Posts Tagged ‘Strategy’
Groupon, Cinderella and Opportunity
Ross | December 2nd, 2010Most people know the classic folk tale Cinderella. It’s a story about a young woman living in obscurity and neglect who unexpectedly finds love and happiness. Cinderella’s story illustrates something that we often forget. There’s only one Cinderella. In our efforts to achieve success, we often try to emulate successful people and companies. Basketball players [...]
Small business and startup issues: paperwork galore
Mike | November 29th, 2010Last year’s healthcare bill, love it or hate it, contained a provision that slipped in under the radar, but that will have a substantial impact on small businesses and startups. The bill contains two important changes to how 1099s have been used historically. First, 1099s will now have to be issued for goods as well [...]
Business plans for entrepreneurs: the three ‘Rs’ – Part I
Mike | November 8th, 2010Some have argued that a business plan is not necessary when starting up your venture and that entrepreneurs can better spend their time on other things. I strongly disagree and argue that the very process of writing a business plan leads to a stronger, more sustainable business. In the following short video (the first in [...]
On vs. In: the entrepreneur’s dilemma
Mike | October 25th, 2010One of the challenges entrepreneurs face every day is about managing their own capacity. Finding time to think, to plan, and to strategize gets more difficult the larger your business grows. Every day we have to find a balance between the day-to-day chores involved in operating a business and the high-level planning that goes into [...]
Tips for small business: 7 biases that can effect your decision making
Mike | October 18th, 2010Einstein once said, “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.” Common sense, Einstein was arguing, can often be the enemy of rationality, science, and fact-based decision-making. We are all guilty of this; every day our decisions are tinged by favoritism, rules of thumb, partiality, heuristics, predilection; call it what you will [...]
Not Everything That Can Be Counted Counts
Ross | October 11th, 2010It’s tempting to count everything that can be counted. The current obsession with social media ROI is just one example – of many – showing how numbers influence our behavior. I had the opportunity to again think about this issue last week when I was on a panel at a Startup Bootcamp event in Boston. [...]
To Innovate, You Must Stay Dissatisfied
Ross | October 6th, 2010Success can make people complacent. Some will bask in the glory of success and expect to continue to succeed by doing the things that made them successful. This is not always possible. To innovate, you must stay dissatisfied. Here’s why: Do you agree?
Being pompous and learning from mistakes
Ross | September 14th, 2010One of our senior engineers, Tal Liron, posted a comment earlier this year in response to a blog post about programming.The comment ended with this smart and valuable statement: It’s not that being pompous leads us to make mistakes. It’s that being pompous inhibits our ability to learn from mistakes, or even to recognize them [...]
