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Not surprisingly, we believe more people should think like us. Read on for our opinions about business and why so many people make needless mistakes. (Spoiler alert: It's typically greed and groupthink.)
Who’s on Board? (Or Saving CEOs from Themselves)
Allowing CEOs on the boards of their companies is not good for business and almost always leads to turmoil, as the OpenAI upheaval proved.
Holy Cow (Or When Quality Is Out of Control)
Recent recalls of generic drugs illustrate the inevitable problems when you manufacture anything without strict oversight, especially in a country like India.
All Fizzle, No Steak (Or Even if You Build It, They Might Not Come)
Plant-based meat pioneer Beyond Meat now faces an “existential threat." No surprise because it lacks flavor, the very quality that’s essential for success.
Meal of (Mis)Fortune
Dinner at exclusive New York City restaurant Eleven Madison Park proved the folly of making assumptions based on Michelin stars, as well as following the crowd.
There’s No Business Like Shoe Business (Or A Brand Spanking)
Sustainable shoe-seller Allbirds is making moves to keep from going under, but is it too late to save the company's once-shining brand?
Hollandaise Sausage (Or Biting the Hand that Feeds You)
Dutch dairy farmers facing draconian pollution policies in the name of climate action have a right to be mad as hell. Everyone in The Netherlands should be.
Making the Most of Mentorship (Or Help Me Help You)
Good investors should provide constructive feedback, not a pat on the back. And founders should seek it out, even if it’s painful to hear.
Go for Grandmaster, Not Flash (Or Learning from Chess)
Chess teaches players to analyze the consequences of potential actions and plan several steps ahead. These are skills many founders sadly lack.
A Good (Mail)man Is Hard to Find
When a beloved mail carrier says he’s leaving the route and moving away, the whole neighborhood finds ways to thank him.
A Word Too Far (Or If You’re Not Hardworking, You’re a Lazy SOB)
The woke arbiters of offensive language would make Orwell’s Big Brother proud. If they're not careful, their efforts will prompt even more backlash.
Rations Back in Fashion and a Lunar Dust-up (Or the Unintended Consequences Edition)
Rationing? Heat pumps? Lunar dust? These proposed solutions for combating climate change make little to no sense and could create far worse problems.
Barnes & Noble’s Turnaround (Or There’s No Competition for a Good Bookstore)
A CEO’s smart actions have helped boost Barnes & Noble, which is opening new locations and bucking the trend of other big-box booksellers.
The Tipping Point (Or Advice from a Wiseguy)
Good service deserves a generous tip. Restaurants’ no-tipping policies benefit nobody and interfere with a fundamental and time-honored human interaction.
Rubes on the Half Shell (Or Amazon’s Insatiable Appetite)
Every “service” Amazon offers founders is really just another way for it to offer a seller’s product at a lower price.
Who’s Really Guilty in This? [Or Tales from the Crypt(ocurrency)]
When founders fail big, like WeWork’s Adam Neumann, we all learn their names. But equally guilty are the reckless financiers who funded them.
Bots in the Blogosphere (Or Taking a Trip to the Uncanny Valley)
An unsolicited email offering AI-generated blog content proves that when it comes to writing engaging posts, there’s no substitute for the human touch.
The Elephant in the Home Office (Or in Denial over a Decline in Productivity)
When productivity is down, it’s often the home office that’s to blame, because being in the same space as co-workers stimulates productivity.
Betting It’s Worth Paying for (Or How Twitter Helps Itself)
New owner Elon Musk thinks requiring paid subscriptions for Twitter will remove bots and make the platform more honest, and he’s right.
Pumping Up Heating Pumps (Or It’s Diesel All Over Again)
Efforts to combat climate change are always misguided, and pushing heat pumps is no exception. It’s sure to fail, just like the campaign to convert to diesel.
Idiocratic Legislation (Or There’s No Such Thing as Equal Work)
A New York City regulation requiring job postings to include pay range invites ridicule, complicates hiring and doesn’t resolve pay equity issues.
Putting Friendship to the Test (Or the Proof Is in the Benjamins)
Startup investing has entered a truly uncanny valley when friendship becomes a substitute for due diligence.
