The Customer Is Not Always Right, But They Do Have All the Answers

The Customer Is Not Always Right, But They Do Have All the Answers: The old adage "the customer is always right" is completely wrong. The reason is simple: customers lie all the time. They might lie to try and get a better price. They might tell you they're willing to pay for things they are not. They might even tell you there are all kinds of new competitors when there are none. They might also tell you everything is going great 24 hours before they cancel your contract. These might be lies, partial truths, or they might be misinformed attempts at truth. Who knows?

Taking Time Out: Six Steps To Doing Nothing And Accomplishing A Lot

Taking Time Out: Six Steps To Doing Nothing And Accomplishing A Lot: Step #1—Eliminate everything but the most essential.

Why Managers Fail Their Teams - And What To Do About It

Why Managers Fail Their Teams - And What To Do About It: “Teamwork” is the mantra of today’s workplace – but too few executives know how to manage and support it. That’s the conclusion of Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, author of the new Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy. For starters, she says, the fast-paced demands of modern corporate life have rendered stable, carefully-selected, long-term teams obsolete: “We often don’t have the time and luxury to get it just right before the moment has passed,” she says. Instead, teams have yielded to a more fluid, ad hoc series of relationships – “teaming,” in which groups come together for short-term projects, often crossing geographical or other boundaries.

7 Tips For A Better Retirement

7 Tips For A Better Retirement: What retirees can do now for a better retirement later.

Why Entrepreneurs Succeed - and You Can, Too

Why Entrepreneurs Succeed - and You Can, Too: All it takes to become an entrepreneur is a big idea and a million dollars ? right? Len Schlesinger, president of Babson College and co-author of Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future, argues that?s a pernicious myth ? and it may be harming your career. With lifetime employment long gone, every employee needs to take responsibility for their own career and develop an entrepreneurial mindset: ?Entrepreneurship is a skill that enables people to effectively cope with the uncertainty and unknowability that exists in the modern workplace, and effectively take action.?

4 Keys to Great Leadership

4 Keys to Great Leadership: There are 4 keys to being a great leader. That's a simple thing to say but not an easy thing to do. Then again, adjectives like “great” shouldn't apply to leaders who only accomplish the easy stuff, right?

How To Quit With Class

How To Quit With Class: Even as the economy struggles to recover and add jobs, workers keep moving around, sometimes for greener pastures. Career coaches and human resource pros agree that it's best to leave the best possible impression whenever you exit a job, no matter the circumstances. Here are some essential things to do to quit with class.

Three Intangibles Hiring Managers Look For

Three Intangibles Hiring Managers Look For: In the hiring process, intangible qualities such as a job candidate's perceived credibility, "cultural fit," and motivation can make a big difference to a hiring manager.

Wringing Lessons From Microworkz's Failure

Wringing Lessons From Microworkz's Failure: Correct mistakes quickly, hire "hunters," and be willing to take no for an answer. The founder of the failed PC maker offers startup advice

The 25 People You Need in Your Network

The 25 People You Need in Your Network: As an entrepreneur (or aspiring one!), you constantly hear about the value of expanding your network. But the truth is, when it comes to business relationships, it?s not quantity that matters?it?s quality. Having memorable, substantial relationships with people who understand your business and can help you over time is the real key to networking success.

How to Survive in a Job for 34 Years: Management Lessons From Catherine the Great

How to Survive in a Job for 34 Years: Management Lessons From Catherine the Great: If you feel nervous about your job, consider that lack of job security is nothing new, and for monarchs throughout history losing a job could also mean losing a head. They constantly had to navigate coups and assassination plots (today known as terminations), neutralize impostors (outside executives), fend off ambitious children tired of waiting for their turn on the throne (the Millennials) and, in the case of women, deal with rampant gender discrimination (less rampant these days but still here). Under such circumstances, if anyone knew how to land a job and hold on to it, it was Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796.

The Second 24 Hours After Your Termination

The Second 24 Hours After Your Termination: It's no surprise to see Halah Touryalai's post yesterday welcoming former Bank of America Merrill Lynch executive Sallie Krawcheck back to Wall Street so soon after she was fired at BofA amid restructuring back in September. See Look Who's Back: Sallie Krawcheck Gets the Goldbug.

