A dumb idea

The same person who defined and attested the concept of shareholder value and how one should go after it goes against his own words and calls it a dumb idea today.

"On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world,” he said. “Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy . . . Your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products."

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Branding Lessons

"Focus on small group of expert users who make extreme demands of your product.  Keep exceeding the expectations of this small group of users.  When these experts love your product, they will recommend it.  Lots of casual consumers will notice and be attracted to your brand.  They’ll eventually account for more sales volume than the experts.  But even when the new consumers account for most of your sales volume, keep designing your products for those experts.  In other words, always shoot for dead center on your target."

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NSE Flash crash

NSE saw a flash crash today. Are the regulators watching?

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The questions that arent asked in interviews

What is it that you are looking for in your next job (pick one)?

1. More Money
2. Better Benefits
3. Different Culture
4. Growth and Opportunity

There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer.  Rather, the interviewee’s answer will reveal what motivates them in the workplace.  Now, the magic of the question isn’t the answer, but how the answer matches or contrasts your company’s culture and environment.

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Normal Distribution : Performance grading bell curve

Yet another post bashing the Great Intellectual Fraud as Nassim Nicholas Taleb would put it.

"The problem with organizations that have only adopted the bell curve — and not the rest of the integrated process — is that they end up forcing differentiation by the numbers. Managers start with the formula instead of performance. This formulaic approach reverses the basic assumption that all people have the capacity to achieve stretch performance and continue to grow and develop. Instead, focusing on the curve gives the demoralizing message that only a few people can be successful, and the rest will be average or less. And if managers expect their people to perform at average levels (or worse), they will. It’s a reverse Pygmalion Principle: People will perform downward to meet the lowered expectations. If they know that true performance and achievement will not make a difference in their ratings and their future, why bother? And for those that do want to really achieve and make a difference, they will look for an organization that is more like GE and will truly reward stretch performance."

Link here