"...keeping you
great"
HEADLINES:
URGENT: Calling all Fans of PankajGhemawat
-- all the YPOers that heard IESE/Harvard's PankajGhemawat keynote the 60th
anniversary celebration in Barcelona,
please take 1 minute NOW to vote for him as Professor of the Year. And all
other fans, please vote as well by 11am ET today; 5pm GMT.
Note: Rest of Insight Same as Tuesday -- second chance to read
it (especially those post-Thanksgiving festivities!).
Gratitude at Work -- Toby Jenkins, CEO of Australia-based
Bluewire Media, notes "we've been inspired (by Barrett Ersek's gratitude
video) to implement gratitude as a key part of our Daily, Weekly, Monthly and
Quarterly rhythms. Here's a blog post Toby wrote on their initiative -
Gratitude At Work. One key is encouraging peers to show gratitude with each
other for living the company's values and brand promises - a powerful way to
keep your culture strong. And
here's a link to Barrett's complimentary 15 minute presentation on the
importance of Gratitude - something powerful to re-watch during this
Thanksgiving season in the US - just register and enjoy.
Businessperson of the Year -- ...and Fortune
Magazine's winner is Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. Driving revenues up another 31%
this past year, Bezos has some unusual management practices, including what he
calls "narratives" - six-page memos that his senior team read in silence
together!!
Take seven minutes (it's long but worth it) and read this fantastic
narrative on Bezos and Amazon.
Communal Reading -- Notes Fortune, "Bezos says the act of communal reading
guarantees the group's undivided attention. Writing a memo is an even more
important skill to master. 'Full sentences are harder to write,' Bezos says.
'They have verbs. The paragraphs have topic sentences. There is no way to write
a six-page, narratively structured memo and not have clear thinking.' This is
exactly why we at Gazelles discourage leaders from sending around big documents
for people to read ahead of time. Better to bring it to the meeting and have
everyone read it right then and there - and then debate, dialogue, and decide.
Better to be Kind than Clever -- known as a tough,
straight-talking CEO, Bezos, nevertheless, learned a lesson about kindness vs.
cleverness - a story Bezos shared about a time when he made his grandmother cry.
This and a classic Panera Bread story in Bill Taylor's
HBR blog from August - worth 2 minutes to read.
When Not Growing Is Growth -- Home Depot has seen its stock
skyrocket 70% this year after pulling out of China and halting the expansion of
more stores. Sometimes the best growth strategy for 2013 is to not grow, but to
get your own house in order first.
Take 3 minutes to read how Frank Blake, CEO of Home Depot, along with
Starbucks and Ford, has bucked the trend to grow, for the time being, to affect
a major turnaround of the business.
4-Hour Chef -- Tim Ferriss's new book was released today -
which has less to do with cooking and more about how to master/learn anything. I
must downloaded and look forward to reading over the long Thanksgiving holiday
weekend - probably a 4 hour read!
Thanksgiving Gifts -- Thanksgiving in the US - a perfect time to thank customers for making
a great decision to do business with you. And what better gift over the next
month of holidays than a book (put a box in your trunk and pass out at biz
luncheons and customer visits with a personal note in each) - maybe one of the
top 5 or
The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time - something quick to read
that will spur ideas for their own business and provide important historical
information on 18 of the greatest business decisions ever made. Bulk discounts
available.