The most important business idea you’ve never heard of ..
One of the best-kept secrets in tech is a business model most people have never heard of: self-serve (or product-driven) sales. The idea at the heart of self-serve is that customers help themselves to the products they want to purchase, rather than going through a salesperson. Self-serve is responsible for the success of companies like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Atlassian. Earlier this summer, Snap became the latest to get in the game when it launched a self-serve ad manager. Self-serve is the holy grail of efficient business models.
4 minute read - I have been thinking about this alot over the last quarter ^ADJ
How to Manage Managers
When you’re managing managers, your responsibilities are two-fold: you need to make sure they’re producing good work (as with any employee) and that they’re effectively supporting their teams. You might know how to do the former, but how do you do the latter? Do you need to provide training? Coaching? And how do you serve as a good role model?
How to Regain the Lost Art of Reflection
A famous but possibly apocryphal tale about Albert Einstein is that he dreamed up the theory of relativity when riding his bicycle. Warren Buffett is on record as saying that he reads for six hours per day and has very few scheduled meetings. Both of these examples stand in stark contrast to the ways in which most leaders use their time. Many are slaves to email (one CEO only half-jokingly defines his job as “answering 2,000 emails a day”) and have much of the remainder of their time filled with meetings. But a focus on information processing, reaction, and execution — while it may feel productive — causes the quality of our thoughts to suffer. We believe that corporate leaders in today’s complex world urgently need to recultivate the art of reflection.
4 minute read - good article that gives you pause to think ^ADJ
Strategy and the art of motorcycle maintenance | McKinsey
As I struggled to climb the steep learning curve (which often involved undoing my own unwitting mistakes), I saw many parallels with my work in strategy consulting. I’ve gathered these reflections here—lessons from the world of motorcycle maintenance that should resonate with strategists. These have all been acquired the old-fashioned hard way.
Fragile boy friendships and why they matter so much - Maggie Dent
In my life from my own childhood, through to my teaching career, my counselling experiences and to my parenting journey raising four sons to adulthood I have learnt a thing or two about boy friendships.
Thankfully there are many men who have strong friendships with other men – some from childhood – and some from more recent times. Some of the research into the high suicide rates of men between 40 and 44 years of age is suggesting that isolation from friends and profound loneliness is a contributing factor. This suggests that some men have struggled making, maintaining and nurturing friendships and in particular with other men.
4 minute read - some interesting observations ^ADJ