Blogs | Fast Company

5 Reasons Best Practices Suck

BY Daniel W. RasmusFri Feb 10, 2012

Best practices are like vampires: they can suck an organization of productivity, drain its creativity, and bleed its initiative. If you seek perfection in perpetuity, your organization’s learning apparatus will become an animated corpse cursed through the ages to feed on its ancestors.READ»

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If Your Customers Are Poised For Revolt, It's Time For Extreme Trust

BY Don PeppersFri Feb 10, 2012

It used to be that a business could generate substantial profits by keeping its customers in the dark. But sooner or later practices like those will put your company in as much jeopardy as a Middle Eastern dictator. If you want to stay out of the line of fire, your best course of action is to protect the interests of your customer, proactively. READ»

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Are You Sabotaging Your Own Career?

BY Dayna SteeleFri Feb 10, 2012

Five simple actions can be dangerous and detrimental to your success. Are you guilty as charged?READ»

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Staying Competitive In A Customer-Centric World

BY Kaihan KrippendorffFri Feb 10, 2012

It's a common misconception that knowledge is information when actually, it's the human capacity to take action facing uncertainty. In other words, when you face a problem, how quickly and efficiently can you find and use the knowledge you need to solve it?READ»

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8 Reasons Your Social Initiative Will Fail

BY David LavendaFri Feb 10, 2012

The social software market is booming as companies rush to deploy software that help workers share information and communicate with colleagues, customers, and suppliers. But it's tricker to implement than you might think. Here are 8 things you need to avoid to get it right the first time. READ»

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4 Social Startups On Track For A Monster 2012

BY JD RuckerFri Feb 10, 2012

With one month down in 2012, it's a good thing we waited until February to put this out. One of the four sites below wasn't even on our radar until late last month. All four are heading in the right direction in a segment of the Internet that has most saying Facebook has muscled everyone else out.READ»

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ManageWP Is The Unified Wordpress Dashboard We've Needed For Years

BY JD RuckerFri Feb 10, 2012

When it comes to managing multiple sites at once, most bloggers were limited in their choices--especially using Wordpress, which has been conspicuously obtuse when it comes to managing multiple blogs from a single platform. That's the gap that ManageWP fills.READ»

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Mentors Are Useless--But They Don't Have To Be

BY Michelle RandallThu Feb 9, 2012

I am a lousy mentee. It’s a funny admission to make as someone who makes her living as professional mentor. Sure, I train my clients on how best to leverage my expertise. Of course, that doesn’t mean that I follow my own advice very well.READ»

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4 Things To Consider Before Becoming A Social Business

BY Francine HardawayThu Feb 9, 2012

Before you can magically transform yourself into a social business, you have to understand what that means, and what is possible for your individual businessREAD»

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How Complacency, Not The Economy, Is Killing Deals

BY Steve GiglioThu Feb 9, 2012

The economic climate has given the perception that all companies are struggling, so some people justify sales being down. But sales aren’t off for everyone and companies are doing business--but are they doing business with you? They will only if they consider your service or product as critical, not a commodity.READ»

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How To Escape PR Hell

BY David BrierWed Feb 8, 2012

With 2,000 press releases distributed every day, there’s never been a better time for great PR or a worse time for bad PR. Brand identity expert David Brier teams up with cartoonist Tom Fishburne to expose why PR has gotten such a bad name--and what you can do to avoid it.READ»

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We Need To Talk About Romney

BY Ruth ShermanWed Feb 8, 2012

Mitt Romney’s front-runner status has been thrown into question once again after his triple loss in state primaries. For professional communicators, the reason for his difficulties is obvious--he doesn’t connect, and connecting is all about communicating. And in presidential election after presidential election, however, the candidate who connects best, wins.READ»

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How To Read An S-1

BY Alicia MorgaWed Feb 8, 2012

Accessing a company’s S-1 is like getting to peek over the shoulders of giants. You gain access to a competitor’s business plan. It allows entrepreneurs, in particular, to see just how much money it takes to scale a large company, gives good benchmarks to shoot for in growth and margins, and helps entrepreneurs understand what is market in terms of management compensation. READ»

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How To Find Your Next $140 Million

BY Shawn ParrWed Feb 8, 2012

There's likely one single metric on which you could focus to yield the most growth for your company. The trick is figuring out which metric that is. READ»

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The GOP Primary Proves Personal Branding Isn't Optional

BY Nick Nanton & JW DicksWed Feb 8, 2012

The strength of a politician’s personal brand can be the difference between winning and losing an election. As a business owner or a professional, here are three key takeaways. READ»