Planning Is Everything (Or Putin’s Last Stand)
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine shows what happens when you’re arrogant, make assumptions and have no real plan.
Righting the Peloton (Or Is that Water Streaming in?)
In an attempt to salvage Peloton’s brand and boost the share price, a new CEO is taking steps that could ultimately sink its reputation.
Do or Die (Or a Recession by Any Other Name Still Stinks)
Economic downturns can be scary, but if founders are prepared, the challenges they present can create new opportunities.
Gimme Shelter (Or Better Yet, a Business Plan)
When instability is the order of the day, here are the steps you need to take to make sure your business plan can accommodate it.
Tell Me What You Really Think (Or the Only Horror Is in Not Knowing)
Many founders overlook the importance of talking directly to customers, yet doing so is the best way to learn how to improve a product.
Muse-Ick to Our Ears (Or Branding Agency Bingo)
Don’t be fooled by agency creative directors who insist they understand your product and brand identity better than you do.
10 Unorthodox Commandments (Or How Thou Shalt Build a Business)
After selling Big Ass Fans for half a billion dollars, Chief Big Ass Carey Smith offer founders 10 invaluable pieces of advice, for free.
Solving the Worker Shortage (Or the Hire Power Is in Your Pocket)
Most worker shortages can be solved by simply reaching for the wallet. It’s amazing what can be achieved when you pay employees well.
Service with a Smile (Or Help Your Customers Help You)
Loyal customers are the key to success in any business, and the best way to keep them coming back is to talk directly with them and give them what they want.
Trials and Errors (Or the Stories of Elizabeth Holmes and Mike Richards)
Too many decision makers seem to find due diligence too much work and end up paying the price, as Theranos investors and TV execs learned the hard way.
Whip Inflation, Whip It Good (Or the Pressure’s on Startups Now)
It can be scary when prices keep rising, and there’s no end in sight. Here are some tips for small businesses on making it through inflationary times.
I Pledge Allegiance to the Tribe (Or Stupid Is as Stupid Does)
Debate over Covid-19’s origins proves that tribal loyalty will always trump independent thought.
Money for Nothing (And the Checks Are Tax-Free)
The Chamber of Commerce claims to represent business interests, but in reality, it exists merely to keep itself in business.
Basecamp and Its Discontents (Or What’s Remotely Wrong with that Memo?)
Basecamp’s biggest problem isn’t employees discussing hot-button issues on internal forums. It's that its workforce is entirely remote.
A Tale of Two Articles (Or VCs Speak with Forked Tongues)
Two very different articles published in Harvard Business Review illustrate the perils of relying on self-reported data.
Spoon-fed (Or What Is Wrong with People?)
People’s confounding response to both the Covid pandemic and its mask restrictions are more proof of humanity’s herd mentality.
Vaccination Disorganization (Or Bureaucracy Is a Bitch)
The EU is a perfect example of the fact that the bigger the organization, the slower it acts and the more incompetent it becomes.
People Who Need Beeple (Or Now Where’d I Put That Non-Fungible Token?)
Is there anything of real value? It's a question not just for the art world. Investors routinely ask it when entrepreneurs come pitching products.
Future Schlock (Or The Gray Lady Has Become a Tramp)
Combine the bottomless “news hole” the Internet provides with the need to deliver clicks to advertisers, and you get a sorry excuse for a once-great newspaper.
United Against a Common Enemy (Or the Times Could Be A-Changin’)
The New York Times, which spent four years as the voice of the Trump opposition, now must come up with a new business plan.
Those Who Can’t, Tweet (Or Only Two Characters Separate Banning from Burning)
By banning Trump from Twitter, CEO Jack Dorsey has created bigger problems for his social media platform, which is populated with every kind of liar.
Lessons in Discounting (Or Buy 9 Spatulas and Get the 10th Free)
By offering discounts, you’re lowering the perceived value of your product forever. Don’t do it. There are other ways to attract buyers that don’t cut into your margin. Add a warranty, for example, or
Are You Being Served? (Or Are You on the Menu?)
