The Unexpected Lesson of Ted Kennedy’s Success

On August 27, 2009

The Unexpected Lesson of Ted Kennedy’s Success

Today's managers are taught to identify and groom "high-potential" leaders. By doing so they would have missed Ted Kennedy early in his career. You already know Kennedy's personal story, marred by tragedy and recklessness. Even when he ran for president in 1979, he fumbled reporter Roger Mudd's question about why he wanted the job and shortly dropped out of the race. But the rest is history. Starting in his late 40s, Kennedy reinvented himself and became one of the greatest U.S. senators in history. In an excellent post on Harvard Business Publishing, Sarah Green takes comfort in this lesson. "Ted Kennedy's life is a reminder that much can be achieved by late bloomers; that you don't have to have your...
On August 27, 2009

Zoho Thinks Small Is Beautiful

Zoho is like the sea creature that survives by taking tiny nibbles from unsuspecting, larger rivals. Not that it wants to kill those rivals – in fact, it needs an ecosystem in which to thrive. The company sells a range of enterprise applications and productivity software, mostly via the cloud and mostly in competition with much larger vendors like Microsoft, Google and Salesforce.com. However, the company isn't worried about being overwhelmed by those behemoths, Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu recently told me over breakfast. Quite the contrary, Zoho thrives by being providing point solutions that complement existing applications, and can afford to do so at relatively low prices because it's smaller than its competitors. For instance, it has created a spreadsheet...
On August 27, 2009

No Bonus Tax, Let the Market Decide

Rather that propose taxes on transactions to bring down bankers' bonuses, Britain's financial regulator, Lord Turner, should ask why competition is not forcing down City fees and pay. The free market is not working in the Square Mile. There is no shortage of investment banks -- unlike retail banking, which has shrunk back to a Big Four with Lloyds' takeover of HBoS. Nor is there any suggestion of a cartel of the sort that previously fixed stockbroking fees. And, not surprisingly, there is no shortage of people trying to join the City gravy train to share in the fees bonanza. The laws of supply and demand by which City firms make their money has been suspended for their own finances....
On August 27, 2009

Blogging Is A Dialect: Do You Speak It?

I have a vivid memory of using the word “idiosyncrasy” in fifth grade during a group project. I didn’t know the definition, just the word. This enraged a boy named Chance to the point where he spit on me and encouraged everyone else to do so. We all fought on the floor until [...]
On August 27, 2009

PG&E Pursuing a Grant For Wind Turbine Energy Storage

Pacific Gas & Electric sure does love to keep up its reputation as the first to try out any new technology. Usually it's just some form of renewable -- wave turbines, space-based solar, and so forth. Today they have a new spin: compressed air storage for wind turbines. If that conjures the image of turbines filling up a giant balloon, you're not too far off, although the particular balloon being used isn't elastic. Compressed air works best with pre-existing caves that have proven to be well sealed, like those that natural gas is sometimes found in. Whenever there's excess power coming from the turbines, air is pumped into the cave. When power is needed, heat is applied to make the...
On August 27, 2009

Having Your Data and Using It Too

What's hot, and what's not? And how does an e-commerce concern turn it into cash? Knowing Internet trend patterns is not enough. Small e-commerce companies have to be able to act on the information they obtain in order to capitalize on it. When they do not move quickly enough, they may find themselves on the tail end of a petering-out fad.
On August 27, 2009

Assuring Quality in the Language E-Commerce Customers Speak

The last 10 years has brought sea changes to the customer service industry from both operations and technology standpoints. Organizations have moved away from traditional domestic live phone support toward new technologies and business models such as interactive voice response, intelligent scripting and offshoring.
On August 27, 2009

Can We Harness Crowd Collaboration?

Crowds act co-operatively in emergency situations, according to one of the latest posts on the British Psychological Society blog. According to research published in the September edition of the 'British Journal of Social Psychology' by John Drury and colleagues, people tend to act altruistically towards others, even complete strangers, in a mass-meeting during an emergency. Drury et al conducted interviews with people who experienced a number of emergency situations, including the crush at Hillsborough and the Harrods bomb attack. The subjects recalled people helping each other, rather than looking after their own welfare at a ratio of four to three. The respondents who reacted positively said they had a feeling of a shared fate with those around them and a sense of...
On August 27, 2009

New Defense Contractor Self Reporting Requirement Working Too Well

As one of the reforms passed in the last year of defense contracting was a requirement that a company self report themselves to the Department of Defense's Inspector General (DOD IG). Previously any person could report a possible violation protected by whistle blower law as well as sub and prime contractors could report on each other. This new requirement is for a company to report themselves if they feel there is an issue. According to the program manager at the DODIG there have been over fifty reports since the rule went into affect. The majority of these concern issues with billing and have been handled administratively. Several have been turned over to various investigative agencies for review. There are lot...
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