Why the profit motif may have too many “unintended consequences”

I was just reading a New Your Time article titled “When Academia Puts Profit Ahead of Wonder” (Click on the title to read the article).  It speaks eloquently about the problem of unintended consequences, the difficulty of being able to accurately predict all the results of our actions.  Hence many of our very well intended [...]

Interdependence and leadership

Today’s New York Times headline reads, “Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization - Cheap oil, the lubricant of inexpensive transportation links, may not return soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains”.  In a number of other recent articles I am reminded that the demand for food in certain parts of the world is [...]

Are You Experienced…

…have you ever been experienced?
There’s been a lot of discussion over recent years as to the notion that the nature of the U.S. economy is transforming (yet again) from that of being primarily a service economy into an experience economy. This theory was first laid out by Pine and Gilmore in their book, “The Experience [...]

Business is the flow of energy

In a meeting yesterday I was explaining to the VP of Product Development of a $200 million locally headquarted business the underlying concept of the Quantum Leaders’ model of the 21st century business. And it dawned on me that I don’t often share the underlying precept - business is all about the flow of energy.
Let’s [...]

Profit as a metric of the spirtual journy

In my last post I talked about the importance for the CEO and the board to increase the value of the firm, and that this should be a key focus of their responsibilities. I also state that the focus on value creation is perfectly consistent with the idea that business is a spiritual journey.
Value [...]

Why do companies wait

Ever wonder why companies wait for a crisis to take action they should be taking all along. A headline in today’s NACD Directors Daily reads “Anheuser-Busch announces cost savings to boost value in face of InBev bid”. and goeas on to say “the New York Times /AP (6/28, C4, Andersen) reported that on [...]

What is a Soulful Purpose?

In my last blog I referred to Idris Mootee’s blog post where he also represents the importance of a corporation’s purpose as key to strategy. No I would like to expand on that and explain why I call it the corporation’s Soulful Purpose.
A corporation is not just a collection of equipment worked on by [...]

Strategy needs a purpose

There is a wonderful blog post by Idris Mootee that I just recently read that I would like to recommend to everyone.  (http://mootee.typepad.com/innovation_playground/2008/05/what-do-you-know-about-business-strategy.html) .
 I would like to reprint a portion of his post because I feel it was so eloquently stated.
  “Purpose is really the heart of any business strategy and should provide the guiding [...]

Is Stage-Gate a Barrier to Innovation?

 In a recent, thought-provoking posting on his excellent Innovation Playground blog, Idris Mootee posits that the traditional product development stage-gate framework is a barrier to innovation.
The following is my comment posted to his blog:
Idris:
When I first read the title of this post, the “old school product manager” in me reacted viscerally. Then when I read [...]

Leadership: The Philosopher’s Stone of Innovation…? (Part 2)

The other end of the spectrum re strategic decision-making is where it is totally driven by the leadership of the company. This is very often the case with start-up, early-stage and founder-run, privately held firms. The potential advantages are somewhat obvious: strategy is driven by a focused vision, factors which may not be effectively quantifiable [...]

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