• The danger of Instant Gratification

    Our world has become  obsessed with instant gratification, and it has impacted on the way we do things as well as what we expect.  Since the digital world has started delivering instant gratification on many levels, the biggest danger is the expectations it has created, for the new generations and the old.  Each generation has a different viewpoint and a different capacity to deal with such [...]

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    Interpersonal Communication - Encoding The Response

    Interpersonal Communication is a method of conveying a message from one person to at least one other person. This type of oral communication comprises three components: body language, tone of voice and the words themselves. The following percentages can be debated, but some studies indicate that body language accounts for about 55% of any message, tone of voice is 35% of the message, while the [...]

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    Swimming against the tide - the contrary approach to decision making

    No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or 'get rich' in business by being a conformist. - J P Getty In the short term the market is a popularity contest; in the long term it is a weighing machine. - Warren Buffett Why do two of the foremost successful businessmen in recent times believe that following the crowd is not a good idea - yet the average Joe follows the popular belief[...]

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    Jack Layton vs. Steve Jobs. Which brand's image will be hardest hit by the loss of their leader?

    I recently saw a poll that was posing this intriguing question.  Indeed, while the organization's they led are world's apart, this question certainly raises the issue of the importance of a charismatic leader that departs and potentially leaves a huge void at the top. While this poll may be somewhat theoretical, it does pose the following question: how important are you to your business, and [...]

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    Igniting the entrepreneurial spirit

    Every so often I find it useful to read a book about business and, in particular, entrepreneurship.  Over the past few weeks, two books in particular (not new, but good oldies) have caught my attention.  I would encourage everyone who is running a business (even a one-person sole proprietor) to enlighten themselves with some fresh thinking and would recommend these two books highly: 1. The [...]

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    Seven Signs of Visionary Leaders

    If there are a bunch of people in a room and you are asked to identify those who are visionary what would you do? Would you talk to each person individually to find out who is visionary and who is not? Would you assign them some tasks in order to watch them and identify the visionary ones? Would you divide them in groups and observe which ones act as visionary leaders? Visionary leaders have some[...]

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    Do you really understand what marketing is?

    What are the signs that you are missing the real value of marketing?  Are you only seeing part of the story and missing out on the real opportunity? If you find yourself thinking along the following lines, you may be missing the point and the true value of what marketing can and should be doing for you... (my thanks to the plethora of marketers that provided this insight on a recent discussion [...]

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