Rules for The Social Era

I mentioned in a prior post that I would soon update what has been keeping me heads-down. For months now, my Harvard editor and I have been planning on a

Yahoo’s ShakeUp Demands Fearlessness

Four longtime Yahoo board members, including the chairman, are leaving the company. In this one move, Yahoo is trying to make a clean break from the past — signaling that

What is Happening To Netflix Is Unfair

Here’s the deal. Companies are around to profit maximize – a corporate form of self-interest. For many years, this was the organizing principle of all commercial enterprises. The rules, and

Is Success Predictable?

So many teams fail in growth. They blame their strategy, or their tactics, or the market, or bring up some issue about product/market/timing fit was off, or that some people

Lesson of Cezanne & The Upcoming Disruption

There was a time when great art was about depicting things as close to what the human eye could capture in real life. And then photography came along. Imagine being

What Steve Jobs Taught Me About Growth

Finding that first market — a few customers willing to pay for your early product – is hard enough. But there’s one thing that may be even harder. And that’s

Stop Blaming the Systems

The next time a customer service rep says, “The computer won’t let me do that” or “The system tells me what to do,” remember this: Behind every such phrase is

Trend to Watch: Mobile Payments

Starbucks has become that much more convenient.  Today, the NYT showed us that we can use our phone to buy coffee. No more carrying your wallet, and your phone. At

EA’s Collaboration for Growth

The gaming industry certainly has been getting a lot of attention, especially with new entrants like Zynga creating wide-spread buzz and adoption. Add to that the iPAD and mobile gaming