How Badgeville leverages company culture![]()
Every prospective new hire at Badgeville has a homework assignment, designed in part to determine quickly whether the person gets things accomplished or makes excuses, says CEO and co-founder Kris Duggan. Shared companywide goals, a list of values and a commitment to personal growth have helped the company attract and keep a productive team, he says. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (3/9)
The importance of culture and vision at Duarte
Nancy Duarte has built her communications company, Duarte Inc., over 15 years into a respected firm that has done work for brands such as Twitter and HP. In this interview, Duarte discusses how she communicates her vision and maintains her company's core values. "[W]e've gone into high gear making sure to take as much care in managing the culture as we do all of our other operational functions," she said. TheDailyMuse.com (3/8)
![]() | Avoiding the Shoebox: Managing Expenses in Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
Small businesses need to efficiently control costs and optimize cash flow, but how, and what role does automation play in this process? This whitepaper helps answers some of those questions. Download the free whitepaper. |
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| Strategic Management | Sponsored By |
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You're CEO of a startup; what should you do next?
CEOs who start companies often find that the skills they used to get going aren't those needed to run the company in the next phase, writes Firas Raouf, a venture capitalist. Such CEOs have three options: develop the skills they need, hire executives with the requisite skills or recruit a replacement CEO and find a new mission. OpenView Blog (3/6)
![]() | IT Security's Worst Enemy
Organizations across the world continue to strive for greater agility, efficiency and innovation. But they also need to cut costs, improve productivity and become more competitive. This white paper investigates what new IT security approach is required to effectively respond to the changing threat landscape and new ways of working. Learn more. |
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How would you prefer to fix a severely broken management team?
| Keep most folks but replace problem players | ![]() 81.70% |
| Keep everyone and fix individual and team performance | ![]() 9.96% |
| Remove the entire team and start anew with fresh players | ![]() 8.33% |
Surgical strike: Problems are never in short supply, and they're usually a function of a dysfunctional team member. Many of you prefer to go after the root cause and remove the problem player. Just make sure before you take the person out that you've got the true root cause of the issue. Sometimes, the organization is rejecting the change agent that is needed, and it's really the rest of the team that's the problem. Do your own thorough and independent assessment of the team's problems before taking action. -- Mike Figliuolo is managing director of ThoughtLeaders and author of "One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership."
Discuss the results.
Do you find yourself to be more of a critic or a creator?
![Vote]() | I'm a critic -- other people build things and I give feedback and direction to them |
![Vote]() | I'm a creator -- I lead the building of new things in our organization |
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Brazilian roots pay off for granite co-founders
Marco Pereira and Vinny Tavares started Pacific Shore Stones eight years ago, gambling that the pricey granite slabs they import from Brazil will be good enough to sell in the U.S. The company made $26 million last year while more than doubling revenue over three years, a success the partners attribute largely to their understanding of the market. "It's a very different culture down there; it's very relationship-oriented. And the fact that we speak Portuguese -- that we can connect with owners and their families -- helps us reach them on that personal level," Pereira says. Inc. online (free registration) (3/11)
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| Engage. Innovate. Discuss. |
6 lessons in the aftermath of Yahoo's telecommuting memo![]()
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer ended telecommuting as one of a series of changes designed to improve office culture and spur innovation, Dana Theus writes. Mayer was right to take a stand and have managers communicate the news privately to affected workers first, Theus writes, but the memo was not culture-driven or sensitive to affected employees, she writes. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership (3/11)
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SmartBrief's inside look at #SXSW
SmartBrief is attending the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, with tweeting @SmartBrief and blogging at SmartBlogs. Here's some of our coverage so far.
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The tales of NYC sanitation workers
Cities need sanitation workers to survive, but they've largely toiled invisibly until now. Cultural anthropologist and author Robin Nagle studied New York City's sanitation department for more than a decade and even worked on a crew for two years -- experiences she details in the book "Picking Up." Pacific Standard magazine (March-April 2013)
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Do not mistake good marketing for a new and innovative business model."
-- Jamie Quint, Lookcraft founder, writing at his blog
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