“… are those who assume responsibility for a creative task, not as an assigned role, a routine function, or an inherited duty, but as a venture of faith, including risk and danger, in order to bring into the world something new and profitable to mankind.”

From Os Guiness’ Long Journey Home: A guide to your search for the meaning of life. Page 2. ISBN 1-57856-846-3.

We live by rules and principles daily. We modify our behaviour to work within (or outside of) them on a continual basis. On the surface, they both affect (or control) our actions. But there is a subtle and important difference between them.

Principles are: bought-into, believed-in, understood innately, interpreted individually (inclusive of individuality), lived, makes sense to the individual, congruent with individual and organisational …

Os Guiness identified the following in his book Long Journey Home:
A clear sense of personal identity.
A strong sense of personal mission.
A deep sense of life’s meaning.

Translating this into a business context (where business is a major tool for self actualisation) I proposed the following:
A clear brand identity founded on a coherent alignment of beliefs and actions.
A strong cause/purpose powered by passion and dreams.
A deep sense of participation in …

I’ve been noticing the finance reports on the news more so lately.

It is amazing how a rumour here and there can immediately affect stock prices or oil prices. This cannot be healthy for the future of humanity and this planet, considering how these few simple numbers have such an impact on business activity.

How weird and absurd is this situation? Mere speculation, hear-say, or deliberate gossip lead directly to …

The great pictures on this Creating Passionate Users blog post: Too many companies are like bad marriages reminded me powerfully of my personal experience with Apple years ago (my version of their pics above).

I started my business on a Mac Powerbook G3 in 1998. It was easily twice the price of a comparable Dell. Plus several thousand dollars of software. As a …

“Ideas come from: new hires, people on the periphery, front-line workers, customers, great companies in other industries.” From The Big Moo, edited by Seth Godin

Make a point of speaking to at least one person in your organisation from each of these groups next week. Ask them for their thoughts and opinions on things that they would not normally get asked.

Have a look at indexed.

Kmart, Bi-Lo, Coles, Woolworths (supermarket, departmental)
JB Hi-Fi, Dick Smith, Harvey Norman, Bing Lee, Good Guys (electrical, whitegoods, computers)
Dymocks, Angus and Robertson (books)
JB Hi-Fi, Dick Smith, Sanity, HMV (music, movies)

Their common characteristics appear to be:

Huge open space full of racks and racks of stuff to buy. And often with actual stock stored on the floor.
Often uses “screaming at you” TV commercials and brightly coloured sales flyers printed on thin …

We have fair-trade coffee and various other ethically sourced and manufactured goods such as non-sweat-shop clothing.

Given most electronics manufacturing is now done in countries like China where labour is cheap and plentiful, and where sweat shops have most opportunities to grow, far from the eyes of Western consumers; is it now time for ethically manufactured electronics?

Read the article about Apple’s iPod factories on MacWorld UK.

Read the …

The customer is not always right. A real relationship demands two-way respect. You need to respect your customers, and they need to respect you in return.

The following a true story – I saw it with my very own eyes as I was sitting at a café writing up my notes after a meeting.

A middle-aged woman turned up with her baby and a friend. After she placed her order, …