‘United Breaks Guitars’ Viral Video Maker On Another Consumer Mission – Courant.com
Dave Carroll is one of life’s nice guys. He’s also a pretty good musician. Having created the viral sensation of the United Breaks Guitars video (11.6 million hits and counting) that told More »
The rise of the NBN
From Qatar to Australia the talk has been of government driven, national broadband networks. Having created one from scratch with the Ventura Team partners – it’s an extraordinary complex undertaking and requires More »
One Day MBA book to be published in April
The definitive, pragmatic guide for understanding and managing businesses in the toughest of circumstances, because it has never been more important to ensure that you understand the fundamentals of business and can More »
Business case craziness
Company X decided to negotiate for a few extra million dollars off their network capex. The delay cost them a loss of $50 million in revenue over five years. Changing the timing More »
Project Management Survival now available in Latvian and Chinese
I am happy to say that Project Management Survival is now available in Chinese as well as Latvian. The Polish version seems stuck in the works somewhere. Good job I wasn’t managing More »
‘United Breaks Guitars’ Viral Video Maker On Another Consumer Mission – Courant.com
Dave Carroll is one of life’s nice guys. He’s also a pretty good musician. Having created the viral sensation of the United Breaks Guitars video (11.6 million hits and counting) that told the tale of United Airlines breaking his guitar through careless handling, he showed his principles by not accepting their offer (after the video went viral) and posting another message to reduce personal criticism of one employee. Those are human characteristics way beyond any self-aggrandising, master of the universe style business person.
Dave’s now started a consumer website (as well as shortly publishing his book and helping companies understand the crazy world of social media). More on the well named, gripevine.com below.
‘United Breaks Guitars’ Viral Video Maker On Another Consumer Mission – Courant.com.
PS It’s vaguely close to priceline.com in name but will we see Bill Shatner take a bow? Probably not (sadly).
The rise of the NBN
From Qatar to Australia the talk has been of government driven, national broadband networks. Having created one from scratch with the Ventura Team partners – it’s an extraordinary complex undertaking and requires careful setting up. Anyone can waste money, but using national resources wisely and getting low cost broadband to the masses is the objective.
We’ll be talking more about this topic soon but the picture shows Doha, which looks like becoming the most dynamic place in the GCC. It was fascinating to see people working away like ants from the dizzy heights of a major tower.
One Day MBA book to be published in April
The definitive, pragmatic guide for understanding and managing businesses in the toughest of circumstances, because it has never been more important to ensure that you understand the fundamentals of business and can adapt your business strategy to succeed in these uncertain times.
One-Day MBA, a brand new book from ICSA and Winmark Europe, provides you with everything you need to gain the necessary skills for creating winning strategies and suggests practical steps to allow you to immediately apply them to your business. It contains all the essential topics covered in a first-class MBA, including Strategy, Marketing, Finance, Product Innovation, Management, Leadership, Diagnosing Organisations, Project Management and Change Management. It combines theoretical approaches with real-world experience from seasoned professionals.
Business case craziness
Company X decided to negotiate for a few extra million dollars off their network capex. The delay cost them a loss of $50 million in revenue over five years. Changing the timing of capex payments took an NPV of 7 million on a project up to 45 million. There’s too much theoretical stuff going on and not enough pragmatic thinking.
Real innovation requires real customers
Never work with idiots and…..people you can’t get on with.
Ten years ago, I had a discussion with a friend who was a serious rower. He's not Sir Steve Redgrave but understands what it takes to win. His assertion was that teams don't have to like each other to perform. In fact they can downright hate each other and still do the job. It was alleged that Eric Cantona would never pass to striker Andy Cole at Manchester United for example.
At the time I wasn't convinced that the sporting metaphor could translate to business. I'm certain now – he was wrong.
Unfair advantages – why technology startups need them
I love the phrase “unfair advantage.” Peter Crouch is a striker at Stoke who towers over defenders and so gets more than his fair share of headers. I always look for the same thing in startups (and I don’t mean tall people).
So what can these advantages be?
Project management at the borders – why milestones count
I was at the airport recently with a business partner. The check in girl was looking perplexed as she could not find my reservation. The problem was that my partner told me to buy a return flight and I did – in other word the flight back from Vienna, assuming he had bought the outbound flight. Sadly, his idea of a return flight meant both ways! I made the flight but it’s a real example of what besets projects all the time.
Project Management Survival now available in Latvian and Chinese
I am happy to say that Project Management Survival is now available in Chinese as well as Latvian. The Polish version seems stuck in the works somewhere. Good job I wasn’t managing it then 
Startups and the trials of being an entrepreneur
I think this should be the motto for entrepreneurs and people involved in startups…
It is not the critic who counts,
nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
I think this should be the motto for entrepreneurs…
