This website lists and explains every idea generation method I’ve encountered during the past 15 years. It is the result of extensive research; my many sources include books, management journals, websites, academics, consultants and colleagues.
Technorati tags: idea, creativity
When I was in high school, though, I sold knives door to door for a company called Vector Marketing Corporation that sold Cutco Knives. Despite my dislike for sales in general, I was proud of my position and accelled in it. Why? Well I was proud of what I was selling. I didn’t feel ashamed of selling it. In fact I felt a sort of obligation to sell it. This sense of obligation derived mostly from one encounter I had when I first started selling the knives.
Technorati tags: sales, entrepreneurship
Taking out a fold of bills from his wallet, the owner counted out $300, slapped the money into the boy’s hands, and said “Here’s a week’s pay —- now get out and don’t come back!”
Turning to one of the supervisors, he said “How long has that lazy bum been working here anyway?”
Technorati tags: management
Type in “stole my idea” or “taking credit for my work” into a search engine and you’ll get thousands of hits. Clerks at retail chains, programmers, bloggers, middle managers, VPs at major corporations… folks from every line of work get ripped off. Just swing by one of the online work message boards — sites like iworkwithfools.com, toxicboss.com, and fthisjob.com. People get mad — and rightly so. Who was the last person to steal one of your ideas? Coworker? Manager? Underling?
Jeff Clavier (via Peter Caputa):
I am therefore interested in hearing from you guys about startup founders outside the pure social media space whose blog has attracted your attention, and has helped establish the visibility and credibility of the company in a space that is not particularly blogging/RSS savvy.
Technorati tags: blog, startup, technology
Are you a hacker who has thought about one day starting a startup? Then you’re invited to a free, one-day startup school this October 15 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We’ll have range of experts speaking on all the things you need to know to start a company: where to get ideas for startups; what to look for in a co-founder; how to get funding; how to incorporate a company; patent and intellectual property law; how to build something users will like; what can go wrong in a startup; what acquirers look for; and how the acquisition process works.
Damon Darlin (via Barry Moltz):
This year 12.5 million people used Intuit’s (INTU) TurboTax software to prepare their tax returns. Next year the company wants the number to be even larger. So what’s the best way to make that happen? Easy. Intuit asks customers one simple question: Would you recommend this product to friends and family?
I have always been a big fan of being second to market with a product, service or an idea. I find that the first mover advantage can be overcome by a person or company who watches carefully and corrects the mistakes made by the first mover.
Rachel Bridge (via Dane Carlson):
Daniel Ronen, director of Portman Business Consultancy, said that being small could be a positive advantage. “Being a small company means that you can get into markets that are not viable for large businesses.
“Big companies sometimes find that it is just not worth investing in a market because the returns would be too low to justify the effort. But as a small business you generally have a lower cost structure. So where markets are not big enough to support a number of large companies, smaller suppliers of niche products or services can make very good profits.
Technorati tags: niche, marketing, entrepreneurship
Paul Allen (via Dane Carlson):
So how do you convince someone that your idea really will work?
Show them evidence that it is already working. That’s traction.
And show them that the rate at which it is working is accelerating, and therefore, that success will be achieved because the metrics show that they will. That’s trajectory.
Technorati tags: presentation, funding, vc
Ken Dyck 