8 Lifestyle Edits to Make Tomorrow Easier

8 Lifestyle Edits to Make Tomorrow Easier: Your life shouldn?t be this hard. You are working, momming, juggling, and you are probably exhausted without a break in sight. If this describes you, take respite in knowing that small lifestyle edits can make great changes.

5 Illegal Interview Questions and How to Dodge Them

5 Illegal Interview Questions and How to Dodge Them: You’re sitting in the interview for your dream job, and it’s going great. You’ve knocked the hard questions out of the park, and you and the interviewer are really hitting it off. Then, out of the blue, she asks, “Are you planning on having kids?”

Integrated Marketing: If You Knew It, You'd Do It

Integrated Marketing: If You Knew It, You'd Do It: The glut of places to advertise makes it easy to confuse customers with contradictory messages. Execute a strategy that integrates all your efforts

How to Deal With Copycats (Video)

How to Deal With Copycats (Video): If you're first to market, it's not unusual for others to rip off your product. Hear entrepreneur Michael Aiello's story, plus tips from Pinterest investor Brian Cohen on handling knock-offs.

9 Timeless Leadership Lessons from Cyrus the Great

9 Timeless Leadership Lessons from Cyrus the Great:

Cyrus The Great (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Forget 1-800-CEO Read. The greatest book on business and leadership was written in the 4th century BC by a Greek about a Persian King. Yeah, that's right. Behold: Cyrus the Great, the man that historians call "the most amiable of conquerors," and the first king to

Forbes Leadership Highlights of the Week:Bad Leadership in Action

Forbes Leadership Highlights of the Week:Bad Leadership in Action: We threw a spotlight on some bracing examples of leadership gone wrong at Forbes Leadership this week. Adam Hartung said "Sayonara Sony: How Industrial MBA-Style Leadership Killed a Once Great Company." Susan Adams dissected "The Incredible Stupidity That Created the GSA Debacle" and followed with "Stupidity at the GSA: It Gets Even Worse." John Bell marked the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster with "The Gulf Spill: BP Still Doesn't Get It." Ken Makovsky saw Citigroup stock owners' rejection of Vikram Pandit's $15 million pay package as "A Wake-Up Call From Shareholders." And Ryan Holiday revealed "What the Failed $1 Million Netflix Prize Says About Business Advice."

Want a raise? 14 surefire tips to boost your paycheque

Want a raise? 14 surefire tips to boost your paycheque: Peter Harris, of Workopolis.ca, provided the following tips and techniques on successfully asking for a pay raise from your employer.

Just One Thing: A Simple Way to Make Changes to Your Life

Just One Thing: A Simple Way to Make Changes to Your Life: As part of my recent vow to do what I love, I’ve been spending a lot more time with friends. Lately, for example, my friend Castle and I have been meeting once per week to hike though Portland’s Forest Park.

10 Toughest Interview Questions: Answered

10 Toughest Interview Questions: Answered: Here, the 10 toughest (but most telling) interview questions, and best of all…how to answer them.

Jeff Bezos's Top 10 Leadership Lessons

Jeff Bezos's Top 10 Leadership Lessons: This story appears in the April 23, 2012 issue of FORBES magazine, accompanying the cover story, Inside Amazon's Idea Machine.

5 ways small biz can attract big clients

5 ways small biz can attract big clients: Winning business from the Fortune 500 is a great way to put your company on the map.

Four Ways To Engage More Young People In CSR

Four Ways To Engage More Young People In CSR: Last week I asked a class of fourth-year marketing students to tell me about the social issues they care most about and to name corporations they believe are socially responsible. I found out that these students are really passionate about a range of important issues but have virtually no idea about what large corporations are doing to be socially responsible. They also talked about the importance of social media but were cynical about corporations that use these new channels.

What should you wear for that important presentation?

What should you wear for that important presentation?: If a women dresses in masculine clothes, she’s more likely to be hired.  A teaching assistant who dresses up will be taken more seriously than one who dresses down.  The clothes make the woman and the man.  We’ve known these things intuitively for a long time, and studies have proved them.  Now there’s a study that suggests that what we wear affects our own internal thought processes.

