From the category archives:

Business Execution

How many service reps does it take to change a light bulb or lose a customer?

June 28, 2010

I had a recent experience that got me thinking about what drives customer service and what causes failures of customer service. I took our Subaru in for its 45,000 mile service to the dealer where we bought the car and a pre-paid service plan.  When I checked in at the service desk, I mentioned there [...]

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A what if: the Gulf disaster and e2.0

June 21, 2010

As someone who started her career working on oil rigs, the ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico really hit home. I know first-hand the intense and often times dangerous activities on a drilling platform, and the enormous coordination effort involved in every drilling program. As I have followed this accident I have been struck [...]

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The 3Ps: How it all comes together

June 13, 2010

I had high expectations when I received my free advance copy of Delivering Happiness, A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. I admire Tony Hseih and Zappos tremendously.  Zappos gets so much right because Tony Hseih understands the profound importance of motivation and alignment in building a company. I [...]

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Want to innovate? Pay attention

June 7, 2010

Companies are looking for new ways to collaborate with their customers to co-create products and services.  But customers are already telling companies a lot about what new products and services they want. Too many companies just aren’t paying attention. I had an errand to run over the weekend for a new bathroom rug. I hate [...]

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Social Business Software is on the move

May 26, 2010

It is good news for my hometown Palo Alto that Jive Software is moving its HQ here. And it is good news for business too. Jive is clearly getting traction and that is good news for business because Jive sells the kind of software that companies need to enable collaboration and to avoid the problems [...]

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How startups can out-execute the big guys, part two

May 13, 2010

In a previous post, I talked about how startups can out-execute the big guys by applying a lot of hard work moving in the same direction.  Doug Park of DYPAdvisors asked in his comment “That leads to the question of how are they going to get there. How is the company going to execute? “ [...]

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Game Mechanics at Work and Play

April 27, 2010

Game mechanics work, even in the most unlikely places.  I’ve written about using game mechanics in software to incent participation and encourage and align positive behaviors. I was reminded of this fact at my son’s school Science Fair last week. The school wisely gave us a “Science Fair” Passport as we walked in.  The passport [...]

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Netflix: Make More Customer Magic with Your People and Your Data

April 26, 2010

I’ve often thought my older relatives should try Netflix. But they don’t have a computer at home and I just didn’t see how it could work for them. They use the library computers in their home town, but I know they wouldn’t be comfortable doing the credit card thing online, much less at the library. [...]

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How startups can out-execute the big guys

April 7, 2010

I couldn’t miss an event billed “How I beat my competition by out-executing them with Gurbaksh Chahal and Lyle Fong “, a VLAB Emerging Business Event in their “Entrepreneurs Uncensored” series. Gurbaksh and Lyle are two very inspiring entrepreneurs. Just hearing their stories made for a great event.  But they were there with a message [...]

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Zappos: Make Me Happier with Business Analytics

March 30, 2010

I love a lot about Zappos: the customer-centered service, the way Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, evangelizes and models the competitive advantage of emergent and sustained corporate values. I love the way they call me a VIP for really what is a modest number of transactions.  Yet many of those transactions are returns. Again today, for [...]

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