While many stories my father told were situated firmly at work or around business interactions, the occasional personal stories he shared, usually with a life lesson, have always been special. One particular story of his experience as an apprentice in Shimla, was the cause of muc … | Continue reading
This week I found myself wondering why we wait for someone’s passing to publicly to praise them or to acknowledge our gratitude. Nearly three months days ago, my father-in-law passed away. The first few days went by in a haze and we had an endless stream of visitors —relatives, … | Continue reading
I’m sure you have many stories that you tell at work and in social settings. Question is do you have them handy? Written down even if it's just four or five words? And do you repurpose and reuse them for different audiences, places and purposes? Here's one about when I threw my l … | Continue reading
Stories are what sell a brand, person, product or service. Good stories usually have a protagonist that the customer can identify with. Great stories are ones that they can make their own and retell! | Continue reading
Each of us have stories like this - personal and professional, sometimes funny other times poignant or even sad. Stories allow us to connect with others and build relationships. Business at the end of the day all about relationships. | Continue reading
One thing I don't talk enough about is all the things that I learn from my students. Here is how my 20-something student coached me through a better way to handle a specific situation her team faced. | Continue reading
Customer delight does not have to be contained only within the product. Little touches whether in packaging design or copy can set the customer experience apart. | Continue reading
Ask yourself who around you, whether a business partner, colleague, mentor or a spouse can hold you to account! Better and cultivate that ecosystem starting today! | Continue reading
Even the best job offer is not a marriage proposal. Much as you want to scream Yes! on the phone, you’ll be happier if you take an hour or a day so that you don’t second guess yourself! | Continue reading
“Measure twice and cut once” is an aphorism that reminds us to “plan and prepare in a careful and thorough manner before acting. [wiktionary]” The origin of the saying lies in carpentry where if you cut a piece of wood too short, it is wasted and if too long, you’d have to cut ag … | Continue reading
Photo by SHVETS production from Pexels Two weeks ago, my class and I embarked on a discussion around co-founders. Do we need co-founders? If so how many? What should we look for in them? Where do w… | Continue reading
Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash This morning as I read Margaret Renkl op-ed titled “I just turned 60, but I still feel 22” it struck me how similar our thoughts were even if our origi… | Continue reading
Do you have a realistic sense of what your business is worth? How much money do you need and want to address your post-sale life? | Continue reading
There are three steps to getting the valuation you seek. Understanding valuations, preparation and running a good process. | Continue reading
As founders the daily grind can get you down so it’s important to keep in mind that these are good times, even if they don’t seem that way RIGHT now. | Continue reading
One of the challenges of teaching lies in helping students identify, confront and hopefully overcome their implicit assumptions and biases. When it comes to teaching innovation, this ranges from as… | Continue reading
It’s hard to be ‘happy’ despite an entrepreneur’s ‘success’ financially or otherwise, if their co-founders or employees don’t get what they want. Here are three simple steps to address this.… | Continue reading
One of the topics that we don’t talk a whole lot about in entrepreneurship is the role of luck. Luck of course can mean very different things to each of us. While commonly people tend to thin… | Continue reading
Each semester as the entrepreneurship class that I teach reaches about midpoint, I find myself talking about storytelling and it’s centrality to business in general and startups in particular… | Continue reading
Yesterday my father would have turned 92. Though my father had worked for 37 years at the same firm—rising from accounting intern to the CEO of multiple group companies—he was my biggest supporter … | Continue reading
I have always been curious about leadership and what makes for good leader. Leadership as with most other things is easy to talk or read about but harder to demonstrate in action. The events of thi… | Continue reading
Presenting data that is breaking (or being projected) is hard. Which is why these two examples, of data presentation on the n-Coronavirus are so refreshing. Check them out and learn from them. | Continue reading
It is important that your innovation, as a solution to a problem is not worse than the problem itself. Lessons we can learn from GE’s attempt to reset their Bluetooth-enabled LED bulbs! | Continue reading