The claims by Lowe’s of strong partnerships are reminiscent of "The Twilight Zone" episode in which the aliens’ true motive is to feast on humankind.
Don’t Be a Silly Sneetch (Or What Shouldn’t You Give for an MBA)
Add online MBA degrees to the list of worthless products brought to us courtesy of the pandemic.
Quibi, We Hardly Knew Ye (Or When Your Gut Goes Bust)
There are valuable lessons for entrepreneurs in the billion-dollar failure of Quibi, the video-streaming platform that nobody needed.
The Dollar General Gamble (Or It’s All Uphill from Here)
Dollar General’s attempt at conquering a more upscale home-decor market with PopShelf is likely to suffer the same fate as Tuesday Morning.
Investing in Female Founders (Or Why Wouldn’t You?)
Female founders are still discriminated against when it comes to funding, despite the fact that they’re generally much more focused and better grounded.
Keep Your Opinions to Yourself (Or There Are People Behind You, Doofus)
The CEO of software company Expensify only hurt his company and employees when he publicly urged people to vote for Biden.
What Business Leaders Want (Or Be Nice to the Government)
In a year where everything resembles "The Twilight Zone," the one thing that would really help business leaders is for government to get out of the way.
Jeff Bezos and the Very, Very Big Bang (Or the Mr. Creosote of Our Time)
If you want to know what the future looks like for Amazon, go to YouTube and search for Mr. Creosote and Monty Python. But be warned, it’s messy.
No ‘Happiness’ Ever After for Zappos (Or When the Shoe Doesn’t Fit)
Former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s experiments with holacracy were always interesting, and his leadership was often innovative.
We’ll Get through the Pandemic (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Get Back to Work)
Anyone who thinks the Covid-19 pandemic is the worst thing to befall mankind doesn’t know history very well.
Amazon Part Deux (Or They’re Not Your Customers, They’re Amazon’s Customers)
Entrepreneurs are led to believe that selling on Amazon is the best way to grow their business. In reality, it’s the best way to lose customers.
Don’t Look to the Government to Save You (or How to Be an Optimist in the Days of COVID-19)
Midway through 2020, doom and gloom about the pandemic is rampant. Most people look to the government to make things better. Boy are they wrong.
Innovation Versus the Status Quo (Or Only in Oz Does a Guild Make You Feel Welcome)
An article about SmileDirectClub requiring NDAs from customers missed the bigger story, which is how trade guilds like the ADA exist to defend the status quo.
Investing in a Time of Crisis (Or Bidet, Mate)
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought every scammer looking to make a fast buck out of the woodwork, but bidets are here for the long term.
The Misery of Working from Home (or We Have to Stop Meeting Like This)
For people who enjoy the spontaneous collaboration of the workplace, being confined to working from home because of the coronavirus is a little like living in The Twilight Zone.
We’ll Have What They’re Serving (or Where Quality Meets Levity)
More companies should model themselves after the Michigan deli Zingerman's, which is seriously successful but doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Jacob, Esau and Jeff (or How Selling on Amazon Is a Mistake of Biblical Proportions)
Selling on Amazon is one of the best ways to be burned, and yet so many founders are drawn to the flame.
A Fable About FOMO (or How to Avoid Becoming Stuck by High Anxiety)
Startups need to focus on building their brand and reputation and stop trying to be everywhere all at once.
The Pitch Is in the Air, and It’s CBD Infused (or How to Play VC Bingo)
From subscription models to CBD-infused, every day we hear the same cliched terms from entrepreneurs. Enough already.
What The Invisible Man Learned Too Late (or the Perils of Being Too Transparent)
There are far better ways to connect with your customers than revealing total production costs.
Holacracy vs. Transparency (or How Zappos Laid an Egg in the Cuckoo's Nest)
When your company makes a mistake, admit it. Don’t try to sweep it under the rug, as Zappos seems to be doing.
Playing Chess with Death (or when the Money Men Danced in Payless Shoes)
The story of Payless Shoes’ demise illustrates big-city investors’ total lack of business knowledge and understanding of the world between the coasts.