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In my experience, some of the best businesses have multiple partners, with complementary strengths. Starting and running a business requires many different skills and interests, and not many of us have all of them. For example, I’m an introverted product guy who doesn’t care so much about building Read More

In my role as advisor and mentor to many new entrepreneurs, I often find myself suggesting that they think bigger. I’m a techy at heart, and I love to see real innovation, but too often I see just “copycat” proposals, or at best incremental thinking. For example, I’m not sure the world needs one mo Read More

Success in any business these days requires a constant flow of new and innovative solutions, to keep up with changes in the market, competition, and to attract new customers. Yet in my role as a small business advisor, I still see a singular focus on achieving repeatable processes and “cookie-cutte Read More

You will be pivoting your business in your lifetime, whether you are a new startup, or a mature company like Motorola or IBM. You can count on it and plan for it, or you wait for the next survival crisis brought your way by this rapidly changing world. You can even give it a more elegant name, like Read More

Every entrepreneur and business leader waits too long before really working on the legacy that he wants to leave to society and his family. They realize too late that they don’t really want to be remembered for how many hours they spent on airplanes, how many emails they produced, or even how much Read More

It takes an engaged team, or a group of well-connected teams, to build and run a business today. The days of a single autocratic leader are gone. In my consulting work with small businesses and startups, I find that real teamwork is still a rare commodity. Fortunately, it’s a skill you can start to Read More

The future of work is definitely changing, accelerated by the current pandemic. There is always the next generation of workers coming of age who expect more, as well as the current generation already having the lowest engagement and productivity levels that business has ever seen. It seems they are Read More

The concept of “force multipliers” originally was developed in military science, but certainly applies equally well to business. It refers to multiplication factors that occur when complementary actions or approaches are used together for greater impact. In my role of business advisor to startups, Read More

In my experience as an angel investor for new startups, I’m always surprised by how many entrepreneurs are looking for funding without outside advisors. An experienced Board can give them credibility, as well as advice on the many pitfalls of starting a new company. Especially if you are a first-ti Read More

In my experience as an advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs in business, one of the biggest failures I see is a lack of self-leadership. You can’t lead a business to success, if you can’t lead yourself. I define self-leadership as the capacity to set direction and make decisions, to positively drive Read More