Posts tagged “principles”
Crystalline integrity
Integrity is fragile, critical and expensive.
Bigham’s system
Strong process is core to small business success.
Overview of Business+Strategy Posts
This category covers issues in business and strategy for entrepreneurs, SMEs and large corporations.
The renaissance of old technologies (or the cost of new in innovation)
Seeking innovation in only new places means giving up on the value and principles intrinsic in old technologies.
Principles of economics; meaningful as ever
Timeless principles matter
I’ve been lucky and had good teachers. The best encouraged my natural interests. One of these passions, probably inspired by countless fantasy novels growing up, is the timeless and often ancient principles of art, architecture, literature, philosophy…
Terrior. Not frightening. Not a dog.
How the character of place influences and shapes everything it makes.
Build simple tools. Honor complexity.
When we build tools for decision-makers, we follow two intentions: Build simple tools and honor complexity.
What you stand for and what it means for your business
How lessons learnt twenty years ago are changing the business I am a part of today.
as vendors of Lucifer matches
Henry David Thoreau:
It would be worth while,
once for all,
fairly and cleanly
to tell how we are to be used,
as vendors of Lucifer matches
send directions in the envelope,
both how…
Gatherings that changed the world
From wikipedia on the Slovay Conference:
“Perhaps the most famous conference was the October 1927 Fifth Solvay International Conference on Electrons and Photons, where the world’s most notable physicists met to discuss the newly formulated quantum theory. The
…
Making my name
There’s an unobservable line between ambition and growth. Where movement can be too early, just right, or too late. When does growth stop and stagnation take over? When is a switch premature?
I don’t think the answer is outside us.…
Pitching, flipping, and pinging – forgotten principles
Before pitching, or flipping, try pinging.
The edge of greatness
Look across all “great” achievements and imagine what it was like to be on the verge of those things. Imagine the youthful, burning passion from which that accomplishment was borne.
Look across the spectrum of actions and decisions and sacrifices…
Innovation begets innovation
Jared Diamond won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Guns, Germs and Steel. In it Diamond describes one of the key principles of innovation: technology begets technology.
Using examples of neighbouring New Guinean, North American Indian, and Mexican…
Principles of being
Live intentionally in this moment. Become all you’ve struggled to be.
Planning: Goals versus resolutions
“To-do” versus “To-be”
Where questions are windows not battering rams
Pursuing definitive answers often erodes principles.
Simple is dignified; easy is brutal
Become less. Be more.
Metaphors of re-innovation
To see further, stand on giants.
Regaining the helm of time
You are invited to stop.
Wholemindedness: The brilliance of an unfettered mind
Time management’s greatest gift is wholemindedness.
Deliberate attention to presence
Every moment is the last we will ever have.
Comprehensive character
One needs to have a comprehensive character.
Integral to strategy
Strategy is a mindful, present response to hope.
The difference between hope and strategy: hope is a prerequisite to strategy but not a sufficient condition. Action is also required but also insufficient. The equation must also include…
Designing viruses
This article is a really tight overview of the principles of design.
I just keep saying this over and over but: designers have lots to teach entrepreneurs.
Design works because it’s a natural interface with the ways we…
Brita-filter for business
I’ve been poking at sift for the last month or two. I’ve been wondering what this blog’s for. Not because I doubt the value of what all this is about. Nor do I question my interest in this work. I’m…
When blue oceans turn purple
Reviewing Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.
Here’s the bad:
The authors forget (or ignore) something fundamental to business — all great innovations…
Non-business business book list: a list for business thinkers
Non-business books can teach us a lot about business.
Business book list for entrepreneurs
An aggregated, curated list of business books.
The quest for a 60-second pitch
One of my friends is a teacher. He’s told me many times that the best way to learn something is to explain it to someone else. Well I want to learn to do a 60-second pitch, so here goes.
Over…
Conditions of success
On the heels of my heartfelt yop – Frickin’ amazing vs. the long tail – as if guided by benevolent deities, I found “What really works.” With bemused resignation I note the publication date of July 2003 –…
Like a billboard
In the comments for Optimists die, I wrote something about hiring “sift bandwidth”. That got me thinking of advertising and in particular billboards.
There’s a billboard not far from my place that seems to be one of…
When “Yes” is eventually followed by “Damn!”
Poor writing is traditionally the plague of academia. So glory is due Gal Zauberman (University of North Carolina) and John Lynch Jr. (Duke University) for a great problem statement: When “Yes” is eventually followed by “Damn!”
Zauberman and…
Be instead of do.
I followed the crowd of slavering Hugh fans to Creating Passionate Users cause, you know, I want to be cool too.
Blind enthusiasm is being replaced by a healthy criticism of Hugh’s, and now Kathy’s, arguments. Headlines like…
Easy to love
Christopher Alexander just finished publishing a galloping 2,000 plus page treatise on design and living structures. There’s a small interview with him here.
Take away message: Uniqueness balances repetition.
Alexander talks about a tree full of leaves…
Principles for innovation
Make the pool bigger. Look out, not in. Look in the dark, not the light.
Eat right, eat less, and exercise more.
The principles of successful diets applied to successful business.
Ingredients for soup
John Moore at Brand Autopsy (love that photo) has a great post today: Peddling the Soup Peddler. This is the type of post I’d like to emulate in the future.
Ingredients for the soup post:
·
…
Entrepreneurial “how to”
One of my clients helps people make career decisions and he’s great at it. He’s also a great entrepreneur. A few years ago he was a top 40 under 40 entrepreneur.
Two nights ago we were draining glasses in…
Complexity challenge
I’ve written before on the cross-over from science into business and cited with gushing enthusiasm the insights of Edward O. Wilson. I’ve just finished reading Veran Allee’s book the Future of Knowledge. Her book…
Potent principles
Teach people to listen to their own tastes. Most people don’t do it.
Party like a rockstar
When I was in university I used to love swinging by this guy’s site: Analog Cereal. He was on this quest to “party like a rock star”. I’ve never wanted to be a rock star – but the…
Madness & curiosity
In another article in the 2 September 2004 issue of Nature Gautam Desiraju describes the process through which he discovered the birth of crystal engineering which today is one of the principle challenges of modern chemistry. His story…