To understand how Vistaprint has become the world’s leading provider of printing services to small businesses, you need a brief overview of the printing industry. People
buy printing services because of price, convenience, and ...READ»
I just came back from conducting my program in Panama, and while
I have been through the Panama City airport several times, I had never
stepped outside its walls. This is a fascinating country. We had 150
attend the ...READ»
Robert Keane had one year to plot out his business. He went to INSEAD
business school in France with the idea of an opportunity. Over the
course of his one-year MBA program, during a class on new ventures, he
had a chance to ...READ»
A
while back I wrote about how angry America seems to be and how as
business people, we need to make sure our products don’t wind up on the
forefront of consumer rage. The piece got me thinking about another
question – ...READ»
Last week the Iraqi government launched a new version of its official history. As students return to school from the Ramadan holiday they found new history books waiting for them that include the major changes the nation has ...READ»
We see over and over that companies that
are thriving are pursuing something good. While many traditional
companies try to paint themselves “good,” under a thin veneer they
maintain near exclusive commitment to growing ...READ»
When something works, people
grow fixated on it. They stop looking for alternative options. And this
fixation creates an opportunity for those willing to reconsider the accepted
approach. The company I introduced last week, Rosetta ...READ»
The market has fallen two weeks in a row and the analysts are already running around like Chicken Little. While it is so tempting to get caught up in these daily dramas, it is also short-sighted. Consider, for example, the case of ...READ»
Every night from June to August, we watched as town
hall meetings erupted into screaming matches. On September 9, South Carolina
Republican Rep. Joe Wilson yelled "You lie!” at President Obama during his
speech to a joint session ...READ»
Last week I
flew to Bogota, Colombia for the day. My Latin American partner, AltaGerencia,
had arranged for me to speak at a conference organized by Ecopetrol, Colombia's largest integrated oil company. I’ve
delivered such ...READ»
One of
greatest Union generals in the U.S. Civil war, William Tecumseh Sherman,
described the goal of effective military strategy as maneuvering so that the
opposing general finds himself “on the horns of dilemma.”
That ...READ»
Last week I
introduced Ajit Prabhu, the co-founder and chief executive officer of QuEST
Global. My interview with him was fascinating, and during our discussion, I
learned that the basic idea behind QuEST was born while Ajit was ...READ»
Most successful
people are somehow inspired to do things differently. For some it is an
innovative idea, and for others it is identifying a need and filling it. For
Ajit Prabhu, the co-founder and chief executive officer of QuEST ...READ»
The best communicators are the ones who can create and share
a strong narrative story. The best novels are the ones with the most
interesting plot and the best speeches are the ones that arouse an emotional
response from a ...READ»
Several months ago, I was browsing through a bookstore in
Seattle looking for something to read on my flight back across the
country. After having spent eight hours
on stage working to keep a mental step ahead of 250 ...READ»
I’ve interviewed hundreds of business outthinkers, and one
of the most common patterns of success is “coordinate the uncoordinated.”
We’ve seen this work for companies like Credit Justice Services, an
ethonomic credit ...READ»
A Chinese phrase advises that you “borrow a corpse for the
soul’s return.” This metaphor points to the fact that we tend not to dig
through garbage. Once we’ve thrown something away we mentally label it “trash”
and so ...READ»
When I pull up to the village in which my mother grew up in
Bangladesh, I feel like I'm on the set of a cowboy movie. Two long streets
cross in the center, each bordered by a well-planned lineup of storefronts.
From this ...READ»
An ancient Chinese saying advises that you “borrow a road”
to reach your objective. If someone else has access to your customer, then
borrow his road to share this access.
An interesting permutation of this pattern is ...READ»
Last week I introduced an interesting hotel investment firm, Thayer Lodging. The owners, Lee Pillsbury and Fred Malek, were not new to the hotel game. They were part of a team that had driven jaw-dropping growth for Marriott Hotels. ...READ»
Every Friday vendors came around to play “lucky lotto.” These
vendors supplied food, chinaware, and table clothes to Lee Pillsbury
and Fred
Malek, the owners of Thayer Lodging, a
privately held hotel investment company that ...READ»
In my book The Way of Innovation,
I talk a lot about how consumer habits can become a powerful underpinning of a
company’s grand strategy. For example, when I was a loyal Starbucks customer (someday I’ll share why I no longer ...READ»
Last week I spent a day with Microsoft managers in Redmond,
Calif. Much of the talk was about Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine. You may
have already read a lot about Bing – the massive marketing campaign of people ...READ»
