While on Twitter recently this tweet appeared in my timeline by former real estate magnate, now “Shark” investor on ABC’s Shark Tank, Barbara Corcoran: “Mentors are over-rated. I’ve been a mentor to more than 70 businesses I’ve invested in on Shark Tank, and the most successful listen and then do what they please.” I retweeted along with […]
Decision Making
How to Be a Great Product Manager
There are good product managers, and then there are great product managers. What’s the difference? Both good and great product managers (PMs) are more than competent when it comes to the basics, but our research has shown that the top 1% of product manager goes beyond the basics and also do the following: Market Validation: […]
Any Advice Can Be Worthless, or Worse
Ever get bad advice? Sure. We all have in our past. Ever take that advice without question because the person giving it was an investor, a superior in rank, the chairperson of your board? I’ll bet you have at least one story of bad advice taken and being bitten as a result. As one illustration […]
How to Analyze Your Data for Decision-Making
The best type of data analysis takes data and turns it into value from actionable insights. But the road in between is by no means a straight path, and has several pit stops that can derail that end value. In my 1,389 hours of data analysis at Seer (that’s nearly 2 months straight – 14% there, […]
We Claim to Be Data-Driven, Yet We Ignore the Data
Recently, I heard someone say, “We claim to be data driven, yet we ignore the data.” Nothing could be more true of much of what I see in the practice of sales and marketing. We are surrounded by data about what drives sales and marketing effectiveness. Hundreds of market research reports, done by thoughtful researchers […]
Go With Your Gut Not Your Logic
Go with your gut… They say that our intuition is far more effective at decision making than the logical mind. Did you ever have a feeling that you should or should not do something? You may have even said “I have a gut feeling….” When you go with your intuition basically you are going with […]
4 Major Trends Which Improve Business Decisions Today
I still know some entrepreneurs who boast of simply following their gut instincts, rather than listen to anyone or any data, to make strategic decisions. We’ve all worked with autocratic leaders in large companies who seem to thrive in this mode. They all forget or ignore the high-profile failures that have resulted from some single-handed […]
5 Simple Rules for Better Business Decisions
They teach decision sciences in business schools. Those of us doing business, either as entrepreneurs, business owners, or careerists, talk a lot, and think a lot, about business decisions. We all want better business decisions. I’ve taken some of those courses and heard a lot of the talk, and I’ve survived running my own business […]
It’s What You Ask, Not What You Know
A friend recently told me a story that had nothing to do with business, but unintentionally had a great lesson for all of us. He had asked his arborist if he could move a mature tree from one part of his property to another to make room for an addition to his home. “Yes,” replied […]
Why Creating Change Requires an Emotional Connection
Why change? Should you change? Is it time to make a change? If not now, when? These are all questions organizations struggle with all the time. If things are going well, do you really want to rock the boat? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? There is no shortage of companies that had […]
