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Portfolio.com recently released its list of the world's 20 best and 20 worst CEOs. Taken as a pair, the lists say a lot about American business, but say even more about how Americans view business. The compilation of the 20 best contains few surprises. America's car magnates are prominently featured, as befits a country in which the V-8 is next to godliness: Henry Ford is number one, and is joined by GM's Alfred Sloan and Chrysler's Lee Iacocca. For that matter, some of America's greatest innovators also made it to the top 20; in addition to Ford, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Ray Kroc, and Walt Disney are all on the list.
Portfolio's best and worst CEOs -- DailyFinance
If you invent or launch or market (and you're human) it's likely that you have the voice of the critic in the back of your head. It's natural to fear what they'll say, and if you're not careful, you'll end up redesigning your product to please them before you even launch it. Imagine the restaurant chef who changes the interior of the restaurant to please the Michelin critic (they insist on a certain quality of cutlery in order to award a three star review). It might be your boss who is the critic. Or consider the B2B manufacturer who alters the product specs in order to meet the standards of the GAO so he can sell to the US Government... Some critics matter.
Seth's Blog: Critics that matter
Benefits of (Outsourcing) Payment Processing
UpClick is a complete payment processing platform that delivers expertise in conversion funnel optimization for a few select merchants in the digital goods industry.
Now you can experience what it’s like at Accenture without leaving your chair
We're sorry, the page you requested can't be found on www.accenture.com . If you typed the URL yourself, make sure the spelling is correct. If you clicked on a link and got here, there may be a problem with the link. We want to help you find what you are looking for.Earlier this month, Apple rejected an application for the iPhone called Google Voice. The uproar set off a chain of events—Google's CEO Eric Schmidt resigning from Apple's board, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigating wireless open access and handset exclusivity—that may finally end the 135-year-old Alexander Graham Bell era. It's about time. With Google Voice, you have one Google phone number that callers use to reach you, and you pick up whichever phone—office, home or cellular—rings. You can screen calls, listen in before answering, record calls, read transcripts of your voicemails, and do free conference calls. Domestic calls and texting are free, and international calls to Europe are two cents a minute.
Andy Kessler: Why AT&T Killed Google Voice - WSJ.com
Twitter’s Internal Strategy Laid Bare: To Be “The Pulse Of The Planet”
On Tuesday evening more than 300 confidential Twitter documents and screenshots landed in our inbox . We said we were going to post a handful of them only , and we’ve spent much of the last 36 hours talking directly to Twitter about the right way to go about doing that. We’ll have more to say on that process in a couple of days. The documents include employment agreements, calendars of the founders, new employee interview schedules, phone logs and bills, alarm settings, a financial forecast , a pitch for a Twitter TV show , confidentiality agreements with companies such as AOL, Dell, Ericsson, and Nokia, a list of employee dietary restrictions, credit card numbers, Paypal and Gmail screen shots, and much more. These are the last two documents we are going to share: a subset of the detailed notes from a set of executive meetings that took place between February 12 and June 9, 2009.
Gill Corkindale is an executive coach and writer based in London, focusing on global management and leadership. She was formerly management editor of the Financial Times . 12:43 PM Wednesday August 19, 2009 | Comments (11) I work with senior executives from all over the world with remarkably diverse industries, backgrounds, and cultures, yet it's always a surprise to realise that their development needs are very similar.
Why Few Executives Are Skillful Managers - Gill Corkindale - HarvardBusiness.org
Schmoozing 101: Tips for shy techies
But Farnsley, a visiting professor at Purdue University's College of Technology in West Lafayette, Ind., says her networking skills didn't come easily. An introvert by nature , she says she was sick with nerves the first time she had to speak to the board of directors at one of her former employers. Nearly everyone has been unnerved at some time or another when meeting new people.Apart from more obvious signs, non-verbal gestures and other cues can also help to determine whether someone is telling the truth or not. Forbes outlines 11 ways to potentially sniff out a liar, including several phrases to watch out for. Photo by cursedthing . Apart from avoiding eye contact, breaking out in a sweat, and other possible physiological triggers, Forbes says that liars may be more likely to ask you to repeat your questions than those making honest claims. Also, liars may preface their pronouncements with "to tell you the truth" and "to be perfectly honest" more so than their truth-telling counterparts.
Catch Phrases That May Tip You Off to a Lie - Culture - Lifehacker
Read This If You Hate Meetings - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
This is the best explanation I have ever read of why I hate meetings so much, and why other people love them. If you are like me, you should save this link and simply forward it to anybody who asks if you’d like to “grab coffee” or “have a quick phone call to pick each other’s brains” or, God forbid, actually go somewhere and sit around a table with a lot of other people and have a proper meeting. There are two types of schedule, which I’ll call the manager’s schedule and the maker’s schedule. The manager’s schedule is for bosses. It’s embodied in the traditional appointment book, with each day cut into one-hour intervals.
If you’re out to create something truly great, you’ll likely need to challenge some widely held — but incorrect — beliefs. Challenging conventional wisdom is much harder than most people realize, and those that do make us uncomfortable. Which is why it’s so important to learn how to identify and embrace people who see the world differently than you do. Evolutionary Biology and Conformity Imagine our ancient ancestors out on the savanna in search of food.
Getting Comfortable With People Who Make You Uncomfortable
In addition to constant listening and alerting to their market, brands should conduct an initial, then annual social media audit to be successful in their endeavors. Just as brands conduct audits of inventory, employees, and budgets on an often annual basis, they should also survey the landscape to find out what customers, influencers, partners and employees are participating on the social web. Audits are key for identifying priorities, benchmarking previous efforts, and planning for future efforts; the same applies for social media. I’ve been reviewing social media strategy documents from a variety of large brands, and I’ve noticed the following three common traits: Understand the Three Types of Social Media Audits
The Importance of Social Media Audits « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing
Steve Jobs on why Apple doesn’t do market research - Bokardo
by Joshua Porter I’ve heard it said again and again, but I had never seen an actual quote in which Steve Jobs says that Apple doesn’t do market research. I finally found one .Business of Software Blog: Seth Godin on why marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department
At last year's conference, Seth gave an inspiring talk on the title of "Why marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department". Make sure you watch it until the end, where he gives a preview of his (then upcoming) Tribes talk.Image via CrunchBase It's been a long time since I did a post that was primarily a link to another blog with commentary, but I came across something today that I really want to share. One of the most common questions I get about the lean startup methodology is, "but what about Steve Jobs ?" When I try to unpack what people mean by the question, here's my best take on what they are asking: "Look, Steve Jobs doesn't go out and ask customers what they want.