How to Go from Small to Super

Small business is by far the leading job creator, and entrepreneurship the leading engine of American economic renewal. As unemployment swells, small business prowess is needed more than ever. But can a small company be a SuperCorp, like progressive larger companies such as IBM and Procter & Gamble?

Professor Barry Nalebuff shares the insights from his book Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small.

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'Don't Let Your Strength Become Your Weakness' by Gill Corkindale

Found on HarvardBusines.org: 

One of the first things I ask my new clients to do is write down three of their key strengths and three of their flaws. Typically, strengths might be attention to detail, focus, and drive; flaws can be delegation, lack of creativity, and people-management skills. I then ask clients to look carefully at what they have written. Often, they will stare at the paper and then at me. They will ask me to explain. Rarely do they see the connection.
The fact is that our flaws are often the mirror image of our strengths, and it's important to realize that we should not over-develop our strengths, causing them to turn into flaws.

Top Ten Ways to Find Joy at Work by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

I set out to write a David Letterman-style Top Ten list about finding joy in the workplace in tough times. But recent revelations about how Letterman found joy at work is not what I'm advocating. His extramarital affairs with subordinates were perverse, dishonest, conspiratorial, and exploitative power-mongering -- harmful and possibly illegal. No joke. Jobs are not saved nor enhanced by turning workplaces into sleaze factories. Exploiting others is definitely not on my list for getting more joy out of work. But enlisting others in a great cause tops it.

Are You Ready to Manage Five Generations of Workers?

by Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd

Does retirement look a little further off now than it did just a few years ago? If you are over 62, odds are you're putting off retirement at least two to three years, and you may even be planning on working beyond 70. If you're over 50, and lost 40% or more of your nest egg, you are about twice as likely to delay retirement as those who lost less. According to the World Health Organization, men and women who are healthy at 60 will, on average, be physically capable of working until they are 74 and 77, respectively. Combine these statistics and the newest employees entering the workforce might not be joining their parents or grandparents, they might be joining their great-grandparents.

Why Are Creative Leaders So Rare? by Navi Radjou

Yesterday's leadership skills will not work in today's fast-moving and evolving world. Only creative leaders who are visionary and empathetic will succeed. Here are five things you can do to succeed as a creative leader:

1. Instead of commanding, coach your team and organization toward success.
2. Don't manage people, empower them. The know-how, experience, and solutions are often out there; it's a matter of helping people discover them.
3. Cultivate respect by giving it, instead of demanding it.
4. Know how to manage both success and failure.
5. Show graciousness in your management rather than greediness. Be humble about your successes and whenever possible, give someone else the opportunity to shine.

Alex Osterwalder on business modelling

Business Models Beyond Profit - Social Entrepreneurship Lecture

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To Change Effectively, Change Just One Thing

By Peter Bregman.
I lost 18 pounds in the past month and a half.
I didn't exercise harder or longer than usual. I didn't read a new diet book supported by evidence and filled with rules and recipes. I didn't eat prepared meals from a diet organization.
I've done all those things in the past and some of them worked but none of them lasted. They were too complicated or too expensive or too cumbersome to continue.
So I made a different decision this time. A much simpler one.
First a little background on losing weight. Every new diet book explains why it's better than all the previous ones. This new plan, the author claims with enthusiasm, holds the key to losing weight and keeping it off forever. It will succeed where the others have failed.

When Individuals Don’t Matter by Michael J. Mauboussin

“If you watch an ant try to accomplish something, you’ll be impressed by how inept it is,” said Stanford biologist Deborah Gordon in a National Geographic article about swarm theory. “Ants aren’t smart…ant colonies are.” If you’re familiar with the ideas behind the wisdom of crowds and swarm intelligence, you’re probably nodding knowingly. Under the right conditions, groups—whether ant colonies, markets, or corporations—can be smarter than any of their members. In these complex adaptive systems, hard-to-predict behaviors emerge from the interaction of the individuals.