rethinkchronicles » managers

Death by a thousand cuts

Editor — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:33:05 +0000

For about a thousand years prior to the 20th century the Chinese used a form of execution known as death by a thousand cuts. That is an apt description of the consequences of the business as usual practices of many companies facing today’s challenges.For example, many executives function as though they were still in an era [...]

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Death by a thousand cuts

Branding is a marketing/Internet challenge

Editor — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:43:42 +0000

Marketing has always been part science and part instinct. The marketing component is the purview of the numbers crunchers. Instinct is the fuzzier realm of gut feel, tempered by experience and judgment. It is often difficult for executives to navigate the turbulent waters of branding, which is part measureable and part elusively ephemeral.One thing is certain. [...]

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Branding is a marketing/Internet challenge

Clues to future corporate success

Editor — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:06:10 +0000

The first imperative is to deliberately, consciously wean the organization from excessive control, the methods most executives learned and practice in their profession. The late Peter Drucker explained, “Because the modern organization consists of knowledge specialists, it has to be an organization of equals, of colleagues and associates. No knowledge ranks higher than another; each [...]

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Clues to future corporate success

Accurate forecast for 2010

Editor — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:03:37 +0000

Forler Massnick

It is time for the annual rite of attempts to forecast what will happen in the new year. In his book Rethinking the Corporation, Forler Massnick quotes Winston Churchill’s complaint, “The future is one damn thing after another.” Peter Drucker put an academic spin on it, “”Forecasting is not a respectable human activity and [...]

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Accurate forecast for 2010

CEO angst revealed

Editor — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:55:08 +0000

Chief Executive Magazine asked a cross-section of of CEOs to write about their outlook for the coming year. Editor J.P. Donlon said he was struck by their twin concerns about rising government spending and increasing taxes and regulations, as well as the effect both would have on what they regard as a fragile economic recovery.

Donlon observed, [...]

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CEO angst revealed

Muddle in the middle

Editor — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:53:16 +0000

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Reacting to the tenor of the times, scholars and commentators are focusing on what could be called the “muddle in the middle”. Society seems to be like a child attempting to jump a puddle and instead landing kersplash in the middle. Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kantor writes about change being hardest [...]

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Muddle in the middle

Today’s certainties become tomorrow’s absurdities

Editor — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:44:20 +0000

In an age in which the average tenure of CEOs has shrunk to about five years, and theories about how to manage successfully through economic turmoil have the lifespan of a tsetse fly, it is interesting to reflect on the amazingly prophetic writings of Peter Drucker who died nearly four years ago at the age of [...]

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Today’s certainties become tomorrow’s absurdities

Marketers grapple with Web 2.0

Editor — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:35:31 +0000

Tim Berners-Lee

Is Web 2.0 a distinctly different application of Internet technology or, as Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee described it a “piece of jargon”? This is a serious question for marketing executives grappling with issues about where to spend advertising and promotion dollars in puzzling economic times.Initially the Web was used as a way of publishing [...]

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Marketers grapple with Web 2.0

How to avoid being blindsided by technology

Editor — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:18:04 +0000

Recognize that science and technology are advancing at stunning speed and can lead to a bright future for your company, or if ignored can put you out of business Rethink all aspects of your business with a sense of urgency. Business as usual can very quickly become out of business Get rid of the all too common “not [...]

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How to avoid being blindsided by technology

The most intelligent force on Earth

Editor — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:22:48 +0000

The distinguished scientist Ray Kurzweil contends that machines will surpass human processing capability, and thus become the most significant intelligent force on Earth. This dramatic change, he believes, is imminent.

“The intelligence that will emerge,” he wrote, “will continue to represent the human civilization, which is already a human-machine civilization. This will be the next [...]

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The most intelligent force on Earth