How I Got My First Client and You Can Too

How I Got My First Client and You Can Too:

This is a guest post by Los Angeles lawyer Sona A. Tatiyants. How do you go from no client to a thriving estate planning practice in two years time in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression? Today, Los Angeles lawyer Sona A. Taiyants tells us how. I started my law

What's in Your Blind Spot?

What's in Your Blind Spot?: Executives who fail to recognize their flaws risk derailing promising careers.

What Your Clothes Say About You

What Your Clothes Say About You: It's no news that your wardrobe says a lot about you.

The Secret to Apple's Innovation Leadership

The Secret to Apple's Innovation Leadership: In Silicon Valley, you can’t avoid the game of comparing every company to Apple. There is no avoiding the success Apple has experienced. So what made Apple so successful at establishing its innovation leadership and avoiding the traps and roadblocks other companies’ experience?

How to keep staff absences from being unexpected

How to keep staff absences from being unexpected: In an ideal world, everyone would always show up for work. We don’t live in an ideal world, and the smaller the business, the bigger the effect that unmanaged absenteeism has on it

What I Learned From My Mentor

What I Learned From My Mentor: As told by nine leaders drawn from Forbes’ list of America’s Most Promising Companies. Edited by Max Mallet

10 Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

10 Communication Secrets of Great Leaders:

It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. I hope you noticed the previous sentence didn't refer to being a great talker - big difference. The key to becoming a skillful communicator is rarely found in what has been taught in the world of

60 seconds to pitch Warren Buffett your business plan

60 seconds to pitch Warren Buffett your business plan: Finalists at Rice University's Business Plan Competition were given 60 seconds to pitch their business to an imaginary Buffett on Thursday. Out of the 43 pitches we heard, here are Fortune's favorites.

How to Use Your Creativity to Spark Innovation

How to Use Your Creativity to Spark Innovation: I recently spoke with Tina Seelig, the author of inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity. Seelig has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stanford University Medical School. She is the executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, the director of the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation, and is the author of the international bestseller What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20. In 2009, Seelig was awarded the prestigious Gordon Prize from the National Academy of Engineering for her pioneering work in engineering education. In this interview, she defines creativity, explains how to be more creative, talks about innovation obstacles, and more.

Innovative financing for small business owners

Innovative financing for small business owners: These small business owners bypassed traditional bank loans for innovative funding strategies to keep their companies afloat.

How to Keep an Innovation From Getting Stuck

How to Keep an Innovation From Getting Stuck: Without traction, an idea – no matter how good -- is like a brand-new pair of running shoes. The potential is there, but it’s not going to make your company any stronger or healthier unless you get up and find the gumption to take action and use it. And turning an idea into a real innovation requires a few steps. The first two stages of innovation are coming up with an idea and promoting it internally.  Creative people succeed at the first and fail at the second – the true innovator succeeds at both.

Great Ideas: 4 alternatives to meetings that suck

Great Ideas: 4 alternatives to meetings that suck: Business meetings are a fact of life. Yet, according to motivational keynote speaker Jon Petz, most of them suck.

Want to Take Risks? Learn to Manage Them First

Want to Take Risks? Learn to Manage Them First: An MBA student once asked me to give her a simple explanation of the "risk management function." After a few minutes of fumbling, I told her that risk management is the process of identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating the impact of unforeseen (and usually negative) events. In other words, it's a form of proactive contingency planning ? either to completely avoid difficult situations, or prepare for them so that any undesirable consequences are lessened.

5 Tips for Surviving Your Startup's First Year

5 Tips for Surviving Your Startup's First Year: One of the riskiest times for any business is when it's just begun. Here are five key steps to take to make sure your startup survives that tough first year.

7 Keys to Hiring Your Start-up's First Employee

7 Keys to Hiring Your Start-up's First Employee: Hiring your first employee is a huge step for your start-up. In addition to the sudden sense of responsibility (you’re now in charge of someone else's livelihood!), it’s a strong signal that your company has real merit: Someone has chosen to turn down other opportunities to help make your idea happen. And in many cases, he or she is embracing a significant amount of risk to do so.

