Questions No One Knows The Answers To

TED Curator Chris Anderson released an educational video that encourages us to always stay curious, as children usually are.  He shows us how to maintain curious by trying to answer two mind boggling questions about the universe.

When comparing ourselves to the vast and infinite universe, you may conclude that some of the things that trouble us today, are simply not important at all.

The No Ass@&%# Rule Decision Tree

Bob Sutton, Stanford professor and author of the bestseller The No Asshole Rule, published a decision tree constructed by his students, of how to deal in a simple way with employees that are just "certified jerks".

So how do you deal with jerks in your company?

The Life Of An Analyst

Elisabeth Fosslien, has shared a fantastic set of diagrams describing the life of an analyst.

See the other great diagrams she has built here.

Employee Buys And Saves Company

Bill Waddell shared this great video recently about a manufacturing employee that was able to purchase a plant that was closing its operations, and now has become profitable.

Like Steve Denning talks about in his Radical Management book, when companies focus on delighting customers, it's no coincidence that they become successful in the long run.

The Death of Field Sales - Ballistix Video

I have been following Justin Roff-Marsh's work about re-engineering the sales process for some years now, and he his ideas have never ceased to impress me.    Self proclaimed as the "sales contrarian", Justin's ideas about how to significantly improve a company's sales without major investments are a must read for managers.

He began his work applying Theory of Constraints concepts and direct marketing concepts to re-engineer the sales process, but over time, his ideas have evolved and cover not only focus on how your sales process should be designed and managed, but also on what measurements, systems and other aspects must be in place for superior sales performance, and will be included in his upcoming book, 

His latest video presentation is called The Death of Field Sales, where he discussed the general ideas of his model and the lessons learned throughout the years.

Enjoy!

Ohno's 100th Birthday

Masaaki Imai at recently shared a profile of Taichii Ohno, father of the Toyota Production System, describing  his major ideas and thoughts.

Ohno was without a doubt one of the most important manufacturing thinkers of the last century, creating a unique management methodology, the Toyota Production System, that can be only in a very small percentage of companies worldwide.

The Dollar Shave Club - An Unrefusable Offer

It seems some guys have created an "offer you can't refuse" when it comes to buying razor blades.   Called the Dollar Shave Club, you pay a monthly fee to get razors delivered home:  a low cost proposition with no hassle for the customer.

I have not tested the program yet, but it seems like a great example of thinking out of the box, and finding new ways to create value for customers.