On Thursday morning I attended an excellent AmCham event, with Lloyd Smith of Gerard Daniels speaking on the topic of ‘Becoming a CEO’. I first met Lloyd across the parent interview table at a school I taught at 15 years ago, as a sponsor of our MBA alumni association and also at various UWA events....Read More
Sales can be an emotional roller coaster. Some of the best sales people I have met do not get overly emotional about it, and treat it like a numbers game. Then again passion is good, belief is good, and this cannot come across if you are are merely some semi-robotic sales machine. People need to...Read More
Embarrassing. Frustrating. Helpless. Dear reader, these were but some of my emotions over the past 3 days as I was powerless to prevent my blog site going down (yes, the very one you are reading right now) due to the simple fact my domain name (web address) charliegunningham.com had expired. For 15 years now I’ve been berating...Read More
What makes some parents at sporting events become overly competitive, in front of their own children? What sort of an example do they think are they setting? Are they trying to live their lives through their offspring? What makes them behave like this, and why do they think it is OK to do so? I...Read More
The other cricketing nations must be laughing at the mess that is English cricket right now. How a mighty side has fallen, having been ranked #1 in all formats of the game (Test, ODI and T20) in 2011, including a world T20 title to boot. Blessed with some workmanlike reliables (Cook, Trott, Prior, Strauss) mixed...Read More
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rvABhBeX70&w=601&h=338] In this 2 minute video, shot in one quick take on Friday afternoon, I ask Mark Pownall about the shark cull controversy that is raging around WA at the moment. Mark grew up in a WA family which fished regularly. He understands the issues, and always researches something before committing to writing. He is...Read More
In order to teach something, you first have to know it well. More than that, you need to know how to communicate that learning so it becomes the learning of someone else. That is a different plane entirely. When I was a school teacher, I found my understanding of Economics grew each year as I...Read More
This slide deck is from a 20-minute talk I gave to the Founders Institute launch this week. I told a few hard knock stories about my own start-up experiences and from other startups I advise and mentor from time to time. The main takeaways are: ideas are fine, but its’ the execution of the idea that...Read More
[ted id=66] This classic TED (Technology, Education, Design) talk is one of the most inspiring, funny and important you’ll ever hear. Do yourself a favour and WATCH IT (it’ll be one of the fastest 20 minutes of your life). As an ex-teacher and now business person, I thoroughly endorse Sir Ken Robinson’s premise – we...Read More
Being on holiday for a few weeks allows the mind to declutter, experience new things (I did my first parasail) and see things in a fresh light. And so it was I was sitting in a restaurant somewhere in Penang annoyed at the slowness of the WiFi (or in most cases unavailability of WiFi), and...Read More
