1: “Our conversations started out funny and just got funnier,” Diane Button writes in her wonderful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.
Diane and Franck Battelli, both end-of-life doulas, were meeting with Greg, 53, who was dying from ALS.
Before proceeding, Greg wanted to make sure it would be a good fit.
“He let us know in a very serious tone of voice that … continue reading
1: “There’s wind and then there’s a typhoon, there are waves and then there’s a tsunami,” Andy Grove writes in Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.
The same is true in business.
“There are competitive forces and then there are supercompetitive forces,” he notes.
Andy calls it a “10X” change.
2: Harvard Professor Michael Porter identified the various forces that determine … continue reading
1: “We managers like to talk about change, so much that embracing change has become a cliché of management,” Andy Grove writes in Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.
But not all changes are the same.
What Andy calls “a strategic inflection point is not just any change,” he notes. “It compares to change the way Class VI rapids on a … continue reading
1: Then Intel CEO Andy Grove was sitting in a conference room with other members of the Intel team.
The topic? “Evaluations of a certain highly touted new software from a company whose other products we already use,” Andy writes in his legendary business book, Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.
Intel’s head of Information Technology shared the challenges her team … continue reading
1: “We had lost our bearings. We were wandering in the valley of death,” Andy Grove writes in his book Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.
The year was 1984, a pivotal moment for Intel.
The company had been founded 16 years earlier. “Every start-up has some kind of a core idea,” Andy notes.
“Ours was simple. Semiconductor technology had … continue reading
1: It was the summer of 1985.
One of Silicon Valley’s most legendary meetings was about to happen.
“I was in my office with Intel’s chairman and CEO, Gordon Moore, and we were discussing our quandary,” Andy Grove writes in his book Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.
“Our mood was downbeat,” Andy recalls.
“I looked out the window at … continue reading
1: The global wellness economy is $4.4 trillion.
Wowza.
“With each new fitness gadget promising perfect abs and each new miracle health food promising youthful vigor, we are forced into a silent battle against the overwhelmingly strong and savvy energy of the world’s best marketers,” Sahil Bloom writes in his book The 5 Types of Wealth.
“Their jobs depend on convincing us that we need all of it to … continue reading
1: In her book Imaginable, New York Times bestselling author Jane McGonigal takes her readers through what she calls “futures thinking” that “inspires us to take actions today that set us up for future happiness and success.”
The guided exercise has us imagine our future self in great detail.
Imagine that it is our 80th birthday…
“What are we wearing? Where are we? What’s around us? Who is around … continue reading
1: There are two traps CEOs and leadership teams fall into regarding innovation.
Trap #1: “The minute we think we truly understand the customer and can take our attention off discovering what matters, we’re dead,” Panera founder Ron Shaich writes in Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations.
“Sooner or later,” Ron notes, “even the most brilliant and innovative concept will fall behind the times and become … continue reading
1: “Top-down innovation gets a bad rap,” Panera founder Ron Shaich writes in his terrific book Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations.
“The popular business press abounds with criticism of initiatives that come tumbling down from the peak of the org chart,” Ron observes.
“And yet, take a closer look at most companies, and you’ll find that organizations are still doing it that way.”
Why is … continue reading
