From the monthly archives:

November 2009

[Best Advice I Ever Got] “Good Execution Beats a Bad Idea”

November 25, 2009

Fortune Magazine’s November 23, 2009 issue features Willbur Ross in the “Best Advice I Ever Got” section. It’s well worth the quick read. My favorite line: “The biggest risk is the question you forgot to ask because the danger is always something you don’t know.” Ross speaks to two blind spots possessed by many organizations [...]

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[When in Doubt] Cliched Employee Performance Phrases

November 23, 2009

The best way to do any employee’s performance assessments is to do it up front: what are the results to measure, what are the behaviors expected to be evidenced, and what are the milestones / deliverables anticipated along the way?  Assess as you go, adjust as required, and sum up at the end of the [...]

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[Building Great Companies] 5 Talent / Location Factors Founders Should Consider

November 23, 2009

There are a lot of ways to build a company – some by  accident, some products of history, and some by poorly conceived thinking (see Charlotte, North Carolina – who would think Charlotte would become a world banking headquarters?). An obvious goal is to base your business where it’s got good access to customers, talent, [...]

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[Tips for Job Candidates] The Kindergarten Open House

November 21, 2009

Analogues from which job candidates can learn exist almost everywhere. While sometimes the lessons don’t fully translate, you can glean tremendous insight from some situations that you can use when you’re in the hunt for a new job. Last night’s open house for parents sponsored by my son’s grade school was one such situation. In [...]

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[Through the Glass Door] BGI: Discarding the Emperor’s New Clothes

November 20, 2009

Merger integration activities are in full swing in a least two (three if you count Oracle and Sun) places this month. Company watchers in financial services and biotech / pharma will be able to see first hand in the next year how skillful acquirers BlackRock (acquirer of San Francisco-headquartered Barclays Global Investors aka BGI) and [...]

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[Forks in the Career Road] An Early Thanksgiving

November 19, 2009

I had lunch with Littler Mendelson’s Lindbergh Porter today, an early Thanksgiving of sorts. Seeing him reminded me that career choices and life opportuniities come to us in all sorts of ways and at times both convenient and awkward. Each choice you make has some consequence, both foreseen and unknown. Lindbergh and I had worked [...]

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