Come to think about it – life would be pretty boring if there was certainty every step of the way. Unfortunately life is not boring and we have uncertainty about several things in our life. However, most of us can’t handle uncertainty very well. In fact, many of us panic when there is uncertainty although… Continue reading
Date Archives → March 2005
Ways to distinguish yourself #14 – Think long term
If we ask a kid “What are you doing?” the response you will get is something like “playing”, “reading”, “watching TV” etc. The time horizon for kids are very short. If we ask “What do you do in school?” again the response will be about what they will do on that particular day in the… Continue reading
Quotes worth recording – Benjamin Disreali
I love this quote. It was clear even then that to achieve anything significant, it takes time. There are no shortcuts. This has not changed a bit over the years. “Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds.” – Benjamin… Continue reading
Very good may not be good enough
The concept behind MovieLink and CinemaNow intrigues me. I love their business models, don’t get me wrong. When I recently (yesterday morning) visited MovieLink website using my firefox browser, I got this error message The point to note here is that most prospects of MovieLink will be early adopters having broadband connections. Chances are that… Continue reading
Turbulence – No business model is safe or everlasting
A few months ago, I wrote an article titled “Innovation is the only sustainable competitive advantage” Here are some of the excerpts: The video rental business was dominated by Blockbuster and Hollywood (plus a large number of local and regional players) until 1999. Netflix entered the scene with an innovative (at that time) way of… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself – #13 Plan by outcomes
Everyday there is so much to do. But if we look back at the end of the week, most of us have a problem identifying a few things that got accomplished. The culprit – planning by activities and not focusing on outcomes. Granted, an activity or a set of activities will produce outcomes. However, during… Continue reading
Thank you for overwhelming support at ChangeThis
I can’t thank you all enough for supporting me by voting for my proposal on the topic “25 ways to distinguish yourself” at ChangeThis. While it is a great delight to see this proposal at the top spot, I am aware of the kind of responsibility that you all have given. My promise to you… Continue reading
Commoditization at work – Zero sum game??
I was changing planes at Chicago O’Hare airport and saw at least three life size ads of online web conference company Webex and thought that it’s a clever way of “target” marketing. After a few minutes, I was at the United terminal and saw an ad that almost was a counter to Webex ad with… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself – #12 Be a reader
They say all leaders are readers. From what I have seen so far, it’s true that most successful people read a lot. Most people don’t read. My friend Tim Sanders tells me that from the statistics he has, a manager reads about 0.75 business book in five years. That’s dismal. My goal is to read… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself – #11 Help people help themselves
It is interesting how many of us hoard information and knowledge. Knowledge used to provide competitive advantage a while ago, not anymore! I have seen this time and again in the IT services industry where if you ask for help, rather than providing the source and explaining how to solve the problem, the tendency for… Continue reading