A Marketing Lesson From Conrad Hilton

"One hotel is like any other hotel. The difference is how you treat the guests. All we ask of you is to be nice to people so they will want to come back."  - Conrad Hilton, to his staff

For Entrepreneurs, Questions Are The Key To Passive Income

If you are selling a product or service, keep track of the questions and problems submitted to your help desk.  This is the fastest key to passive income.  Recurring topics lead to supplemental guidebooks, FAQs, study guides, and courses.

Great Leaders Develop Their Team Members

When I was managing a team at a large bank, I was never afraid to give my teammates more responsibility and help them improve their skills.  I never thought about hoarding advanced assignments for myself for job security.  What I found was that, not only were my team members happier and engaged, but it reflected on me, and made me look better to my superiors.

My New Logo

If you are a frequent visitor to my website and blog, you'll notice that I commissioned a new logo for my business.  I used a designer, and now the logo is on my website, blog, twitter, and LinkedIn.

I previously used a motif of a jigsaw puzzle on my business cards because it is a metaphor for strategy.  But, as my mentor Alan Weiss pointed out when he saw my new logo, my designer made a subtle, elegant addition—when the last puzzle piece is snapped in place, you have an arrow pointing up (for progress).  I didn't catch this myself!

Why create a logo?

Building a brand is very important in today's world of Attention Scarcity.  My business is at a stage where it is growing, and I'm reaching ever-wider audiences. Businesses today need a brand which reflects their values and is aesthetically pleasing.

Executive dashboard best practices

The Key to Executive Dashboards is Exclusion

Every entry on the dashboard competes for attention, but we are now in the Attention Scarcity Age.  Therefore, executives must be ruthless in deciding what should be included on their dashboards.  An indicator should only be present if it can signal a critical, urgent  issue which can't be flagged by any other.

The Future of Banking in Africa

The Transparency of Mobile Payments

The big advantage of African banking is that they are starting from a blank slate in the 21st century.  While Western companies have moved from cash to checks, and then credit cards, Africans are moving straight from cash to mobile web payments.  Africans are embracing mobile payments, and the continent is already starting to see changes in transparency and less corruption.  NGOs are now starting to distribute aid directly to individuals or small groups through mobile payments, rather than try to pass money in large blocks through government agencies—where corruption takes a large percentage. 

Business Impact Analysis: Uncover All The Dependencies

A big problem with Business Impact Analysis is not uncovering all site dependencies—especially if the dependency is owned by another group in the organization. hashtagA client of mine, a large Fortune 500 bank, created a fail-over plan to switch their online banking from Chicago to back-up servers in NJ. When a fire broke out at their Chicago facility, they tried to fail over, but the computer that resolved internet addresses internally (which was owned by a group not part of the plan) was only in Chicago, and so they failed to make the switch within the target time frame.