Leadership

Crocodiles have been called “living fossils.” That is, the species has remained unaltered for vast periods of geologic time. They’ve become so perfectly adapted to their ecological niche that millions […]

Let’s talk about swans. All swans are birds or, more specifically, waterfowl. They are large and sport long, slender necks. They migrate south for the winter, traveling in that eye-catching […]

Benjamin Franklin once wrote in a letter that “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” As much as we admire Franklin’s wit, he forgot […]

Here’s a formula for chaos: Collect a diverse and volatile group of eccentric comedians and comedy writers, and give them a nearly impossible task with a just-barely-possible deadline. Oh, and […]

Reliability and innovation are the twin pillars of survival for any business. But it’s the rare company that’s willing and able to commit to rediscovering the leading edge on a […]

“You will always be looking over your shoulder waiting for somebody to call you out and say, ‘You’re a fraud, you’re an idiot.’ … I still start things and basically […]

What do companies like Hilton, Salesforce, and Wegman’s Food Markets have in common? First, they all have some of the happiest employees in their industries. These three companies made the […]

When we look at some of the companies with notoriously bad customer service, like Comcast, Bank of America, or United Airlines, it could be tempting to say that good customer […]

It doesn’t hurt to be quick, responsive, friendly, efficient, or reliable. But for A. G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, the most important ingredient to making your customers […]

Any business owner wants to make sure they’re giving their customers an ideal experience. Not only are happy customers more likely to be repeat customers, but they can serve as […]

Why should customers buy from you instead of your competitors? That’s the question at the heart of making a sale in a competitive market, says Matt Dixon, Global Head of […]

When it comes to hiring great salespeople, the statistics do not paint a pretty picture. In the U.S., roughly a third of all salespeople leave or are fired from their […]

Every day, humanity generates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Every minute, users are sharing nearly 500,000 tweets, watching more than 4 million YouTube videos, and conducting more than 3.6 million […]

By the time John Paul DeJoria founded John Paul Mitchell Systems, he’d already sold encyclopedias on commission door-to-door, and he understood the importance of persistence in the face of rejection. […]

Culture of a company is like the character of an individual,” says Simon Sinek in his Big Think+ video, “Starting with Why: Build a Culture by Design.” We know that […]

While fewer companies these days rely solely on interviews in deciding who to hire, interviews still have value in that they can reveal the difference between a candidate as a […]

If a new hire is expected to put in 40 hours, 50 hours, or even more at their job, their new position will be their life for as long as […]

Connecting with an audience, as any comic knows, means reading that audience. It’s energetic improv in real time—you need to notice who’s engaged, what’s engaging them, and build on that. […]

“Trust is so important to how we scale an idea. Without that trust, we don’t take risks. And without risk we don’t build that next big thing,” says Nilofer Merchant, […]

You know it. Your employees know it. They’re likely to stay with your company only for just a short while. Two years, four years, seven years max. Yet you both […]

Chairman of JetBlue Joel Peterson considers trust, “smart” trust, a key element in a successful organization. Where there’s trust, a company is free to become a whole greater than the […]

Stanley Tucci has played a lot of different roles on movie sets, both in front of and behind the camera. As a director, though, Tucci stands in the center of […]

It’s probably always been the case that each generation’s creations and preoccupations shape the next generation in unexpected ways, producing young adults who seem nearly incomprehensible to their elders, especially […]

 “Just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it.” In her Big Think+ video, “Empower Your People — Conversational Moves for Engaging Your Team in Creative […]

 Should you find yourself speaking to a group of people and not connecting, you’re stuck in a situation that seemingly benefits no one. For some people it seems to come […]

 You can practically see them slipping away. Yes, they’re still in the conversation with you, at least physically, but you know: The other person has disengaged. Who knows where their […]

 Angie McArthur, CEO of Professional Thinking Partners and the co-author of Collaborative Intelligence, talks about keeping a relationship “clean.” She’s talking about dealing with misunderstandings before they have a chance […]

 Negotiating is often a white-knuckle affair, but the stakes are rarely higher than when the FBI is trying to come to terms with a kidnapper. Chris Voss, now CEO of […]

For a startup, growth is a straightforward matter of scaling up: adding employees, setting up distribution channels, and so on. But, says David Butler in his Big Think+ video “Design […]

 As the world seems to spin ever faster, “agility” has become more than something to which a business might aspire — it’s become an absolute necessity for any company looking […]