A Leadership Lesson from History: On Impetuosity & Avalanches
One of the greatest strategists, a hero in his time who undertook one of the most daring feats in military history, paid the price for his own arrogance and impetuosity with the loss of achieving the thing he desired most – the conquest of Rome. A single act of...
Business must get serious about mentoring
According to the article "Winning the race for talent in emerging markets" - by Douglas A. Ready, Linda A. Hill, and Jay A. Conger (HBR), developing world countries have a large shortage of adequately experienced people from lower to middle management upwards. Often I...
Change is important – An inspirational sound bite
"Change is hard. Change is hardest on those caught by surprise. Change is hardest on those who have difficulty changing too. But change is natural. change is not new; change is important" Thomas Friedman: The world is flat
An interview on the Internet of Things
A journalist recently interviewed me on the topic of "the Internet of Things" (IoT). I thought you might be interested in some of the questions and answers. The IoT is definitely going to be one of the biggest trends in technology in the next decade. How would you...
FaceBook’s fastest growing continent is Africa
MemeBurn is one of my regular 'watering holes' for information I find interesting. They featured a post today detailing Africa's rise on FaceBook (Africa is the fastest growing Facebook continent) Last year I posted 'FaceBook’s new Mobile Site' which is...
FaceBook's fastest growing continent is Africa
MemeBurn is one of my regular 'watering holes' for information I find interesting. They featured a post today detailing Africa's rise on FaceBook (Africa is the fastest growing Facebook continent) Last year I posted 'FaceBook’s new Mobile Site' which is...
5 Minds for the Future – A Summary
This post was first published on Pete Laburn's blog in Feb 2011 In his book, ‘5 Minds for the Future’ (buy it now at Amazon.co.uk and Kalahari.net) Howard Gardner concerns himself with the kinds of minds that people will need if we are to thrive in the world during...
How to prepare for the Connected Generation’s transformation of the consumer and business landscape
One of the questions I'm often asked is "what comes after Generation X & Y" Well thankfully it's not Generation Z (Although there are references to a "Z" generation) it's GENERATION C. A generation of people who have grown up connected, communicating,...
Where is the line between media and reality?
I read an article this week, 'At 50, Ken is Sexy Again', from Time. It reminded me of my fascination with Barbie since I was at university doing gender studies. As a child I wanted a Barbie and thought of her as a fashion icon, like most little girls. As an adolescent...
Trust
What makes some retailers successful while others fail? The answer of course has many reasons but one key word that successful ones are associated with is “trust” Top retailers want to be trusted and therefore place a premium on it. Trust has to be earned of course...
Are Chinese mothers really superior?
I’m a little shattered after reading Amy Chua's Wall Street Journal description of her parenting style in Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior. “There's good reason why Chinese kids excel in music, math and all academia, argues Amy Chua in her controversial new book:...
Battling cultural imperialism (a critical issue in the new world of work)
I was both amused and amazed to see this tweet a day or so ago: When will China become civilised? Chinese court confirms sentence on US man http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12502111 The news report referred to is about a Chinese-born American citizen, Xue...
Battling cultural imperialism (a critical issue in the new world of work)
I was both amused and amazed to see this tweet a day or so ago: When will China become civilised? Chinese court confirms sentence on US man http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12502111 The news report referred to is about a Chinese-born American citizen, Xue...
Leading Innovation: Is it not just about a Faster Horse?
“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse” is something attributed to Henry Ford. It was Ford’s ability to see the unseen that fuelled an entirely new habit of transportation in America. The innovative mass production of the Model...
Cross-Fertilizing Ideas in a Fact Based World View
I'm becoming obsessed with cross-fertilizing brilliant ideas. There are so many clever ideas, concepts, solutions and people in our magnificent world but on their own they seem to yield very little impact. In order to solve the complex, persistent problems of today...
Having fun with everyone in the 21st century
I often hear (mainly older) people lament the lack of community evident in today's young people. "My teenage daughter never seems to speak to any of her friends" is a common example of the complaint. It's a misunderstanding of the power and uses of modern...
Having fun with everyone in the 21st century
I often hear (mainly older) people lament the lack of community evident in today's young people. "My teenage daughter never seems to speak to any of her friends" is a common example of the complaint. It's a misunderstanding of the power and uses of modern...
The importance of balance
I was sitting in a coffee shop staring out over the ocean in a windy Cape Town reflecting on a debate I had just with a client about the significance of blue chip companies having to accommodate change in order to create environments where diversity in its broad sense...
A Question of Trust?
"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great" Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) I love Penelope Trunk’s blogs at the Brazen Careerist. They contain great thoughts and advice about business and life, but most of all...
Apple Subscriptions on App Store and that sound you just heard is print dying a little more
At TomorrowToday we look at businesses, we look at business models and we look at industries to figure out why some are working well and why others are in trouble. Most importantly we figure out what has changed. Today something pretty big changed in the publishing...