perilous. Failure to make tough decisions by any CEO could lead to, well, failure. But the impact...
Dear Annie: I am an engineer by training, currently running a big chunk of North American manufacturing for a global Fortune 500 company. Recently, the head of my division has been sounding me out about moving either to Spain, to tackle some productivity issues at a couple of plants we have there, or else to one of several Latin American countries where we are starting up new ventures. (I assum...
Thirty years ago, Tom Peters published an incredibly influential business book, In Search of Excellence.
In it, he defined eight characteristics of excellent companies: a bias for action, staying close to the customer, autonomy and entrepreneurship, productivity through people, clear and compelling organizational values, focusing on what you do best, operating with a lean staff, and finding ...
You probably can't even count the number of times you have pulled up a company's career page, seen an opening for a job that seemed to be right in your wheelhouse, read the job description and then realized you didn't meet all of the job qualifications. Well, if that stopped you from applying before – here's some good news for you.
According to a recent USA Today articl...
Q: After being out of work for quite a while, I'm happy to say that I'm starting a new job. But I'm concerned about getting back into the routine smoothly. What can I do to have a successful transition?
A: Pay attention to your new environment, and keep the other aspects of your life as stable as possible.
Have you ever been in a headquarter based meeting when someone says, “This marketing campaign will be impossible to localize in China?” Or when a product manager says to her engineering team, “This product schedule will miss Diwali in South Asia.” One may presume that these comments are from people who originally came from those respective regions but that is not always ...
Many people have embraced their personal cultural history and integrated components of their heritage into their daily lives. As the work environment becomes more culturally diverse, business owners need to be cognizant of cultural awareness in the workplace to avoid negative ramifications that include poor morale and legal action for discriminatory behavior.
A person's cultural perspect...
Returning recently from an international trip to Japan provided a stark contrast of culture shock that has left me reflecting on brand consistency and customer service. American-based brands, my own included, can learn a great deal from the traditions and culture of Japan that apply to many aspects of business but especially to brand consistency and customer service.
Here are three principle...
Bob Sutton, who wrote perhaps the only business book with a title a family newspaper cannot reprint, The No A**hole Rule, has gone decidedly more tame with his latest work. Scaling Up Excellence, released Feb. 4, is the Stanford professor's look at the challenge of sharing good practices, growing new business lines and scaling the size of a successful startup. Co-authored by Hayagreeva &quo...
