August 29th, 2008 | Published in Business, Technology
My iPhone stopped working the other day. So I called Apple support, and a pre-paid package arrived the next day to send back the iPhone in. Apple received it the day after that, replaced it, and sent it back overnight so I had it the next day. That’s just incredible to me. My phone broke, but all I can focus on is what great and quick service I received.
That’s the way to do business.
August 1st, 2008 | Published in Business, Psychology, Work, Quotes
Imagine you’re the CEO. I come to you with an idea that you think is very good. Rather than just pat me on the back and say, “Great idea!” your inclination (because you have to add value) is to say, “Good idea, but it’d be better if you tried it this way.”
The problem is, you may have improved the content of my idea by 5 percent, but you’ve reduced my commitment to executing it by 50 percent, because you’ve taken away my ownership of the idea. My idea is now your idea—and I walk about of your office less enthused about it than when I walked in.
That’s the fallacy of added value. Whatever we gain in the form of a better idea is lost many times over in our employees’ diminished commitment to the concept.
—Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (2007), pp. 48-49.
July 23rd, 2008 | Published in Business, Humor and Satire
Are you not very good at billing? Consider yourself a failure? Send your resume to GoDaddy’s “Failed Billing Team”!
Here’s an email I got yesterday:
Dear Joshua Sowin,
A member of our Failed Billing Team recently called to alert you to a problem….[blah blah blah]
Sincerely,
GoDaddy.com, Inc.
Failed Billing Team
July 11th, 2008 | Published in Leadership, Business, Work, Quotes
It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.
—Dee W. Hock, as quoted in Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start (2004), p. 100.
July 9th, 2008 | Published in Business, Ecology, Consumerism, Quotes
If we want our forests to last, then we must make wood products that last, for our forests are more threatened by shoddy workmanship than by clear-cutting or by fire.
—Wendell Berry, “Preserving Wilderness” in Home Economics (1986), p. 143.
June 30th, 2008 | Published in Business, Internet, Links, Music
Amazon MP3’s daily deal twitter is fantastic. It’s a great use of twitter. Customers get deals, and Amazon gets permission to put themselves in front of users every day.
(via Gruber)
June 4th, 2008 | Published in Business, Economics, Quotes, Politics
What do you think — do corporate lobbies subvert democracy, or are they a necessary part of our political process and economy?
There’s a difference between a corporate lobby whose clout is based on money alone, and a group of like-minded individuals—whether they be textile workers, gun aficionados, veterans, or family farmers—coming together to promote their interests; between those who use their economic power to magnify their political far beyond what their numbers might justify, and those who are simply seeking to pool their votes to sway their representatives. The former subvert the very idea of democracy. The latter are its essence.
—Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (2006), p. 116
May 22nd, 2008 | Published in Business, Marketing and Advertising
Here is Holiday Inn’s cancellation policy:
Canceling your reservation … will result in a charge for the entire stay per room to your credit card.
Policies like this don’t make people love your company. It makes it look greedy, impersonal, and unfair.