Topic: Henry Ford

Alice for iPad Co-Creator Chris Stevens on Risk and Rabbit Holes

Londoner Chris Stevens, founder of creative iPad app design firm Atomic Antelope found the idea for Alice for iPad at the bottom of a pitch black rabbit hole. It was a little more than a year ago. He and his partner had trotted out a ...READ»

How Herman Miller Has Designed Employee Loyalty

Those famous Herman Miller chairs are comfortable--and apparently working for the company is too. The average Herman Miller employee has 14 years of service. What makes people stick around? In this Q&A, CEO Brian Walker explains the company's unique approach to leadership, why openness breeds loyalty, and why good stewardship makes good business.READ»

A City in the Cloud: Living PlanIT Redefines Cities as Software

When did Silicon Valley become so obsessed with building cities? Last month it was Cisco’s SVP of strategy Inder Sidhu describing the company’s smart city play as the $36 billion company’s “biggest opportunity.” Then, at the ...READ»

Invincible Apple: 10 Lessons From the Coolest Company Anywhere

Everyone wants to be like Steve Jobs and his powerhouse company. It's not as easy as it looks.READ»

• iCensus

How Ford's Sync Technology Will Turn It Into America's Most Surprising Consumer Electronics Company [Update]

The next generation of Ford's Sync technology will turn its cars into rolling, talking, socially networked, cloud-connected supermachines. Introducing America's most surprising consumer-electronics company.READ»

• Have You Talked to a Ford--Lately?

Nonsense At Work

You can have it if you don’t need it:Did you hear about the South Carolina teenager with H.I.V. who had his health insurance policy revoked?  That got me thinking about Henry Ford and three big industries in the USA.Wait.  ...READ»

Think Lean: A Survival Strategy for Today’s Companies

It’s a new world. An excerpt from a recent Harvard Business Review article by Chris Zook captures some of the essence of our new world.  “New technologies lower costs and shorten product life cycles.  New ...READ»

Tom Sparks Buick Continues Their Committment To Pontiac Near Rockford Il

The brand that put rolling excitement on the road for generations of Americans has come to an end. The last Pontiac for the U.S. market was built by General Motors on Wednesday: a white, G6 sedan that rolled off the assembly line ...READ»

Nonsense At Work

Don’t listen to your customers:I have been heard to shout loudly that you must listen to your customers.  However, like all of us, I have a dark side.  My dark side is very aware that you should not always listen to your ...READ»

What Would These 12 Business Leaders Do Today?

Want a little advice from Steve Jobs, Howard Schultz and David Ogilvy?READ»

The Power of Belief

Psychologists who have researched “Expectancy Effects” tell us that events we expect to occur are in fact more likely to occur. Beliefs come in many sizes and shapes but I want to highlight one here. It’s called Self Efficacy. It simply means having a high degree of confidence to perform a certain task. When you have a strong belief in your ability to perform a task you have what is called high self-efficacy. *Researchers have found in repeated studies that self-efficacy is one of the most powerful predictors of change and success. READ»

Designed Experiences: The Evolution of Intelligent Design

Established brands are an evolution, constantly adapting. Designed brands are born adapted.READ»

• Graham Button's blog Like it or Not

Nonsense At Work

Pay more to sell more:Lately, we have confused ends with means and assumed that efficiency is a worthy end in itself.  No!  Efficiency is a means.  Ask old Mister Henry Ford.  He once annoyed his fellow ...READ»

Henry Kissinger had a Point

In business today, there's too much focus on what is bad, what is threatening, who did what to whom. Imagination and innovation are our greatest weapons. Lack of using them is the only thing strong enough to stop any of us from achieving our goals. Factually, we can each get more done in less time if we simply take note on establishing WHERE we are going.READ»

Like Life, Branding Needs Vision Too

Do the Beatles, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the invention of the radio have anything in common?READ»

Commentology #4

PREVIEWThe problem with writing is when you feel pressured to write and pressure to write is a form of stage fright, but free people flow in their writing, there is nothing in the universe that gets between them and their thoughts, ...READ»

Iconic Pre-Fab Provider Closes Shop

Michelle Kaufmann Designs, a path-breaking seller of modern, eco-friendly pre-fab homes, is folding due to the anemic housing market and the credit crisis at large. Kaufmann's firm became synonymous with the contemporary ...READ»

25 Ways to Jump-Start the Auto Business

Life-saving ideas from genomics whiz J. Craig Venter, Pimp My Ride star Xzibit, the GEICO gecko guy, the founder of Zipcar, Cisco's smart-garage guru, and more.READ»

"Ford and The American Dream"

In this day and time, people frequently talk about doing the "right thing," but rarely are they interested in risking their comfort zone and what others might think to do what they feel needs to be done.  Clifton ...READ»

Business.com Case Study: Ignore The Laughter Of Other People

Every entrepreneur has had some person laugh at their idea, but few have had thousands or hundreds of thousands laugh at their idea. I personally know someone who had the chance to invest in MTV at the inception but laughed at ...READ»

Do You Visualize Your Desired Outcome Before Pursuing It?

In the book The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur that I recently endorsed, Mike Michalowicz speaks early on about the importance of visualizing your goal before setting out to achieve it. He quotes Bob Marley as the best example of ...READ»

Lifelong Learning and Outstanding Performance

Outstanding performance is one of the keys to success that I discuss in Straight Talk for Success.  If you want to become an outstanding performer, you need to do three things: 1) Stay technically competent by becoming a lifelong ...READ»

"Making Talent a Strategic Priority": Thoughts From the Fringe (Part 1)

Talent acquisition. What should a company's priorities be. Acquiring talent, or managing talent? This post discusses the HR role in managing talent successfully by realizing that not everyone is created equal. The new McKinsey ...READ»

The Death of Corporate Permanence

Is the pandemic of bankruptcies actually changing our national perspective on corporate mortality in some fundamental way? It's an important question to ask, given the frequency of once-iconic brands turning into corporate ...READ»

Six Innovation Insights

It’s incredible what you can find on the Internet these days. I was cruising around cyberspace the other day without any specific sense of where I was going when I stumbled upon a paper on innovation models by Professor Joe Tidd ...READ»