Bernanke's 5 Lessons for Business Leaders

Bernanke's 5 Lessons for Business Leaders: NOTE TO MY READERS: I?ve invited Michael W. Kempner, founder and CEO of MWW Group who also sits on our board at NJCB, to join me in sharing a joint business/marketing perspective on Ben Bernanke?s recent stint as a guest lecturer at George Washington University. Michael has provided some of his insights already on his own blog.

How to Handle Little Liars

How to Handle Little Liars: The truth is, fibbing is a normal stage of childhood development. And parents are terrible at detecting deceit.

Why Trust is the New Core of Leadership

Why Trust is the New Core of Leadership: Not long ago, most discussions of leadership were about leaders – their personality traits, how to identify and groom those with ‘leadership potential,’ and what were the skills that leaders employed.

How To Deal With Crazy Clients

How To Deal With Crazy Clients: Ever have a ?client? that is all talk and no action? I put ?client? in quotes, as this person leads you on but never actually buys anything. Recently, a man overseas had a habit of placing multiple orders on our website, only to never pay for the items. Every month for about a year, five- and six-figure orders were placed, always with the same result- credit cards declined, foreign checks bounced, bank fees incurred. In response to our repeated inquiries, this gentleman sent us lengthy emails containing intimate details of his private life and manuscripts for his unpublished novels. Eventually, our optimism of this man becoming a regular customer subsided and we agreed that he was just plain nuts.

A Googler's advice to budding entrepreneurs

A Googler's advice to budding entrepreneurs: Google's Guatam Gandhi took home the top prize at the Rice University Business Plan Competition in 2004. He talks to Fortune about the startup climate in the U.S. and what aspiring entrepreneurs ought to know.

3 Steps That Make Correcting Your Employees Easier

3 Steps That Make Correcting Your Employees Easier: Dealing with firing or correcting an employee can be nerve-wracking. For women entrepreneurs who value relationships within the company, the mere thought of correcting employees can be paralyzing. But by implementing systems in your business and embracing the mindset of being a boss, these conversations can become much less emotionally charged.

How To Keep Your Job Without Working Yourself To Death

How To Keep Your Job Without Working Yourself To Death: In this age of constant connectivity, we all grapple with this question: How can we fulfill the company?s expectations, while getting the rest we need and having some semblance of a personal life?

How to Prioritize As an Entrepreneur (Video)

How to Prioritize As an Entrepreneur (Video): The first step in setting priorities as an entrepreneur is to view your business life as something that enriches your personal life and vice-versa, says serial entrepreneur Jen Groover.

Two Questions We Should Ask More at Work

Two Questions We Should Ask More at Work: It’s been a great couple of weeks in NYC for events with women business leaders. Last Thursday, I joined over 100 technology and media pros at the IAB AdLab to hear leadership insights from three women who shaped their own unique career paths: Sharon Feder, COO of Mashable, Laurel Touby, founder of Mediabistro, and Tania Lynn, Partner of Deloitte.

Seven steps to reach out for referrals

Seven steps to reach out for referrals: There’s an art to generating referral business that takes more than just asking. Here’s a system to follow

Is A Career Change Possible In This Economy?

Is A Career Change Possible In This Economy?: People ask me this question all the time. I think it?s silly but, obviously, there?s a great deal of concern out there. So, I want to address this issue once and for all.

5 ways small biz can attract big clients

5 ways small biz can attract big clients: Winning business from the Fortune 500 is a great way to put your company on the map.

Paying Yourself When You Start a Business

Paying Yourself When You Start a Business: To avoid cash-flow problems and hassles with the IRS, understand the implications of taking money from your business for personal use

7 Ways to Help Ensure Your Business Succeeds

7 Ways to Help Ensure Your Business Succeeds: In a changing economy, new strategies are required to survive and thrive as an entrepreneur.

Three Ways to Foster Creativity in Your Organization

Three Ways to Foster Creativity in Your Organization: We all know what creative genius looks like: a young man working feverishly to produce a stunning new artistic breakthrough (Pablo Picasso) or write groundbreaking code (Mark Zuckerberg). But, says University of Chicago economist David Galenson, that stereotype gets the nature of creativity fundamentally wrong – and it’s an expensive mistake for businesses. “I don’t go out and measure the cost of the errors people make on the basis of this belief,” he says, “but it could be significant.”

