So Many Books, So Little Time
(..and how to read four of them in an hour) The extent of our knowledge drives the options available to us and the important choices we make between them. To the extent that knowledge is gained by reading, there is so much available that knowing what to read is critical. Vistage members have access to a “Lead […]
Practices or Principles?
It’s sad but true….our January New Year’s Resolutions rarely survive into February. We often write off our failures to a lack of will power, but maybe it’s more about our “why” and not so much about our “will”; or as I recently read in one of my favorite blogs: “As to methods there may be a million and then […]
41 Big Ideas for 2023
One person’s predictions can be interesting; but polling a group of thought leaders may yield more and better looks ahead (It’s why Vistage works!) To that end, “Every December, at LinkedIn editors ask our community of Top Voices and creators to share the Big Ideas they believe will define the year ahead. This year, as we […]
Dr. Galloway: Forward and Backward
It wouldn’t be New Year’s without predictions. One person whose predictions are always worth reading is entrepreneur and NYU professor Scott Galloway. Dr. Galloway shot to fame with his book “The Four” a few years back in which he dissected the success and power of a quartet of the world’s most important companies: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, […]
Christmas Ain’t what it used to be (and that’s a good thing!)
It’s easy to assume that what is, always was. This is not the case with Christmas. Until relatively recently (mid-eighteenth century) the holiday was seen as a time for “behavior that most of us would find offensive and even shocking today—rowdy public displays of excessive eating and drinking, the mockery of established authority, aggressive begging (often […]
About That Innkeeper
The Inn Keeper in the Nativity Story is not usually portrayed as a sympathetic figure. Economist Brian Wesbury has a different take on this entrepreneur. Was he: “A Greedy Innkeeper or Generous Capitalist? “
It’s in the “Cards”- Innovation Creating Tradition
One of the greatest communication innovations was the “Penny Post” introduced in England in the early 1800s which allowed thousands to send letters at an affordable cost (a penny-it’s gone up a bit since then) for the first time. But new innovations can create unforeseen needs requiring yet another innovation…as exemplified by the “History of the Christmas […]
Christmas with the “Colonel” (in Japan)
If you want an object lesson in the meeting of power of promotion and unlikely opportunity, find out why Christmas in Japan just wouldn’t be Christmas without “visiting the Colonel.“
Case Study: The Firm of Scrooge and Marley
In “A Christmas Carol” Ebenezer Scrooge is portrayed as a sharp businessman whose company appears to operate in the financial sector, but we’re not told much more. Several literary and historical researchers have studied the clues in the story and applied their knowledge of the period to paint a fuller picture of “the Business of Scrooge […]
“The Man Who Invented Christmas”
Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol is a universal holiday classic. But there’s an interesting back story with a business slant to its origins in this short article about “Why Charles Dickens’ Wrote a Christmas Carol.” The “story of the story” has also been made into a delightful and fun movie starring Dan Stevens of “Downton Abbey” fame as […]
