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Pitching Ideas

August 27th, 2003 | Comments Off | Posted in Sales

“More important than having a great idea is figuring out how to sell it to the boss — especially in a culture that’s not too keen to accept your idea. How to do it? A couple of academics from Stanford and the University of California at Davis looked at how ideas are successfully sold in, of all places, Hollywood. Selling a script or a movie may not be all that close to selling your idea for a new product or marketing campaign. But the lessons ring true, no matter what kind of idea you’re peddling.”

Lack Direction? Evaluate Your Brain’s C.E.O.

August 27th, 2003 | Comments Off | Posted in Life

“You can be truly smart and still struggle in life if you lack the ability to plan, organize time and space, initiate projects and see them through to completion, and you cannot resist immediate temptations in favor of later better rewards.”

Pitching Ideas

August 27th, 2003 | Comments Off | Posted in Entrepreneurship

“More important than having a great idea is figuring out how to sell it to the boss — especially in a culture that’s not too keen to accept your idea. How to do it? A couple of academics from Stanford and the University of California at Davis looked at how ideas are successfully sold in, of all places, Hollywood. Selling a script or a movie may not be all that close to selling your idea for a new product or marketing campaign. But the lessons ring true, no matter what kind of idea you’re peddling.”

Creativity Regained

August 27th, 2003 | Comments Off | Posted in Business

“Robert Redford happens to be a movie star, but he’s the star who founded an enterprise that changed an industry. Along the way, this very successful entrepreneur developed theories of innovation and creativity that will inspire you and improve your business, too.”

How do you sell an idea at work?

August 22nd, 2003 | Comments Off | Posted in Sales

“It’s an interesting and important question for people hell bent on making a difference. In ‘What’s The Big Idea’ by Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak, there some great advice. The best of it comes from Mitzi Wertheim, a social anthropologist by training who works in — of all places — the U.S. Department of Defense as a ‘change consultant.’”

The real measure of marketing

August 22nd, 2003 | Comments Off | Posted in Marketing

“CEOs have a right (and a pressing need) to know what they are getting for those shareholders’ dollars that are spent on marketing. Every P&L expense in the enterprise is measured by its R.O.I., with one exception: marketing. This is true even though marketing is a relatively large expenditure (as much as 30 percent of revenue for some companies).”

The real measure of marketing

August 22nd, 2003 | Comments Off | Posted in Marketing

“CEOs have a right (and a pressing need) to know what they are getting for those shareholders’ dollars that are spent on marketing. Every P&L expense in the enterprise is measured by its R.O.I., with one exception: marketing. This is true even though marketing is a relatively large expenditure (as much as 30 percent of revenue for some companies).”

The Perfect Pitch

August 22nd, 2003 | Comments Off | Posted in Marketing

“Attention all CEOs: Time to get your stories straight. In today’s economy, approaching a client without a clear pitch on your company’s value proposition is about as constructive as banking your financial future on stock options. That’s why so many solution providers are reshaping their sales messages around things like technology leadership, business-process improvements and industry-specific expertise.” (More here).

How to Avoid Cracking the Retirement Nest Egg

August 22nd, 2003 | Comments Off | Posted in Life

“As David Colescott approached retirement as a real estate broker in June 1999, he assumed that the stock market would rise by an average of 10 percent a year. Based on that belief, Mr. Colescott, now 68, said he had expected to withdraw 8 percent of his nest egg’s initial value in his first year of retirement and take out slightly larger amounts, to allow for inflation, in subsequent years.”

How to Avoid Cracking the Retirement Nest Egg

August 22nd, 2003 | Comments Off | Posted in Finance/VC

“As David Colescott approached retirement as a real estate broker in June 1999, he assumed that the stock market would rise by an average of 10 percent a year. Based on that belief, Mr. Colescott, now 68, said he had expected to withdraw 8 percent of his nest egg’s initial value in his first year of retirement and take out slightly larger amounts, to allow for inflation, in subsequent years.”

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