Some business professionals seem to operate without fear of failure. They dive into their next task with abandon and don’t worry about the many numerous pitfalls that may reach out and grab them along the way. Others take the path of always looking in their mirrors for hazards. The know the traps are there and…
Ambiguity and Decision Making
Ambiguity: of information, in words, pictures, or other media, is the ability to express more than one interpretation. It is generally contrasted with vagueness, in that specific and distinct interpretations are permitted (although some may not be immediately apparent), whereas with information that is vague it is difficult to form any interpretation at the desired…
The Art of Efficiency (let’s not talk about it)
Efficient. Buzz word. Through and through there is no word that has less meaning to daily use ratio. Whenever I hear someone talk about becoming more efficient or improving this or that efficiency I can’t help but stop and ask why they are being willfully inefficient to begin with. Saying you are going to do…
Free Culture thoughts
A friend loaned me a copy of the book Free Culture which has been an extremely thought provoking read so far (5 hours on planes yesterday and I’m a bit over half way through). The topic of the book is specifically focused on copyright and the impact technology has had on our creative culture since…
Portfolio work….the real estate kind
Real Estate portfolios for large organizations could take up a full course in Industrial Engineering classes. It is the classic complex structure that keeps so many of our skills sharp. Take your typical Fortune 500 manufacturing firm. You have your manufacturing sites in the US, China, Brazil, Mexico and other locations. Then you move to…
Business Cases
Change happens (as I can firmly attest to). You’ll never be able to expect what is about to happen – it’s like war, as the first arrow flies all plans are now forced to adapt. Managing the rules and risks are the key. If you can predict the most likely scenarios you’ll likely end up…
Selective Apathy
Sometimes as a young professional I find it hard to forget that the goal of things is the successful execution of business objectives which has little or nothing to do with personal objectives or goals. Personal objectives are achieved through the successful implementation of the business strategy. If the business is unsuccessful the rest is…
Weekend Work
Continuing with the lessons of a long week – had to do some deadline driven work this weekend. Sometimes it’s important to roll up the sleeves and simply do what needs to be done. When the only option left is to get things done you learn that it doesn’t matter what happened to put us…
Dumb but not Stupid
Last week was a rough week for me. Lots of really good lessons were learned – lots of life lessons – lots of business lessons. Somehow the week ended on a really high note though plus I learned the concept that it’s okay to be dumb as long as you aren’t stupid about it. Dumb…
Finding the Blue Ocean of Real Estate
In a sea of competition the water turns red with blood. If you want to find a way to separate yourself from the competition you need to find a part of the ocean where no one else is: the Blue Ocean. This is a pretty obvious notion once you’ve heard it. What I’m thinking about…