Check out this terrific interview with Saks CEO Stephen Sadove in the New York Times. He talks about mentors, valuing people, focusing on processes, and what it takes to be a successful leader. For example:

“I grew up in a world of lots of interesting people, and you really valued learning from them and talking to them. I grew up valuing lots of different kinds of opinions and people of different backgrounds. I was relatively comfortable with adults because we always were entertaining. So you never worried about being uncomfortable in a setting like that, or shy.”

Or this gem:

It’s the people, the leadership, the culture and the ideas that are ultimately driving the numbers and the results… What I try to teach people is, don’t ask the first question in terms of numbers. Let’s talk about the people, let’s talk about the culture, let’s talk about the ideas and the innovation.”

There’s some good stuff here.

Photo by bigcityal (Flickr).

©2010 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.

Today I’m going to urge you to read a post about community. It’s a long post, but it’s an important one. The author looks at the impact of technology on copyright laws and business models, and forces us to look at the elephant in the room. Or, as he says (quoting Cory Doctorow), technology giveth and technology taketh away.

Where’s your community headed?

A brief excerpt:

More than one person has suggested to me that if everything is instantly available online for free, creators will simply stop releasing new material. If this were true, the music industry would have come to a stop over the last ten years. Yet musicians existed before there was a recording industry, and they will continue to exist after the recording industry in its present form has vanished.

Another brief excerpt:

Our cultural and legal battles are more and more turning out to be battles against young people. Besides being ill-advised on moral and spiritual grounds, a battle against the next generation is an obvious strategic blunder; young people have the insurmountable advantage of time on their side. They are going to emerge victorious.

Seriously, this post is worth reading.

Disclosure: The author, PeaceLove (aka, Jonathan), is my brother. But I’m sending you to his blog not because he’s related to me but because I think he’s framed a really big issue really well.

Photo by digitalART2.

©2010 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.

Why do workshifters “dare to be different”? And what implications might this have for innovation across the business landscape? For today’s food for thought, read my inaugural post for Workshifting.com.

And thanks to Justin Levy for inviting me to become a regulator contributor. I’m excited to be joining A.J. Leon, Melissa Leon, and the rest of the stellar Workshifting crew.

©2010 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.

During the IABC/Washington panel discussion on 2010 trends, I posed the following question: Is 2010 the year we break down silos? In retrospect, I asked the wrong question.

Breaking down silos is critical, but it’s not about whether we do it–it’s about how. In the communications world, I’m finally hearing more conversation around “integrated” again, but I still see media separated from PR separated from marketing within organizations. Agencies are often worse (think digital practice groups, for example).

When will companies be ready to stop organizing their operations around tasks? And how might this new look take form?

Photo by accent on eclectic (Flickr).

©2010 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.

As if I didn’t have enough to read already, I’ve added a few new blogs into my Google Reader recently. Mostly focused on business and technology, but also one great new find on entrepreneurship.

If you haven’t bookmarked (or subscribed to) the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, here are three reasons to check it out:

1. The focus is global. While much of what I read is looking at U.S. policies and activities, this blog covers the world. So recent posts have featured stats from the OECD and developments in Egypt, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.
2. A solid foundation is key. While there is always a temptation to jump right into how to do something, having the right policies in place to foster innovation matters. This blog focuses on the policy side. Not always fun, but fundamentally important.
3. The authors are smart, and they write well. Talking about why Global Entrepreneurship Week matters, they write: It’s not just a collection of concurrent networking, ideas competitions, and mentoring events designed to spur young people to consider entrepreneurship. It’s also affirmation that upstream there is a larger pool of innovative entrepreneurs about to enter the world stage just when they’re needed most.

This is good stuff.

©2010 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.

A double-decker second look covers two weeks of top posts, surveys, and other news that I have read and/or tweeted about that you may not have seen. As the name implies, I think they deserve a second look:

• Netflix, Innovation, and ROI: The second place team in the Netflix $1 million contest lost the money, but their search for a better predictive model yielded huge insights. Great article looks at why companies spent millions on the Netflix contest and the innovation payoff.
• Social Media Side Trips: Paul Chaney, author of The Digital Handshake, talks with Toby Bloomberg about social media. A sample: If social media is a road trip, then “the ‘side trips’ have to do with the people we meet and the relationships we forge along the way.”
• Business Loans, Personal Collateral: Should you use personal assets as collateral for a business loan? While it might be unavoidable, you need to negotiate carefully, borrow only what’s essential, and recognize the risks. Open Forum article looks at how to manage those risks. Shout out to Gini Dietrich for alerting me to this one.
• Mobile trends: Rather than another post about apps and geo-location, the Economist takes an in-depth look at how mobile technology is changing the rules in the developing world. Key trends: availability, Chinese telecom companies, and the rise of mobile services.
• Negotiating Tips: Three keys to good negotiations–empathy, win-win, and it’s not about contracts–by Palo Alto software founder Tim Berry.

