How to Build Brand Religion

How to Build Brand Religion

by Ron Faris  |   12:21 PM January 29, 2014

On Thursday at 11 a.m., the Supreme store in Soho debuts a new sneaker design, and people wait around the block to be the first to purchase it. Roughly a mile away in Madison Square Park, a line snakes past manicured lawns as people wait an hour in line to buy a Shake Shack cheeseburger. Further downtown, Tyler, the Creator, the impresario leading man of the hip-hop collective Odd Future, hosts a pop-up shop on Orchard Street with a thousand kids waiting in line to meet the artist and buy his gear. Read more of this post

Before you start a company, you better read this: It’s going to be really, really hard. So you got to believe in your vision, in the problem you want to solve, because it won’t make sense any other way

Before you start a company, you better read this

By Jeffrey Yuwono

It’s going to be really, really hard. So you got to believe in your vision, in the problem you want to solve, because it won’t make sense any other way

So you are in school and want to be an entrepreneur. I was there too in 2007 after graduating with an MBA from Stanford University. My first start-up failed. The second one made money. And now I’m on my third riding the roller coaster that is entrepreneurship. Read more of this post

How to avoid the ‘comfort trap’ in strategic planning

How to avoid the ‘comfort trap’ in strategic planning

Published 30 January 2014 10:45, Updated 30 January 2014 11:22

Roger Martin

The unknowns of strategic planning will always be a little scary, but knowing how to avoid ‘comfort traps’ will make it less daunting in the long term. Read more of this post

From its beginnings supplying the theatres springing up in the early days of London’s West End to a £10-million-a-year business, the history of Angels the Costumiers is a glamorous mix of theatre, film and fashion

MASTERS OF DISGUISE

ARTICLE | 30 JANUARY, 2014 10:50 AM | BY TESS DE LA MARE

From its beginnings supplying the theatres springing up in the early days of London’s West End to a £10-million-a-year business, the history of Angels the Costumiers is a glamorous mix of theatre, film and fashion. Read more of this post

Babes at Work: author of Looptail: How One Company Changed the World by Reinventing Business, introduces a passage from Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love on how to build an employee-centric corporate culture

Published: January 17, 2014

Babes at Work

Bruce Poon Tip, author of Looptail: How One Company Changed the World by Reinventing Business, introduces a passage from Richard Sheridan’s Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love on how to build an employee-centric corporate culture. Read more of this post

After 500 Years, Why Does Machiavelli Still Hold Such Sway? Relative morality is usually considered a bad thing-except if it gets results

Posted: January 27, 2014

James O’Toole is a senior fellow in business ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and the author of 17 books, including The Executive’s Compass and Leading Change.

After 500 Years, Why Does Machiavelli Still Hold Such Sway?

The past few months have seen a flurry of celebrations for the 500th anniversary of Niccolò Machiavelli’s classic leadership “how to” text, The Prince. It may be five centuries old, but The Prince remains one of the most quoted leadership tomes of all times. The reason for its persistent popularity is clear: “Big Mac” was an unabashed realist. His leadership theory is based on the premise that most people are bad. Thus, his advice to leaders seeking to gain and maintain power: “Learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case.” Read more of this post

New Year’s Resolution: Become a Thought Leader

The easiest way to fight procrastination

The easiest way to fight procrastination

By Sidin Vadukut 3 hours ago

Sidin Vadukut is a London-based writer. He is the author of three novels and is currently working on a non-fiction book on Indian patriotism.

A day doesn’t day go by when the “Productivity” folder in my RSS feed doesn’t recommend some shiny new task manager/to-do-list-app/project management tool.

I confess I often download them with high hopes….

…only to delete the app a few hours later and revert back to the way I’ve always gotten things done. Read more of this post

Grappling German grammar, Eddie Izzard proves humor can travel

Grappling German grammar, Eddie Izzard proves humor can travel

Wed, Jan 29 2014

By Victoria Bryan

BERLIN (Reuters) – If anyone wants to know the German for “weasels covered in gravy”, then comic Eddie Izzard, who unlike some of his countrymen is a lover of all things European, is the go-to man. Read more of this post

Watchmakers face dearth of craftsmen as luxury market booms

Watchmakers face dearth of craftsmen as luxury market booms

Wed, Jan 29 2014

By Silke Koltrowitz

GENEVA (Reuters) – Anita Porchet has a skill that Swiss watchmakers can’t afford to do without. As an enamel painter, she decorates watches for the likes of Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin which can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Read more of this post

The Good Jobs Strategy: How the smartest companies invest in employees to lower costs and boost profits; Zara’s investment in staff is crucial to this speed, together with its ability to collect information from employees on what is popular

January 29, 2014 4:07 pm

‘The Good Jobs Strategy’ by Zeynep Ton

Review by Gill Plimmer

The Good Jobs Strategy: How the smartest companies invest in employees to lower costs and boost profits, by Zeynep Ton, New Harvest $25/£8.99

When Madonna was on tour in Spain a few years ago, teenage girls turned up at her final performance wearing the very outfit she had worn for her first show. They had bought it from Zara, the Spanish retailer. Read more of this post

The ‘fearless’ speech writer behind Obama’s State of Union address

The ‘fearless’ speech writer behind Obama’s State of Union address

Tue, Jan 28 2014

By Elvina

Nawaguna

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Six days before the State of the Union address, Cody Keenan posted on the photo-sharing site Instagram a blurred image of a speech draft with President Barack Obama’s notes in the margins. He ended the post with “#SpoilerAlert #InsideSOTU-Cody.” Read more of this post

What Makes You Happy? It Depends on How Old You (Think) You Are

What Makes You Happy? It Depends on How Old You (Think) You Are

Jan 27, 2014

One Monday morning two years ago, Wharton marketing professor Cassie Mogilner and then-Wharton PhD candidate Amit Bhattacharjee were discussing what they did during the past weekend. Mogilner talked about her fabulous and productive weekend getting things done around the house and enjoying a Sunday brunch with her husband. Bhattacharjee then described his weekend, one filled with excitement and travel. Read more of this post

Choose the way you make choices; We often put far less effort into forming an opinion than into choosing what we eat, buy or even wear

Updated: Thursday January 30, 2014 MYT 7:38:21 AM

Choose the way you make choices

BY MARINA MAHATHIR

We often put far less effort into forming an opinion than into choosing what we eat, buy or even wear.

THESE days if you walk into a coffee bar, you find yourself faced with an overwhelming variety of choices. You can have strong, weak, with milk, without milk, several different types of milk and in several sizes. Read more of this post

How 10 Companies, Including Google And Warby Parker, Got Their Wacky Names

How 10 Companies, Including Google And Warby Parker, Got Their Wacky Names

GEOFF WEISS, ENTREPRENEUR
JAN. 29, 2014, 1:54 PM 1,341

Business owners are increasingly thinking outside of the box — and in some cases, the English language itself — when it comes to christening their nascent ventures.

Google and Yahoo, for instance, sound like terms one might hear warbled by a baby or shouted on a rollercoaster as opposed to the names of multinational empires. Read more of this post