High-level conceptual thinking is a critically important skill for successful business leaders. This skill consists primarily of the process of observation and logic to form concepts of increasing integration and complexity. When done right, lower-level concepts become embedded in higher-level concepts, with each rising conceptual level being an integration of appropriate and valid lower-level concepts. […]
We are all victims of far too many unnecessary and meaningless meetings. While managers always complain about this scourge of corporate life, they are themselves commonly the reason for bad meeting behaviour. Rising through the corporate ranks sometimes appears to be a license for engaging in and promoting such disruptive, unproductive, and costly behaviour.
While working in the Corporate Planning & Development division at Aetna Canada with SVP Dobri Stojsic in the early 1990s, our small team of strategists was charged with developing a customer service strategy for the organization that would help Aetna become “the recognized leader in service to targeted financial intermediaries and group sponsors.” This was […]
Shortly after completing my Fast-Track MBA at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Management in 1992 (now Rotman School of Management), I was invited to address the new incoming Fast-Track class to share my experiences and observations.
Having completed my book The Business of Walt Disney and the Nine Principles of His Success and building a website, I’ve been able to spend time this spring and summer between work assignments catching up on some reading in areas of professional and personal interest.
Looking back at the long and varied career of Walt Disney, it seems that almost everything he touched – from Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse to Disneyland and Florida’s Walt Disney World – resulted in success. Walt Disney surely had the golden touch. The truth isn’t quite as kind. Walt wasn’t always right […]
One of the attributes that made Walt Disney unique amongst movie studio heads in Hollywood was that he was both a businessman and an artist. Walt worked everyday with the sensitivity of an artist and the hardheadedness of an entrepreneurial business owner, leading and directing his artistic and technical staff to create high-quality entertainment that […]
I just learned about something called The Amazon Doctrine, which explains why I love amazon so much. The company’s leaders and guiding minds are committed to treating customers right. They invest, learn, and continually adapt to win and keep customers. They help me acquire knowledge, entertainment, and other solutions-oriented products to make me a more productive and […]
It has long been recognized that businesses survive when they create and deliver solutions at a profit that customers desire and will pay for by means of voluntary exchange. Business success is ultimately in the hands of consumers. In this sense, the customer is king. The choices made by customers decide which businesses will succeed […]
Didier Ghez, one of the foremost Disney researchers and prolific author of dozens of important books on Walt Disney Studio-related history, is first out of the blocks with a review of my recent book dealing with the business aspects of Walt Disney’s career. The review appeared today at Ghez’s Disney History blog, The Disney History blog is […]
In doing research for a 1955 article for Woman’s Day magazine to correspond with the opening of Disneyland, writer Don Eddy spent time with Walt at the Disney studio and the park. He summed up Walt’s “special secret” to making dreams come true with “four C’s. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy.” Eddy wrote: “From his […]
I am a huge fan of the value and effectiveness of the research and writings of management science pioneer Elliott Jaques. Jaques conducted organizational research for 50 years, culminating in an management system he called Requisite Organization. One of the most impactful management books in my education and practice is a book written by Jaques and […]