October 23rd 2008
September 29th 2008
Guided by their own beliefs, and supported by recent scientific advances, great managers can now dispel two of the most pervasive management myths.
There is nothing very special about talent. If talents are simply recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior, then talents are actually rather commonplace. Everyone has certain recurring patterns of behavior. No one can take credit for these talents. They are an accident of birth, “the clash of the chromosomes,” as the ethologist Robert Ardrey described them. However, each person can and should take credit for cultivating his unique set of talents. Continue Reading »
September 19th 2008
I began my advertising career in the mailroom of Ogilvy & Mather, Los Angeles. While it was a great introduction to how an agency runs, after six months I was still clueless when it came to creating ads. So I enrolled in an advertising concept course at Art Center College of Design, even though it was geared for want-to-be art directors and I was a want-to-be copywriter. Continue Reading »
September 19th 2008
This probably falls under the theory that there are two kinds of people. Those who make lists. And those who don’t. Actually, there are three kinds of people. Those who make lists. And conveniently misplace them.
September 1st 2008
Of course, none of this means that great managers ignore nonperformance. They don’t. Focus on strengths is not another name for the power of positive thinking. Bad things happen. Some people fail. Some people struggle. And even your star performers have their faults. Poor performance must be confronted head-on, if it is not to degenerate into a dangerously unproductive situation. And it must be confronted quickly—as with all degenerative diseases, procrastination in the face of poor performance is a fool’s remedy. Continue Reading »
August 25th 2008
About one-third of households reported buying collectibles in the past year. This percentage has been about flat, when 34 percent bought the same. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines a collectible as:
An object that is collected by fanciers; especially: one other than such traditionally collectible items as art, stamps, coins, and antiques.
With little guidance provided by the type of object that is considered collectible, the key to the definition of the term is that it is something anything—that a fancier brings together into one grouping or place. Continue Reading »
August 23rd 2008
Just over 40 percent of households (42 percent) bought some kind of art in 2005, up significantly from the purchase incidence in 2003. With consumers turning their attention to the walls for decorating, they are responding to new availability of ready-to-hang art at retail outlets ranging from mass merchants and discounters to home specialty stores. No longer are consumers required to seek decorative art in out-of-the- way galleries and art dealers, or pay exorbitant prices to custom frame a print. Already-framed art, as well as the explosion of specialty framing boutiques that offer affordable and quick custom frames, have opened the art market to the masses. Continue Reading »
August 4th 2008
No manager can make an employee productive. Managers are catalysts. They can speed up the reaction between the talent of the employee and the needs of the customer/company. They can help the employee find his path of least resistance toward his goals. They can help the employee plan his career. But they cannot do any of these without a major effort from the employee. In the world according to great managers, the employee is the star. The manager is the agent. And, as in the world of performing arts, the agent expects a great deal from his stars. Continue Reading »
July 15th 2008
The majority of people who work from home, whether they be working for giant corporations or in one-man bands, work by themselves. On the one hand, that means they are extremely efficient — no interruptions, no joking during meetings, no office politicking around the coffee machine, or gossiping in the lunch break — but it also means that homeworkers can feel terribly alone and isolated.
`I found that working six hours a day at home was worth more than eight in the office,’ says Emma Dally, now Publishing Director for The National Magazine Company. ‘There are so few interruptions that you are able to work very intensively.’ Continue Reading »
July 13th 2008
One of the unique characteristics of doing business online is the ability it gives you to measure and track the success of your marketing programs. Yet success, as we have seen, can be difficult to define. At the center is the continuous-feedback loop of tracking, measuring, seeking insight, and informing the program— a process based on both science and art. Science because we apply analytic techniques to the huge amounts of data and information in order to structure it and understand our customers‘ responses and behaviors. Art because lasting program success also depends on creative, out-of-the-box program design and interpretation inspired by the insight that we gather from the data. Continue Reading »
