When is Being the Best Not Good Enough? NEW!
Your company just won "product of the year." Bill Gates will talk about it in his opening keynote speech at Comdex, the world's largest tradeshow. And Jack Welch, the CEO of the world's largest company has just invited you for a one-on-one. Sounds like heaven, right? That's what Joe Liemandt thought in the winter of 1999. Then all hell broke loose.

Are You Experienced?
"What business thinks it produces is not of first importance. What the customer thinks he is buying, what he considers value, is decisive. And what the customer buys and considers value is never a product. It is always utility, that is, what a product does for him."

Now What? FREE eBook
Can't predict the future? Neither can we. Thankfully, many of the trends that will affect our future practices are already here. Check them out in Ziv's new eBook.

Seven Ways to Keep Your Job
"You do not merely want to be the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do."

Give Them What They Want
"People buy what they want. Not what they need."

How Much Value Can You Add to a Doughnut?
"No one cares, really, about how good you are. They care about how good they are going to be when you're done with them."

A Prescription for Passion
"The best way to discover your passion in life is to block out the noise and pave your own road guided by what lights you up."

The Seven Sins of Doing Business in Europe
The European team, proud to have their leader over for a visit, organised a large event for their customers. But when the CEO took the stage, all he could do was talk about baseball, putting his audience to sleep in less than five minutes.

The Future of the Company
For the past 150 years, the fundamentals on which the modern company are based remained stable. But innovations in technology and management are about to radically change the way we organize work.

Is Gray the New Gold?
How the fastest growing segment of the population is introducing unprecedented challenges and opportunities.

Four Funerals and a Wedding
How the most fundamental demographical shift since the Black Death is shaping the developed world.

You Are What You Are Not
A recent ad for American Apparel reads: "F@#k the brands that are f@#king the people." Bawdy branding or an alternative paradigm for a future capitalism?

Does MBA=Masters of Barely Anything?
The dangerous people, especially in this hyped-up society, are... those whose confidence exceeds their competence. MBA programmes not only attract significant numbers of such people but encourage their tendencies." Cantankerous criticism or a wake-up call for an ailing industry?

How to Save a Dying Industry
"It isn't the incompetent who destroy an organization, it is those who have achieved something and want to rest upon their achievements who are forever clogging things up." Childish complaint or the real barrier to corporate change?

Innovate Or... What?
"In my view, innovation is just another word for 'giving up'. It's saying that things are so bad that it's easier to get into an entirely different line of business than to deal with our problems." Childish resistance to change or a cautionary note for the overzealous innovator?

What's Your Business Model?
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, over 50% of small businesses fail in their first year and 95% fail within the first five years. Natural selection or lack of discipline?

Visions of the Future
"Companies shouldn't try to predict the future or ask what will happen, but rather what will we do if a certain future happens." Futuristic babble or a winning strategy for corporate readiness?

Memo to the Airline Executives: Use Your Own Bathroom
I've got a theory why some products and services are so hard to use, and my theory has nothing to do with faulty engineering or poor product design. It has to do with lack of respect.

Is Your Job Next?
"The proper role of a healthily functioning economy is to destroy jobs and put labor to use elsewhere." Capitalism at its worst or the natural evolution of our economy?

"Designer Lemonade" OR How To Make More Money by Making Your Products More Difficult to Use
That a can of soda would become a luxury item was surprising in itself, but the fact that I actually enjoyed peeling off its blue aluminium foil before I drinking its contents was alarming. Had I fallen in the luxury trap?

Innovation, Just Where You'd Least Expect It
The average farmer in Athalia, Bangladesh, earns less than $2 a day. For mobile phone operator GrameenPhone, this seemed like the perfect target market. A recipe for business failure or a new way to innovate?

You're Great, Not Let's Move On
Most technologists don't realize that the first meeting with a potential investor has nothing to do with technology.

If You Brew It, They Will Come
Brentwood Baptist Church offers its worshippers an NBA regulation-size basketball court, a volleyball court, a full locker room with showers and a McDonalds restaurant. The decline of western religion or the shrewd use of modern marketing?

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute
If your company is taking advantage of its customers, if it treats them as though they are disposable, don't be surprised if you wake up one day to find that there simply aren't any suckers left.

Fire Your Heroes!
"More time leads to more productivity," "The most committed workers are those who work the longest hours," "Individual competition and heroics are the best way to get the most out of people." Mottos for the modern corporation or signs of a corrosive corporate culture?

I'm Sorry, Do You Work Here?
People fear the unknown, and when the unknown is Pat from Sales or Rebecca from HR, that fear can translate into suspicion, disrespect and sometimes, hatred.

