Blog Yes & Know

Getting over ourselves!

We in Silicon Valley try and buy happiness. We believe money brings freedom. We believe seeking happiness through security will fill us up. We believe seeking happiness through status will …

Do you know what drives purchase?

Consumer goods like P&G have always invested in knowing how their sales and marketing activities drive purchase. See this article from July 10th, by Ellen Byron featuring James Stengel who …

Developer Programs Key to Upward Cycle

In grade school, one of the key determinants of popularity on the playground was how quickly you were selected when the time came to choose up sides for basketball, baseball …

Lasso truth and clarity with good effective questions

Attractive, intelligent, strong, and an insightful persona. You might remember her. Throughout the 70’s, there was this superhero show called Wonder Woman. Her powers were derived from "Amazon concentration," not …

Scandals rock the Valley; need for an ethical check up

Just when we thought the technology "depression" was over, we face another scandal that, if I'm right, will rock the general investor confidence in technology investments. You know what I'm talking about. Options backdating. This is a time for an ethical check up and discernment training.

Don’t be the Dinosaur Brought down by Mosquitos

Emerging Business Models can destroy your current business Working in Silicon Valley, there are a few hundred new acronyms and technologies introduced each year that need to be understood. Being …

The Valley depends on your Innovation!

Fred Smith. Know his name? Likely not, but he's the founder and CEO of FedEx. The innovator who changed the concept of package delivery in our lifetime. When he came up with the idea of FedEx, he "borrowed" it from a different industry. Since telecommunications and banking both applied a hub and spoke system of dissemination, he thought that could be applied to delivery services to increase speed and efficiency and enable a new business concept. And you know what his undergraduate professor thought of this "innovation? " Not much. He got a "C" and a bad peer review.

Out With the Old Process, In With the New – Completely

Remember Webvan? Those pretty brown trucks. We saw one all scuffed up and worn down by the side of the road today and it perfectly symbolized the promise of an Internet-based grocery company that never made it. Lots of theories on its failure have been created, but I am always amazed that most people fail to recognize one of the biggest factors that doomed Webvan. It is a lesson that too few people seem to recognize when running their own business units.