MBA Geek

A great post on Seth Godin’s blog lists a number of random ideas worth reading. Here are my top 5:

• Waiting for inspiration is another way of saying that you’re stalling. You don’t wait for inspiration, you command it to appear.
• The hard part is finishing, so enjoy the starting part.
• Powerful organizations adore the status quo, so expect no help from them if your idea challenges the very thing they adore.
• Seek out apostles, not partners. People who benefit from spreading your idea, not people who need to own it.
• Are you a serial idea-starting person? If so, what can you change to end that cycle? The goal is to be an idea-shipping person.

I have a couple of books he published and I like how they inspire great ideas, which are really simple and intuitive. Recommended reading for anyone interested in making their ideas work for them.

Read more on Seth’s blog

Interesting post on Seth Godin’s blog entitled Apparent Risk and Actual Risk which talks about how people can perceive situations as being more risky than they actually are, and sometimes end up choosing to go down more risky paths just because of this perception.

So, what drives this perception. I put it down to two different factors. First of all, it’s easy to overlook certain factors when performing your personal “risk evaluation”. Assumptions and ignorance are the worst two factors here and can lead to a shortfall in evaluation. The other problem is jumping on the bandwagon and accepting “common knowledge”. It’s amazing how many misconceptions make their way to the mainstream; one of my favourites is that celery is a natural fat burner because it consumes more calories to digest than it contains.

Anyway, morale of the story. Next time you think about a “risky” decision, look at if from a different angle and check whether it’s really risky.

A great post on Seth Godin’s blog reminds us of the importance of Strategic Thinking when looking at your plans. Seth comments about how easy it is to get lost in focusing on tactical moves, while moving away from (or not having articulated) their strategic intentions.

It’s the old adage of missing the wood for the trees, tactical decision are more tangible than strategic intentions and thus more seductive. It’s also easier to measure tactical actions, thus giving the impression that more is being done. But strategy is what needs to drive these tactical actions. Without a cohesive strategy that has been conceived to move the organisation forward, there’s a massive risk of drifting away from the true course the company should be heading down. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling plasma mounts out of your garage or directing a multinational organisation; if you haven’t articulated your goals and are not using them to drive your actions, you’re heading nowhere fast.

Wherever I go, I always try to think what I could do to improve a business. I’ve been doing it for years and now that it comes naturally to me, I even do it while I’m on holiday. So, as I’m holidaying in DisneyLand Paris at the moment, I couldn’t but think up something I would do to improve the place. And here it is.

What is Disney’s most powerful advertising medium? TV? Print Ads? Movies? All wrong, the people who enjoy their entertainment products and pass on the message to their friends. This viral element is immensely powerful and as Seth Godin would say, if something is remarkable enough (read Purple Cow), people will talk about it. It’s advice that applies to any business, whether you’re an Outer Banks rentals outfit or a multinational like Disney. So why don’t you encourage people to speak about you.

I would provide free Wifi in their hotels and their parks (there’s paid-for Internet in the hotels, but nothing in the parks) so that people can share their images and experiences in real time with friends and family around the world. I would enhance my website, so that photos taken in the parks (or even live streams) can be watched by people around the world. I’m having a whale of a time here and am eager to share it with my friends, so why don’t you just make it easier for me?

I’ve almost got to the end of Seth Godin’s “Tribes“. I had tried buying this on Amazon some time back, but my order had got cancelled. So it was quite lucky that I came across an audio book version that Seth is giving away for free. I downloaded the player a couple of weeks ago and had it on my phone, but I’ve been away on holiday and had the opportunity to get to listen to it.

It’s a pretty inspirational text that’s really brilliant in its simplicity. I love the fact that after you read some of Seth’s texts you end up thinking how simple the ideas are and marvelling about how you didn’t think of them yourself. It’s all down to framing the ideas and Seth has a great way of decorating his ideas with memorable anecdotes and examples from real life. It’s also great how he covers a range of different topics; from marketing down to shiny new copper kitchen sinks; well, so the metaphor goes. Seriously I started following Seth as a marketing guru, but this book is much more than that; it’s an essential management and change text that can help you both in your career and your personal life.

Anyway; if you haven’t had a chance to get your hands on the book you can download the Tribes audio book here.

I’ve been asked where to subscribe to some great business blogs, so I thought I’d make a Top 5 list of my own. Here’s some interesting reading:

• Freakonomics: You’ve read the book, now subscribe to the blog. Educational and entertaining. If you enjoyed the book, you’ll find the blog quite interesting too, as it takes the same tone with a number of different subjects, while managing to keep it quite personal too.
• The Beehive: A great blog by Steve Bee, the head of Pensions Strategy at Scottish Life. “In a fusion of his two main interests, pensions and cartooning, Steve achieved notoriety some years ago by becoming the only person ever to have submitted a paper in evidence to a Commons Select Committee in cartoon-strip format. However, his main claim to fame lies in the field of pensions where he is acknowledged as one of the leading experts on pension developments in the UK today.”
• Seth’s Blog: I’ve mentioned Seth Godin a number of times in this blog already, so his blog must also get a mention here. Seth is a marketeer and innovator and his blog posts are always full of insight. If you only check out one blog a day, make this the one you read.
• Marginal Revolution: As you can imagine from the name, this is an economics blog, written by Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, two influential economists and writers. It’s quite whimsical, but informative nonetheless, so it makes it onto my recommended list.
• Bigger isn’t always better: My final pick is an interesting blog by Bob Tomasko, who always has interesting insight. I find his posts pretty thought provoking, so I’d recommend you check it out.

I’ve tried to pick some top blogs from a category I’m familiar with, but you might want to echo this post with some picks from your niche, whether it’s social media or commercial real estate. Just find 5 blogs you like and recommend them to your readers.