Would You Like Some Charity With Your Coke?
Only people have responsibilities... 'Business' as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities... there is one and only one social responsibility of business--to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits." Capitalism at its worst or a wake-up call for the "socially responsible" corporation?

RE: Letter to Self
In day-to-day life we are more concerned about the prospect of losing something than gaining something of equal value. How can you escape from this act of irrationality? How can you capture those moments of clarity that, if acted upon, could bring you a better future? Write a letter to yourself.

What Have You Got to Lose?
What are your New Year's resolutions? Do they sound familiar? Haven't you seen them before, perhaps somewhere on last year's resolution list? Why is it so difficult to turn our resolutions into results?

Three Proven Strategies to Make Next Year the Best Ever
If you really want to make next year your best, forget about resolutions and use the next 30 days to set something in motion. How? Check out these three proven strategies.

The Future of The Future
Are prediction markets the key to the future?

The Win-Lose Situation
Imagine a fast-growing billion dollar market. Initial analysis shows that customers are clamouring for a solution. Better yet, your company has the technology and the know-how to give them what they want. Sounds like a great opportunity? Not if you don't know who loses.

How to Get a Life
It's 3am and the last guests have just left the party. The food was amazing and the catering crew is packing up. The owner of the catering business is here with them, hauling chairs and tables into her van. In two hours she'll be in her kitchen - ready to begin another day of work. Unsustainable madness or the only way to run a high-touch business? Read on to find out.

It's 3am. Do You Know What's Keeping Your Customers Up?
We all have a pretty good idea of what keeps our key customers up at night.
Or so we'd like to think.

Show Me Some Love!
You're in a store, standing in line to pay for a new t-shirt. The guy in front of you approaches the cashier and puts a duffle bag on the counter. He takes out a pair of stained khakis. "I spilled some ink on these pants and wanted to see if I could replace them," he says apologetically. "I'm sorry to hear that," the cashier answers. "Would you like to replace them with a new pair in the same size?". The future of retail or a prescription for bankruptcy?

Dare to Suck!
Seconds before the show, much like in any other theatre, the audience sat in their seats, not knowing quite what to expect. Unlike any other theatre, neither did the actors. New Age nonsense or an art form that can help your company get its groove back?

How to Teach an Old Dog New Tricks
Many top performers have a hard time adapting to new business environments. Fortunately, there are a number of ways managers can help them shape up.

The Real Drug Problem
By the end of this year, over a 100,000 people in the US alone will die from taking drugs. Though the people making these drugs have access to new technologies that can reduce the number of deaths and make the drugs much more effective, they are surprisingly slow to do so. Things get stranger when you consider the fact that the drugs in question aren't Cocaine, Heroin or Ecstasy, but everyday pharmaceuticals such as pain-killers, anti-depressants and diet pills. Conspiracy Theory or Corporate Strategy?

Coming To a Store Near You: The Inexplicable Mob
In 2003, an "inexplicable mob" of 200 people got together in the Fancy Rug department of Macy's in Manhattan. The group, mostly made up of strangers, spent seven minutes debating whether they should purchase a $10,000 Pakistani rug, voted against it and then left the premises. Extraordinary popular delusion, madness of crowds, or the next wave in societal development?

Who is Lois Weisberg (and Why Does She Run the World)
If you're launching a new product, for example, you don't need to reach all of your target audience, just those people who have the influence over the most connections. The trick, of course, is to find who these people are.

Why Your Office Needs a $15,000 Espresso Machine
When was the last time your company spent $15,000 on an espresso machine? Ten years ago the founder of a wildly successful Silicon Valley startup did just that--on a single machine! Silicon Valley Madness? Irrational Exuberance? How about Good Management. But how can buying the most expensive espresso machine be considered good management?

How NOT to Get Funded
So the next time you're looking for money, don't aim for 5% of the market and don't confuse markets with budgets. Budgets are where your customers are going to get the money to buy your products and services. If you show your investors how big those budgets are, how many of those you can attract in the first two years of operation, and why these budgets will go your way and not the competition's, then you'll do just fine.

How to Change Their Minds
How do you cut $2billion in costs, bring a sales team back from the dead or get a shop attendant to stop dropping goods on the floor? The answer lies in the power of persuasion - the art of getting people to willingly change their behaviour.

How To Sell
Selling in a crowded market is always tough. But by changing your viewpoint, you can offer better value to customers - AND increase your profitability.

How To Tell A Good Story
In a world fatigued by boring presentations and vacant one-liners, getting people to pay us attention is increasingly difficult. But by using three powerful techniques, you too can move your audience into action.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future
What will the world look like in 10 year? 50 years? 500 years? This concise reading list will provide you with a starting point for thinking about what kind of future you and your company could operate in. Whether you have 10 minutes, or 10 hours, this list will help you catch up with the latest (and not so latest) thinking about the future.