My Son Is A PhD, Not the Kind of Doctor Who Helps People
The way the medical system is today, the traditional family doctor (now your "primary physician") can't do very much! The minor stuff is handled by a physician's assistant, who is empowered to treat patients and write prescriptions, and the major
Overhead
Large organizations (and small ones) have bureaucracies, overhead, which eat into profit. Some of it is needed, much of it is not. I believe entire human resource departments, for example, are simply unnecessary overhead. The problem is that many solo consultants
Do They Have Budget?
Many people I coach are flummoxed that what they believed was complete agreement with the buyer fell to pieces when the buyer sees the fee for the first time—even modest fees. Some feel betrayed, others feel like failures. Whenever you're dealing
The “Fix” Is Out
We are inculcated to "fix" things, solve problems, restore poor performance to prior, acceptable performance. Forget about it. When you're with a buyer, attempting to fix something will: Imply you can solve something quickly that the (stupid) buyer has struggled with for months. Take
Towels and Class
I'm at a luxury hotel in Puerto Rico where the staff is quite pleasant and the setting lovely. The food is good, the rooms well appointed. Yet at the pool and beach, they treat you like a towel thief. You need
Increasing Fees, Decreasing Labor
Technology companies, and Apple in particular, are increasingly providing bare bones instructions with their products. Generally, they don't say much more than "Welcome to your new MacBook," you choose a language, and that's that. This is true for their entire
Value Follows Fees
The conventional wisdom is that the more value that's perceived, the higher fee you can charge. Of course, I'm going to provide a different picture. The more people pay, the more they perceive high value. In consumer products, cheaper alternatives break more
Just Tell Me What I Need To Know
When I ask the guy who takes care of our trees a question about pruning, he proceeds to tell me the history of trees. I remember when I'd ask my college professor why we use English Common Law, and he's
Veer
We know how to solve problems, and we even know how to innovate. But have we mastered the ability to make the most out of unexpected events? Many people call this "opportunism." I call it "veer," because it's a deviation from