A CEO (of a company in the UK) put out a circular to his staff last week asking them how they could use social networking to “improve customer service” or “reduce potential complaints“. I find the question itself interesting (and revealing) – customer service is the experience the buyer has when they interact with your...Read More
I remember being very sceptical about Twitter when I first came across it in 2008, but being encouraged to give it a go, and then persist with it, it slowly became my favourite (and most useful) of all the social media. I can’t really imagine life without it now. { As some of you may...Read More
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc&w=601&h=338] For those of you frustrated by terrible use of English, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s latest parody ‘Word Crimes‘ is a delight. Set to the music of last year’s infectious hit ‘Blurred Lines‘, he rips into the abbreviated, sloppy expression too often spouted on social media, emails or texts. Released 4 days ago, it’s already had 7 million views on...Read More
A few years after completing my MBA and two years after starting my own business, one of my Business School professors brought me Jim Collins’ 2001 book, ‘Good to Great‘. It’s rare a business text has me hanging on its every word, but this one surely did, and still does a dozen or so years later. I...Read More
Fifteen years ago, Lisa and I attended an unforgettable ‘Night with Barry Humphries‘ at the Regal Theatre with a few friends. Having just graduated with my MBA I was back teaching full time and for some reason I was not enjoying it anymore. I didn’t know why, but I was getting around to the notion that a...Read More
100 years ago today an assassination occurred on the streets of Sarajevo that would lead 37 days later to the outbreak of the ‘Great War’ (later renamed ‘World War One’ after the world was embroiled in another, even deadlier one, a quarter of a century later). The ‘war to end all wars’ became quagmired in a muddy...Read More
A sign above my desk says ‘if you’ve never made a mistake, you’ve never made a decision‘, which I like not just because of the clever use of double negative, but more due to the dig it gives to those who cannot get off the fence or those who tend to over analyse or even lampoon others for...Read More
I am becoming more and more impressed with the new look Klout, a free service some may have dabbled with a few years ago, then put aside as a meaningless ‘online influence rating‘ score, and not much more. Well the guys and gals at Klout have been working away to improve things and add value (do...Read More
[slideshare id=35465689&style=border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px 1px 0; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;&sc=no] On Thursday night I gave a presentation on ‘Naming your Startup‘, (see slides here, or above) to the Perth Founder Institute. In many ways, the name of your company can mean everything, and nothing. You could name it “Blaghhh” or “Twitter” or “Google” or “Snapchat”...Read More
It was a wintry English day in late 1988, and I took my A-Level class to the Westminster Hall in London for an Economics conference. On the bill was the the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (Treasurer) John Smith, but he could not make it on the day, so his very young looking 35 year old parliamentary private...Read More