The wife and I snuck away without the kids to the temple town of Kumbakonam, in Tamil Nadu. While visiting living temples dating back the 8th to the 12th c. CE was both awe-inspiring and humbling, … | Continue reading
One of the joys of traveling back to India in the summer is eating great food catching up with friends (and eating great food)! Last summer had its share of good times, but was also filled with its… | Continue reading
Both in startups and large companies—heck in any company—culture is critical to success. This is something that I’ve been waxing about for close to 20 years now. And the criticality of storyt… | Continue reading
Photo Credit: wyliepoon via Compfight cc Last week, my daughter had a question for me about Transformational Leadership. While individually the words make sense, I can’t say I’ve kept u… | Continue reading
Yesterday when I wrote about what can make your pitch deck sizzle, I alluded to the fact that there are excellent pitch decks out there. Rather than have you search for them, I’ve compiled tw… | Continue reading
Once again as I begin meeting with young (two high school sophomores) and not so young (their kids are in high school), the issue of making a short, yet compelling pitch to investors arises. Though… | Continue reading
I’ve been reading Getting to Plan B, by John Mullins and Randy Komisar. In it they discuss how one entrepreneur, while at Stanford B-school was inspired by meeting Carlos Ghosn, Chairman of Nissan … | Continue reading
The end of the year is as good a time as any other to take stock. As I get working on my first full length novel (set in 16th century Vijayanagara, India) and business book (on selling your company… | Continue reading
Having recently traveled overseas, the wife and I have been struggling with jet lag. In an attempt to stay awake, yet warm we snuggled up on the couch and tried to find something good to watch. Mr.… | Continue reading
The family and I had to make an unplanned trip overseas due to a parent’s minor medical emergency. Shutting down our house, packing for travel and all the other many minutiae of last minute t… | Continue reading
Ensuring the success of a new leader or executive requires you to provide them not just ownership, but the knowledge, relationships and authority. | Continue reading
One of the joys of teaching is the opportunity to invite guest speakers who bring their experience and insights alive for the class. The speakers have the added advantage of being a “guest… | Continue reading
I had been planning to write a piece on how folks are getting off of social media particularly Facebook—from the famous such as Om Malik to a lot of 18 to 29-year olds. Even when people choose to s… | Continue reading
Twenty-five years after publicly announcing it, at a party in Cupertino, I’ve finally begun to work on my first mystery novel. The visit to Hampi, which ironically I did many years after I ha… | Continue reading
Canva and Tableau are two easy-to-use yet incredibly powerful tools to improve your marketing effectiveness | Continue reading
Earlier this week I read at least two articles that spoke of how startups in India are having a hard time retaining their employees. One spoke of startups now having higher employee churn than Busi… | Continue reading
Regardless of our job role, one skill every one of us needs is storytelling. The truth is we are all born with it, but let’s just say some of us are a little rougher around the edges. Having … | Continue reading
As with so many other folks, I’m trying to spend less time on my phone and computer reading the news obsessively. Yet there’s ever more great reading out there and accessible in ways w… | Continue reading
“How will your company become a billion-dollar company?” An analyst at a venture capitalist firm, likely a freshly minted MBA, posed this question to me. I tried to keep my temper in ch… | Continue reading
As an entrepreneur, you are likely to face any number of obstacles. Worse yet will be the naysayers around you – people who don’t believe in you or what you are trying to get done. Even… | Continue reading
There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words. Thomas Reid The trouble with most of us who speak in the English language is that we assume that people a… | Continue reading
In an earlier post, I’d shared the insight that separating WHAT it is you want to do (your decision) from WHEN you’d implement it can make the entire decision-making process easier. The… | Continue reading
In order to be an effective communicator, it’s important to be timely, authentic and deliberate with our communications | Continue reading
Culture in organizations has been a favorite topic of mine for many years. The recent discussions of harassment in Uber and Thinkx or the management style of the Trump Organization are all rooted … | Continue reading
“Do you think I should just quit?” This is a question that comes up with surprising frequency. It’s not just prospective entrepreneurs who ask such questions. “Should I fire him?” is another one I … | Continue reading