I’m going to go out a limb here and state, without hesitation, that 2012 will be the Year of Being Relevant in business. Ā Not being relevant will mean failure. Example: The Post Office. It’s really good at what it does, we just donāt need it.Ā No more than we need a good horse shoe, or…
I started at Shamrock as one of the team. (And while I still like to think of myself as a team member, the reality is I am here to lead.) As a leader, part of my job is to create. A vision. A portrait of the future. As the leader / artist, my job is…
Yes, really. I honestly believe that each of us has the ability to be an entrepreneur. After all, an entrepreneur makes the decisions that drive a business. And who doesn’t enjoy being in the driver’s seat? Actually, many of Shamrock’s best and brightest thrive on being entrepreneurs. It’s our corporate culture; it’s in our DNA.…
If you’re inadvertently revealing too much of yourself because your zipper’s open, you may be in for some severe embarrassment. Now, I’m not asking you to check the zippers on your clothing (although, it’s not a bad idea!).Ā In this case, the zipper I’m talking about is the mouth. When I was a kid, my…
I’ve never paid much attention to the belief that it’s a bad idea to develop friendships with co-workers and customers because a personal relationship might damage the professional relationship. Actually, I think a personal relationship only strengthens the professional bond between two people. Ā I also believe that the best way to reinforce relationships is…
Hey, I’m not spying on what you do at work. That’s your personal, professional and private decision. What I’d like to do is share with you an article I recently read about game theory at work. Ā This particular Wall Street Journal article, “Latest Game Theory: Mixing Work and Play” (WSJ), says that businesses from…
I noticed a good response to my last post about the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon, so I thought I’d add a bit more fuel to the fire and tell you about my feelings towards Wall Street and how the Street overlooks the needs of middle market companies, such as Shamrock. A few days ago I…
Until the Next Big Thing, the media is swamped with stories about “Occupy Wall Street”. Even the big guns, such as the Wall Street Journal‘s reporter, Douglas Schoen, who states that OWT “… comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half…
Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, credited with the death of Iraq’s Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was recently interviewed by Inc. Magazine. He discussed what business leaders can learn from the military. McChrystal is known for speaking his mind (which may have cost him his job). I admire the man for his honesty, despite the consequences.Here…
Remember when mission statements and corporate values were the big buzz words on the block? It all started in the late 1990s. Big shot management gurus adopted this theory that if chieftains of theĀ organization came together and developed a mission that drives a company, the company would flourish, and its people would multiply, and…
