A friend of mine who works for a large multinational corporation told me a great story the other day about two interns they have had at work.

Intern number one went out of his way to be helpful and useful. Nothing was too hard for him. He took the initiative to learn things. He happily did everything that was asked of him, however menial or small. When the …

In the introduction to Bo Burlingham’s Small Giants – Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, he made some interesting points about limited our prevailing benchmarks of what makes a “successful” business really is. Much of the writing about business has been around data that is limited to:

Publically listed companies – primarily due to the easy access of financial data.
Companies that are well know – thanks …

According to Paul Bracken in his article Futurizing Business Education (Futurist magazine July-August 2008), there are four major characteristics of the turbulent world businesses are faced with today:

Technology – rapidly and dramatically transforms industries.
Political risks – decisions at a political have direct impact.
Blurring of industry boundaries – businesses are chasing radically new markets beyond the bounds of their traditional offerings.
New competitors with different strategic personalities – emerging economies …

Here’s a great demonstration of using a risk management technique to make decisions when faced with uncertainties and the lack of hard facts.

It also provides an interesting take on the global warming debate. You don’t actually have to believe or disbelieve in global warming to think about the situation at hand and make a reasonable decision.

I am sure you can …

In his book On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not, author Robert A. Burton made the point that:

Certainty is neither a conscious choice nor even a thought process. That unmistakable sense of certainty arises out of involuntary brain mechanisms that, like love or anger, function independently of reason.

This is something for business leaders to be mindful of. To embrace the …

See this Sydney Morning Herald story on how CityRail transit officers don’t actually have the authority to issue valid tickets.

How much more ridiculous can CityRail management get? Situations like this clearly show that there is no intention from the management, or dare one even say “leadership” level, to do any better.

I travel on Singapore’s MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) everyday. And everyday I am reminded of how …