The Best-Run Businesses Run SAP

Citigroup needed something positive. It reported increased revenue and profit during its Q1 earnings Monday, which is fortunate, given that “the global banking group could use some good news to counter the disappointment after it recently failed the Fed’s stress test,” Forbes noted last week. (more…)

We love our lists.  Our friends here at Forbes have a whole section dedicated to “Top Lists:”World’s Billionaires, Highest Paid CEOs,  Best B-Schools, or even The Best Cities for Singles. Readers gravitate toward almost any list; author write lists for that very reason. (more…)

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Isaac Newton’s Third Law of [Physical] Motion turns out to perfectly describe the how Tech Audiences Think. (more…)

Last week I wrote about Pret A Manger which rewards employees on behaviors such as niceness and teamwork, not just traditional measures of performance. (more…)

Of the top 100 brands, how many of them call you a customer?  Take a look and do a quick count (I’ll give my answer at the end). Now, for how many of these brands do you advocate?  (more…)

Part one of How to Suck Up to Billionaires discussed the need to know a lot more about your customers than your CRM system might traditionally track and measure — their changing fortunes, for example. If you’re going to target newly minted millionaires and billionaires, you’ll need to refine your CRM tools and filters to be able to find those customers quickly and easily. But once your CRM solution has found them, what do you do next? (more…)

When the iPad 2 was announced, I wrote that Apple‘s tablet would continue its enterprise invasion despite the dearth of overtly business-focused features.The same goes for the new iPad, or what I like to call in homage to Pulp Fiction, ‘Le iPad Nouveau.’ (more…)

I believe every manager is a member of three teams: 1. The people that report to that manager. This is usually what someone means when they refer to “my team.” 2. The external stakeholders in other departments they work with every day. For example, marketing is often considered part of the extended team for sales or development. 3. Their peers in the same department or group. For example, the leaders of each sales region. (more…)

There aren’t many bankers among the world’s billionaires  - but Sir Richard Branson is betting he can revolutionize UK retail banking. Branson and his fellow investors bought Northern Rock from the UK government last year to turn hisVirgin Money venture into a high street lender. The deal fulfilled Branson’s ambition to shake up the financial world in the same way he disrupted transatlantic air travel. (more…)

Google‘s announcement today that it would rename the Android Market to Google Play is the equivalent of Target renaming itself Toys R’ Us. What was once a general purpose department store open to consumer and businessperson alike is now 100% all about the fun. (more…)