Tips for perfect purchasing

Tips for perfect purchasing: A tough economy and competitive markets require every company to pay less, but get more. Here are six great ways to do it.

The 4 Money Habits You Need to Ditch Now

The 4 Money Habits You Need to Ditch Now: April is Financial Literacy Month, and, as you can probably guess, that makes us pretty excited over here at LearnVest.

10 Leadership Tips from Steve Jobs

10 Leadership Tips from Steve Jobs: Steve Jobs, founder of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Pixar (NYSE:DIS) was an iconic manager with a zest for taking on feats deemed impossible. He was able win over an entire planet. His Eastern beliefs set him apart from Western leaders. With an intense focus on what should be, he disrupted dysfunctional markets with simple elegant replacements. His Eastern wisdom encouraged focus and to "Think Different,” which may have meant to experience the moment.

30 Best Business Practices of All Time: For 30 years, PROFIT has embraced its role in Canada's Entrepreneurial Revolution. Much has been done, but so much more could be achieved.

How To Turn A Job You Hate Into A Job You Love

How To Turn A Job You Hate Into A Job You Love: This is a guest post by Nisa Chitakasem, co-author of the book, How to Get the Job You Want. She blogs at Career Blog.

How to fight the business-crippling entitlement mindset

How to fight the business-crippling entitlement mindset: Brad Hams, founder and president of Ownership Thinking, speaks with PROFIT about employee entitlement and his upcoming event in Toronto on May 8.

The One Simple Task That Will Help Your Startup Succeed

The One Simple Task That Will Help Your Startup Succeed: Many startups fail because their founders don't take the time to talk to potential customers before opening. Here are a few tips on getting feedback effectively.

Great Ideas: Make success a habit

Great Ideas: Make success a habit: Most of the decisions we make every day—what to eat, what to wear, the route we take to work—turn into habits pretty quickly, and then we stop thinking about whether or not they’re the best decisions.

6 Tips for Making Better Decisions

6 Tips for Making Better Decisions:

The one thing everyone on the planet has in common is the undeniable fact we?ve all made our fair share of regrettable decisions. Show me someone who hasn?t made a bad decision and I?ll show you someone who is either not being honest, or someone who avoids decisioning at all

Startup Basics: How to Master the Fundamentals

Startup Basics: How to Master the Fundamentals: Stick to these four proven principles to keep your business growing -- and successful.

Ten ways to becoming a thought leader

Ten ways to becoming a thought leader: Once you've put your expertise on record, make sure you share it with your peers.

How To Craft A Job Search Elevator Pitch

How To Craft A Job Search Elevator Pitch:

How to Craft a Job Search Elevator Pitch When Anita Attridge worked in human resources at Merck and Xerox, she frequently kicked off job interviews with a standard request: Tell me about yourself. A striking number of applicants couldn’t answer her coherently. “You’d

Making the four Ps more practical

Making the four Ps more practical: Instead of using the four Ps, try this more focused approach to B2B marketing.

Can You Articulate Your Value Proposition?

Can You Articulate Your Value Proposition?: This is the title of our latest White Paper, and the title assumes that you have a value proposition. Perhaps it’s better to ask: Do you know why clients choose to work with you over the competition? And if so, can you articulate this competitive advantage and use it as a tool to help you grow your business?

Want to Raise Money With Crowdfunding? Consider These Tips

Want to Raise Money With Crowdfunding? Consider These Tips: A new law will increase the ability of small-business owners to raise capital from crowdfunding. But proceed with caution.

Five Ways to Become a Better Team Player

Five Ways to Become a Better Team Player: Almost every employer these days is seeking “good team players” – but what does that actually mean? Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, author of the new Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy, says the job requirements of today’s employees have changed profoundly. In the past, she says, “product lifecycles were longer and a lot more work was routine and well-understood. You’d spend a great deal of time to figure out the perfect way to assemble a car, and you’d assemble it that way for a long time.” For modern employees, though, innovation is a fundamental part of the job description: “We need to do something, reflect, and analyze quickly, and then learn to learn – those are today’s critical skills.”

