Blog Yes & Know

Courage is the frontier of leadership

We need more courage in organizations today. More courage to speak the truth, more courage to call out an issue, more courage to praise the tough choice. More courage to be better people while we work. Here’s 3 ideas for ways to do it.

Video, video — oh how you’ve changed

Most consumers don’t want to become near-professionals to produce a simple home movie or better capture a moment of our lives. Consumers don’t want to master Studio 10 by Pinnacle …

Truth in Business

Truth in business. Is that possible? The spirit is nourished by truth, and goodness. So if in business, we don’t have truth, then does that mean business is soulless? I …

Travel

I’m about to go on vacation for a bit. When I travel, I become invisible, if I want. I do want. I want to stay in my room and read …

Demotivating things need to get tossed first

Questions for all of us leaders of organizations and teams, inspired by my CEO coach. I am sometimes asked about the latest techniques to motivate employees, customers, partners. Sometimes it …

Ecosystems now matter

I know I’m becoming more of an introvert. I now think about things that happened 2 weeks ago and assign meaning to them. Or does that mean, I’m pondering. Hmmm. Well, …

American Apparel in Los Gatos

There’s been some flack in Los Gatos about whether to allow an American Apparel store to open up in downtown. The primary concern is that a big mall-type outlet store …

Marketing is Reality

In a recent meeting with a client, we brainstormed on what to do about an upcoming product announcement by Microsoft. The new Microsoft product will substantially increase the competitive pressure on our client, and in typical Redmond fashion the press and analysts have been briefed about it for months. Even though the product won’t ship until this summer, our client is in effect already competing with it.

Are the Mammals Eating Your Eggs?

Clients ask us lots of questions, but with the world buzzing about Web 2.0 and software changing in some pretty significant ways, one question that clients should ask but never do is, “Is my company becoming a dinosaur?” Maybe it’s because people don’t want to know, or perhaps Rai Wasner, a former colleague, had it right years ago when he said that life can be pretty good for the last dinosaur as you seem to have the whole swamp to yourself.
Once you stop innovating, you’re stuck in the status quo, and if—really when—the world changes, you’ll be unable to adapt. Your company’s name will be added to the corporate “Where are they now?” file.
As a public service, Rubicon Consulting has compiled a list of signs that your company may not be as nimble and innovative as it needs to be to defeat challenges from upstart competitors.