©2010 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.

Not surprisingly for a business conference, the state of small business was the topic of much discussion at GrowSmartBiz. The anchor: the Small Business Success Index, a survey of the competitiveness of small businesses (defined as privately-owned, with 100 or fewer employees, and/or contributing at least 50 percent of the owner’s household income).

The report is a useful snapshot of why some companies soar while others flounder. The survey measured success across six areas: access to capital, marketing & innovation, workforce, customer service, computer technology, and compliance.

Here are a few of my takeaways:

• Only 24 percent of small businesses are “highly competitive” (with 28 percent marginally so). Those that are most successful tend to have multiple owners, are more likely to be women-owned, and are more likely to be mature businesses.
• Small business owners are generally satisfied with their career choices (i.e., we’re a pretty happy group).
• Small business owners are typically optimistic about their long-term prospects (65 percent), although the short-term outlook appears more mixed (with 38 percent thinking the economy will improve in the next 12 months and 28 percent thinking it will decline).
• Plugged in businesses are more competitive, which makes sense when you realize that only 53 percent of small businesses have a Web site. More use e-mail, but this suggests they’re relying on Hotmail, Yahoo, and other provider accounts instead of securing a domain of their own.
• Companies who report a social media presence: 17 percent (up from 12 percent six months earlier).

The entire report is short (6 pages), but the insights seem to reinforce the fact that innovation and business savvy are key. What’s your takeaway?

Photo by mkreyness (Flickr).

©2010 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.

Each week I’m highlighting 3 or 4 posts, surveys, and other news that I have read and/or tweeted about that you may not have seen. As the name implies, I think they deserve a second look.

Here’s your second look for this week:

• The Talent Innovation Imperative: This is a must read for anyone interested in how organizations foster talent. The article looks at four main priorities for a 21st century model: differentiated capabilities, performance acceleration, leadership development, and the fostering of a talent culture. Shout out to Colette Cote for alerting me to this one.
• 100 Blogging Tips: The first tip in Dragos Roua‘s terrific list: Keep an Idea Incubator. Tip 2: Make a Mindmap of Your Blog. This is one of those rare posts you will want to bookmark and revisit periodically for inspiration.
• Winning Value Propositions: Anthony Tjan discusses four value propositions that work (best quality, best price, must have, want to have).

©2010 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.

Each week I’m highlighting 3 or 4 posts, surveys, and other news that I have read and/or tweeted about that you may not have seen. As the name implies, I think they deserve a second look.

Here’s your second look for this week:

• Embracing Small Innovations: A cautionary tale from Fast Company about innovation and the folly of rejecting ideas while waiting for that one big innovation.
• Cloud Computing’s Dark Side: Sure, Google Docs has its advantages, but did you know you legally have less privacy protection when it comes to information stored on a third-party server?
• Outsourcing Wisely: Terrific piece from Business Week Small Business about assessing your strengths, knowing your limits, and bringing in people to help you achieve business success.

©2010 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.

TIME Magazine has a terrific article about how Twitter is changing us. It’s well-written, and author Steven Johnson looks at Twitter not just as a fad tool for celebrities, but also as a platform that is changing how we are interconnected. A sample:

But watch a live mass-media event with Twitter open on your laptop and you’ll see that the futurists had it wrong. We still have national events, but now when we have them, we’re actually having a genuine, public conversation with a group that extends far beyond our nuclear family and our next-door neighbors.

What’s most interesting to me, however, is how Johnson cites Twitter, TiVo, Wikipedia, America Online, Amazon, and a few other companies and products to make a point about American innovation:

We didn’t build the Prius or the Wii, but if you measure global innovation in terms of actual lifestyle-changing hit products … the U.S. has been lapping the field for the past 20 years.

Johnson then goes on to talk about the difference between building the mousetrap and perfecting it. It’s thought-provoking stuff.

©2010 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.