How to Manage Difficult but Talented Employees

How to Manage Difficult but Talented Employees: Notice I included “talented” in the title, since an employee who’s just plain difficult without being talented should probably be managed out of an organization.   Many employees who are very difficult, however, can also be exceptional contributors.  Sometimes the same keen intelligence that makes them talented also makes them challenging.   Think Steve Jobs and Bill Gates would have been easy to manage?  Sure, piece of cake…

The best ways to tackle a cash crunch

The best ways to tackle a cash crunch: A new survey reveals the best ways to tackle cash-flow challenges. But are companies giving themselves more cash-management credit than is due?

How much should you pay yourself?

How much should you pay yourself?: It’s easy for small business owners to compensate themselves too much or not enough

Reimagine Your Company as an Upstart

Reimagine Your Company as an Upstart: You can't stand out unless you do something different—or differently—than your competitors. Identify a breakthrough idea, put it in place, and then tell your customers

When should a firm allow employees to work from home?

When should a firm allow employees to work from home?: Small businesses need to take security, training and communications issues into account

Ramit Sethi's Secrets to Landing Your Dream Job

Ramit Sethi's Secrets to Landing Your Dream Job: I recently caught up with an old friend, Ramit Sethi. Ramit is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. He also owns a blog called I Will Teach You To Be Rich, which receives over 250,000 readers per month. He co-founded PBwiki, a venture-backed startup and graduated from Stanford. He's been featured in several media outlets, including an extensive profile in Fortune Magazine.

Business risk: Expert advice on reducing it for small companies

Business risk: Expert advice on reducing it for small companies: Profit's executive roundtable examines how to grow your business safely and protect all that you've built.

How to Succeed in Business - Without Alienating Your Family

How to Succeed in Business - Without Alienating Your Family: The pressures of work can strain any relationship. But the grinding toll is even worse when you’re an entrepreneur or high-level executive, working long hours and responsible for your company’s bottom line. “When you own a business, you have to be all in – otherwise, you won’t have a business very long to worry about,” says Meg Cadoux Hirshberg, author of the new For Better or For Work: A Survival Guide for Entrepreneurs and Their Families . Indeed, that intense level of commitment can be “a setup for failure in your personal life unless you go into it with eyes wide open.”

Surviving The Startup: 20 Simple Rules For Relationship Success

Surviving The Startup: 20 Simple Rules For Relationship Success: What happens when a reporter spends 20 years married to an entrepreneur?

Over 40 and out-of-work? Avoid these mistakes

Over 40 and out-of-work? Avoid these mistakes: Suddenly losing a job is a punch in the gut at any age, but when you're over 40 it tends to hit especially hard.

Does the Difficult Boss Always Deserve to Be Fired?

Does the Difficult Boss Always Deserve to Be Fired?: Is it possible that there is a place in the business world for difficult bosses?

Brainstorms On Brainstorming: How To Get Better Results

Brainstorms On Brainstorming: How To Get Better Results: Guest post written by Linda Stewart

Can't Code? How to Find a Technical Co-Founder (Video)

Can't Code? How to Find a Technical Co-Founder (Video): Philip Estrada Reichen wanted to start an iPhone app, but lacked the programming skills. Here's how he connected with Philipe Fatio, a coder who became his business partner.

Leadership Lessons From The 2012 Academy Awards

Leadership Lessons From The 2012 Academy Awards: By Betsy Massar

The Secret to Getting More Responsibility

The Secret to Getting More Responsibility: We?ve all been there: You see the larger potential in the project you?ve been assigned. You know that taking initiative to expand the scope will not only make it better, but it will showcase your ambition and creative thinking. You?re confident that you have what it takes to kick the project up a notch, and you?re ready to tackle it head-on.

Employees, Measure Yourselves

Employees, Measure Yourselves: Encouraging workers to keep track of what they're doing can make them healthier and more productive. New tools are making it easier for them to do that.

