More than three decades ago, Michael Porter, the Harvard-based professor and strategist, came out with a book “Competitive Advantage,” which resulted in him becoming my personal business guru. Prior to the book’s publication, an article he wrote for Harvard Business Review identified five competitive forces — customer power, supplier power, threat of new entrants, substitute
You’ve no doubt heard people in business attempt to anticipate what the next breakthrough idea will be. But what they probably should be wondering is: who will be responsible for developing the next such idea? That’s because new ideas are being generated every day, and some of them may hold great possibilities. But a promising
This week, for the first time in many years, I felt encouraged about the challenges we face in regard to carbon emissions, climate change and other major environmental issues, and about the behavioral changes that meeting them will require. As odd as it might sound, I credit my exposure to the amazing advancements now taking
The idea of “fun and fame” needs to be incorporated into everything we do — not just occasionally, but on an everyday basis. Why? Because we want to feel good about what we are doing, and we as humans are biologically wired for this positive feeling. When we feel good about something, our brains produce
Sometimes you have such an eventful week, you can’t sleep. I’ve just had that kind of week, hopping between a conference on wastewater, the Gamification Summit and the Food Marketing Institute Sustainability Summit (which I’ll discuss in an upcoming blog), as well as meeting with representatives of Central African countries. The adrenaline required to keep
While I’m accustomed to speaking before large groups, I must admit to being a bit more nervous than usual as it came time for me to give a little talk as a panel member at the Gamification Summit. But I guess that was only natural, since most of the people in the audience were about
Ever have one of those dreams where you’re back in school and suddenly realize that you haven’t been doing your homework and are totally unprepared for a big exam that’s about to take place? Well, I experienced that same sort of sinking feeling at 3 a.m. the other morning – only I wasn’t asleep. In