“To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to leave the world a better place, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded”. (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
A close friend of mine sent me this quote and I felt I wanted to share it with everyone. Why is it that, although we know that this is what makes us happy and creates satisfaction, we still search for short-term monetary success that just creates the opposite? Why is it that, most of the day, I’m working to create growth for our shareholders who already have more money in the bank than they need?
Market conditions have become extremely tough; competition is fierce and growth pressure is ever increasing. Can infinite growth be achieved? If growth is the measure of success, does it mean that we have...
I have been working in Dubai, UAE, for the last 3 months and I have never learned as much about Swedish culture and values as I’m doing here. Although I’m born in Lebanon, with Lebanese parents, I think I have been undergoing a minor cultural chock…
Hierarchy in the Middle East is very important and you need to be extremely careful in who you address and how you do it. Although I believe I am a humble person (at least in Swedish standards), I was surprised yesterday when my current Syrian manager pointed out to me that I shouldn’t have written the email the way I did to the CTO in our customer organization. “Why, what did I write wrong?” I asked, a bit offended. “Well, you asked him to give you information for creating the invitation letter”. Just to give you the background: I and my manager will take a...
One of history’s greatest creative geniuses, Steve Jobs, passed away on October 5 2011. He was a legend already while alive. Jobs showed us that repetitive disruptive innovation was indeed possible and he built on that continuously during the last years to make Apple one of the world’s most successful companies it is today. How come he was able to achieve this while other companies struggle?
Lets start by looking at some innovation myths that makes innovation seem easier than it actually is: First of all, many people associate innovation with idea generation. The sad truth is that ideas are only the first part of the formula. The much more challenging part is the other side of innovation: implementation. Many companies fail at innovation not because they don’t have the right ideas in place but because they fail to take these ideas all the way to the market.
True “human believers” say...
I regularly find myself reading the thoughts and opinions of experts on management and how I can be a better manager. I'm never actually surprised by what I read – I think most of it is obvious. At the same time it's easy to agree with what you've read, but difficult to put it into practice. I imagine that management has a lot to do with common sense, and the answer often comes naturally if you ask yourself, “What do I look for and value in a good manager?”
Good management for me is about:
Being able to motivate others and get them to believe that what they are doing is fun, exciting and instructive! A number of factors are crucial for this, including the presence of a manager.
Being organised and clear about what is to...
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