Ken Blanchard on How Great Leaders Grow

Ken Blanchard on How Great Leaders Grow: I recently caught up with Ken Blanchard, who is the Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies. He is the author or coauthor of 50 books that have sold more than 20 million copies, including the iconic One Minute Manager®. His latest book is called Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life. In addition to being a renowned speaker and consultant, Ken also spends time as a visiting lecturer at his alma mater, Cornell University, where he is a trustee. In this interview, Ken talks about obstacles that slow a leaders growth, what some of his biggest challenges used to be, some tips for young leaders and more.

Career Experts' Advice: 'Just Resign and Move On'

Career Experts' Advice: 'Just Resign and Move On': The scathing opinion piece Greg Smith wrote announcing his resignation from Goldman Sachs in Wednesday's New York Times is a lesson in how not to quit, career experts say.

How small companies can instantly court Goliaths

How small companies can instantly court Goliaths: The expansion of business-to-business sites has, in recent years, offered an opening for smaller players to land big-company accounts.

Pitching Your Business vs. Planning Your Business

Pitching Your Business vs. Planning Your Business: I feel like recently, as the Lean Startup movement gains more and more traction (I love the Lean Startup principles) and there are more incubators, accelerators, innovation centers, etc. helping startups get off the ground, that I'm hearing more and more this idea:

"you don't need a business plan, you need a great pitch"

While I absolutely agree that a great pitch is critical for any high growth startup thinking of pitching Angel Investors or Venture Capital firms, I am puzzled by this idea that you need a pitch but not a plan. When I talk to people  who run incubators and accelerators, they all give me the same song and dance. Full disclosure: as the CEO of Palo Alto Software, the developers behind LivePlan, a Software as a Service online planning solution, it is in my benefit to have every small business and every startup write a business plan. But nonetheless, I run this business because I truly do believe in the tools that we produce and truly feel that planning will make startups and small businesses more successful. So, back to this idea of a plan vs. a pitch and what a startup really needs to be successful in today's landscape. Let's make the assumption that you don't need a plan. That what you need is a fantastic pitch. A pitch where you presumably need to talk about:

How effective is customer satisfaction measurement for B2B companies?

How effective is customer satisfaction measurement for B2B companies?: Customer satisfaction isn't easy for B2B companies to measure. Here are some ways to get the feedback you want.

Ethinic Marketing: How to reach the growing but elusive customer demographic

Ethinic Marketing: How to reach the growing but elusive customer demographic: As Canada’s population becomes increasingly diverse, how should entrepreneurial companies be changing their marketing approach? Our experts weigh in.

Is Your City Holding Back Your Career?

Is Your City Holding Back Your Career?: Fifteen years ago, there were glorious predictions about the ?end of geography.? Email and video chats would render cities obsolete, and we?d all be telecommuting from tropical islands (or at least our comfortable suburban homes). That hasn?t happened, of course ? and Jonah Lehrer, author of the new Imagine: How Creativity Works, argued in a recent interview that cities are more important than ever. ?You still need to meet in person,? he says. ?Something intangible happens when people come together in person and share the same zip code. I think we?ve learned the limits of electronic tools.?

Apps business: Allowing companies to target customers and connect

Apps business: Allowing companies to target customers and connect: Developing your own mobile application offers an affordable way to connect with customers. Here are five ways to give them an app worth their while.

The Six Surprising Habits of Today's Highly Effective Leaders

The Six Surprising Habits of Today's Highly Effective Leaders: If you were to rewrite the seven habits of highly effective leaders today what would you say? As social business becomes more important, and social media more pervasive, leaders need to adapt. In fact leaders need to learn fast about what motivates large ecosystems of free agents to rally to them, not to their competitors.

What to do when your corporate culture sucks

What to do when your corporate culture sucks: Commitment and follow-through among the top bosses is key

5 Lessons Marketers Can Learn from "The Hunger Games"

5 Lessons Marketers Can Learn from "The Hunger Games": The Hunger Games hits theaters this month, and based on the popularity of the book series and the marketing strategy that Lionsgate is using leading up to the movie launch, you can bet it's going to be successful.

Podcast 115 Financing Your Exit

Podcast 115 Financing Your Exit: On the latest Business Coach Podcast, Ian Portsmouth speaks with Larry Klar, a partner in a succession fund.

The Best Career Advice You'll Ever Get

The Best Career Advice You'll Ever Get: Not sure what to do with your career? Try this.