Why Flexible Hours Inspire Performance "What time do you want me to start work?" That's the question a new hire recently asked me. She looked a little startled by my reply. "I don't care." But it was the truth. I'm relaxed about timekeeping in part because I had great bosses early in my broadcasting career. And so that's how I've always managed people who worked for me. I have also always taken the same approach to maternity leave. I cannot remember a single instance of being disappointed by this approach. 'But weren't you afraid of being ripped off?'
14 Ways To Be A Great Startup CEO Everyone thinks that being a startup CEO is a glamorous job or one that has to be a ton of fun. That's what I now refer to as the "glamour brain" speaking aka the startup life you hear about from the press. You know the press articles I'm talking about... the ones that talk about how easy it is to raise money, how many users the company is getting, and how great it is to be CEO. Very rarely do you hear about what a bitch it is to be CEO and how it's not for every founder that wants to be an entrepreneur. I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about what it takes to be a great Startup CEO that is also a founder. Here are some of the traits I've found. Be A Keeper Of The Company Vision The CEO is the keeper of the company's overall vision. Absorb The Pain For The Team A startup CEO needs to be the personal voodoo doll for a startup. Find The Smartest People And Defer On Domain Expertise A startup CEO has a great knack for finding talent. Be A Good Link Between The Company + Investors
Eight Qualities of Remarkable Employees Great employees are reliable, dependable, proactive, diligent, great leaders and great followers... they possess a wide range of easily-defined—but hard to find—qualities. A few hit the next level. Some employees are remarkable, possessing qualities that may not appear on performance appraisals but nonetheless make a major impact on performance. Here are eight qualities of remarkable employees: 1. When a key customer's project is in jeopardy, remarkable employees know without being told there's a problem and jump in without being asked—even if it's not their job. 2. People who aren't afraid to be different naturally stretch boundaries and challenge the status quo, and they often come up with the best ideas. 3. Remarkable employees know when to play and when to be serious; when to be irreverent and when to conform; and when to challenge and when to back off. 4. 5. 6. An employee once asked me a question about potential layoffs. 7. 8. Great employees follow processes. Forget good to great.
You're Pricing It Wrong: Software Pricing Demystified Advertisement Pricing your own product is always a tricky proposition, and the more critical the price is to your product’s success, the more difficult it is to set. It’s easy to look at another product and say how much you would be willing to pay for it, but how can you know how much people would be willing to pay for yours? There are no absolute truths or perfect formulas for finding the best price, assuming that the “best price” even exists. Riding the Demand Curve When we price a product, our goal (assuming we’re running a business) is to maximize revenue. Economic theory suggests that as we raise the price, the number of sales will drop. The sweet point is where the intersection forms the largest rectangle. This makes sense… until you consider that your clients are people, and people do not often make rational purchasing decisions. Once you’ve determined what your product is, you need to consider its value to your customers. Pricing Higher And Selling More That’s right. 1. 2. 3. 1.
Why Being a Nicer Boss is a Smart Business Move by Tony Schwartz | 9:44 AM January 23, 2012 I’ve just returned from an offsite with our team at The Energy Project. As we concluded, I asked each person to take a few moments to say what he or she felt most proud of accomplishing over the past year. After each of their brief recountings, I added some observations about what I appreciated in that person. Before long, others were chiming in. Whatever else each of us derives from our work, there may be nothing more precious than the feeling that we truly matter — that we contribute unique value to the whole, and that we’re recognized for it. The single highest driver of engagement, according to a worldwide study conducted by Towers Watson, is whether or not workers feel their managers are genuinely interested in their wellbeing. Feeling genuinely appreciated lifts people up. So why is it that openly praising or expressing appreciation to other people at work can so easily seem awkward, contrived, mawkish and even disingenuous? 1. 2. 3. 4.
Product Development: 9 Steps for Creative Problem Solving [INFOGRAPHIC] Ronald Brown is a successful startup CEO with an extensive background in technology and consumer marketing. His new book, Anticipate. The Architecture of Small Team Innovation and Product Success is available via iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Creativity is the main prerequisite for innovation. However, our culture emphasizes critical thinking to the near exclusion of creative thinking (although it was the key to success in the Information Age). Today's business is dominated by global complexity and commoditization. What constitutes creative thinking? In business, the process of generating and commercializing a good idea has been honed by creative industries for more than a hundred years.
