The Wall Street Journal ran a story yesterday about how Walmart has started to focus on training its front-line workers. While many firms have training programs for college graduates and future managers, very few companies train their entry-level service employees. The practice, known as upskilling, is designed to reduce turnover, which is estimated to be … Continue reading Walmart Invests in Upskilling →

The above is a quote from the classic TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson. Here is the full paragraph: ... kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go.Am I right? They're not frightened of being wrong. I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being … Continue reading “We Stigmatize Misteaks” →

Each year, Fortune magazine puts out a ranking of the world's most admired companies. Here are the top 10 from the most recent list: Apple Google Berkshire Hathaway Amazon.com Starbucks Walt Disney Southwest Airlines American Express General Electric Coca-Cola An impressive list, to say the least. And perhaps no surprise that you likely recognize, and … Continue reading The World’s Most Admired Companies vs. the World’s Most Valuable Companies →

One of my favorite songs came on the radio yesterday while I was driving that I probably haven't heard for 15-20 years. As soon as it started, the words and melody came back to me as if there had been no gap in the time since I had last heard the song. The song is … Continue reading And We Rely On Each Other, Ah-Ha →

I came across an interesting article on the Harvard Business Review web site today by Hugh McGuire, a "literary technologist". Hugh is the founder of LibriVox and Pressbooks, and the co-editor of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto. The title of the article was "How Making Time for Books Made Me Feel Less Busy", and as I was … Continue reading Making Time for Reading Books →

Such words by Thomas Friedman, columnist for the New York Times and author of The World is Flat, seem prophetic given what has happened over the past couple of weeks in China. Friedman credits the phrase to Grandma Friedman, which was in response to the belief of many that while Britain owned the 19th century … Continue reading Never Cede a Century to a Country That Censors Google →

The graphic above, prepared by the Wall Street Journal, does a great job depicting the amount of food wasted across various food groups in the U.S. It is a staggering amount - 429 pounds of food are wasted per person each year. Or stated another way, The U.S. wastes 31 to 40% of its post-harvest … Continue reading To Reduce How Much Food You Waste, Learn to Eat More Consciously →

Such was the belief of some people in the late 19th century. Prior to the widespread use of bicycles, children were not able to stray very far from home. But now with a bike, a child could be miles away from home in just a few minutes. It was also said that bikes were keeping … Continue reading Bicycles Are Morally Hazard →

Once again, Seth Godin's blog got me thinking. Today he wrote about how Scientific Management has evolved from the old Frederick Taylor (pictured above) days where the focus was on measuring the productivity of factory workers, to the focus today of measuring the productivity of white collar workers. But Seth believes there's a price to … Continue reading Dear Seth, Shouldn’t You Know if the Work You Do Matters? →

Somehow today rushed past me faster than I anticipated, and now I'm sitting at my computer trying to think of something to write about. I've gone thought my usual potential sources of material: LinkedIn's daily Pulse Seth Godin's daily post Fred Wilson's daily post Harvard Business Review's Daily Alert email HBR's Daily Stat email my … Continue reading It’s 11:00 at Night, and I Don’t Know What To Write for My Blog… →