The 6 Habits of Strategic Thinkers In the beginning, there was just you and your partners. You did every job. You coded, you met with investors, you emptied the trash and phoned in the midnight pizza. Now you have others to do all that and it's time for you to "be strategic." Whatever that means. If you find yourself resisting "being strategic," because it sounds like a fast track to irrelevance, or vaguely like an excuse to slack off, you're not alone. This is a tough job, make no mistake. After two decades of advising organizations large and small, my colleagues and I have formed a clear idea of what's required of you in this role. Anticipate Most of the focus at most companies is on what’s directly ahead. Look for game-changing information at the periphery of your industrySearch beyond the current boundaries of your businessBuild wide external networks to help you scan the horizon better Think Critically “Conventional wisdom” opens you to fewer raised eyebrows and second guessing. Interpret Ambiguity is unsettling. Decide
It’s the CEO’s job to email the first 1000 signups Until you’ve passed a thousand signups, the CEO should be personally emailing every new user. I’m going to cover: PracticalitiesHow to mess it upCommon objectionsGoals, perks & benefits The signup thank you note It’s not a big message. Mine look like this: Hey Jackie,Thanks for taking the time to check out STK. The specifics (like the footer) are just my personal preference[1]. What I hope you’ll extract from the example is the casual tone and brevity. How to mess this up There are only two ways to mess this up and they’re both easy to avoid. The first is to be demanding. You’re just politely putting your hand up and saying: Hey, here I am. The second way to mess up is by forgetting common courtesy. Also, make sure you do it every day. I’ve seen some intros come through with a survey, which I [personally] find to be fairly disrespectful toward your new users’ time (aka my time). Common objections The number one objection and/or excuse is that you don’t want to annoy people.
9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money The ability to motivate employees is one of the greatest skills an entrepreneur can possess. Two years ago, I realized I didn’t have this skill. So I hired a CEO who did. Josh had 12 years in the corporate world, which included running a major department at Comcast. I knew he was seasoned, but I was still skeptical at first. We were going through some tough growing pains, and I thought that a lack of cash would make it extremely difficult to improve the company morale. I was wrong. With his help and the help of the great team leaders he put in place, Josh not only rebuilt the culture, but also created a passionate, hard-working team that is as committed to growing and improving the company as I am. Here are nine things I learned from him: Be generous with praise.
Deadly Meetings in the Workplace Emotions Can Get the Better of You at Work How To Build a Web Startup – Lean LaunchPad Edition If you’re an experienced coder and user interface designer you think nothing is easier than diving into Ruby on Rails, Node.js and Balsamiq and throwing together a web site. (Heck, in Silicon Valley even the waiters can do it.) But for the rest of us mortals whose eyes glaze over at the buzzwords, the questions are, “How do I get my great idea on the web? My first attempt at helping students answer these questions was by putting together the Startup Tools Page - a compilation of available web development tools. So today, I offer my next attempt. How To Build a Web Startup – The Lean LaunchPad Edition Here’s the step-by-step process we suggest our students use in our Lean LaunchPad classes. (Use the Startup Tools Page as the resource for tool choices) Step 1: Set Up Team Logistics Step 2. Write down your 9-business model canvas hypothesisList key features/Minimal Viable product planSize the market opportunity. Step 3: Write a value proposition statement that other people understand
8 Rules For Creating A Passionate Work Culture Several years ago I was in the Thomson Building in Toronto. I went down the hall to the small kitchen to get myself a cup of coffee. Ken Thomson was there, making himself some instant soup. At the time, he was the ninth-richest man in the world, worth approximately $19.6 billion. Enough, certainly, to afford a nice lunch. Thomson understood value. In 1976, Thomson inherited a $500-million business empire that was built on newspapers, publishing, travel agencies, and oil. He left both a financial legacy and an art legacy, but his most lasting legacy might be the culture he created. For the long-term viability of any enterprise, Thomson understood that you needed a viable corporate culture. Thomson created a culture that extended out from him and has lived after him. 1. Hire for passion and commitment first, experience second, and credentials third. 2. Once you have the right people, you need to sit down regularly with them and discuss what is going well and what isn’t. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Management Secrets: Core Beliefs of Great Bosses A few years back, I interviewed some of the most successful CEOs in the world in order to discover their management secrets. I learned that the "best of the best" tend to share the following eight core beliefs. 1. Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield. Average bosses see business as a conflict between companies, departments and groups. Extraordinary bosses see business as a symbiosis where the most diverse firm is most likely to survive and thrive. 2. Average bosses consider their company to be a machine with employees as cogs. Extraordinary bosses see their company as a collection of individual hopes and dreams, all connected to a higher purpose. 3. Average bosses want employees to do exactly what they're told. Extraordinary bosses set a general direction and then commit themselves to obtaining the resources that their employees need to get the job done. 4. Extraordinary bosses treat every employee as if he or she were the most important person in the firm. 5. 6. 7. 8.