Welcome to Civilization 3.0 – TUCON 2013

TIBCO kicked off TUCON 2013 this morning with CEO Vivek Ranadive starting the conversation. He spoke about how the 21st Century is a time of unprecedented change. And much like the 20th Century,which started in 1908 with the automobile and then brought highways and the century of the auto, the 21st Century started late: I […]

Marketing and the rise of the evangelist

Have you ever had to explain your job to your parents? That’s the ultimate acid test to see whether anyone understands what you do and I faced that last week when I announced to them my new role as Chief Evangelist of a leading enterprise software company. But as I explained what the title meant it began […]

Got a goal? Live it every day

I just completed one of the most inspiring runs of my life. Not fast.  Not far.  But it left me with a lesson I’ll carry forever. So how does this relate to business?  We’ll get there.  Just stick with me… Running with a purpose This morning I shared a pre-dawn jog with Kathy DeFrancisco on […]

The business world is but a stage

Everyone enjoys a good movie, play, concert or any public performance and work is simply no different. I recently saw Prince for the second time, knowing that he gives a nonstop, thrilling performance that gets the crowd dancing in their seats. When the curtain comes down, people are left screaming for more and demanding multiple […]

“Always be ready” Business lessons from a rock star

I’ve long maintained that the business world can learn a lot from the arts community.  Here’s another example. Great Big Sea is a band from St. John’s, Newfoundland, that blends traditional Newfoundland folk music with pop/rock.  This year, they’re celebrating their 20th year in the music business.  In that time, they’ve grown from playing the […]

Management, dark art, and disguises

Management is a tough job, done well. There is an enormous difference between an employee and a manager, besides the obvious difference in pay grade and power. An employee is someone who works to provide value to the company and has the company’s interest in mind, first and foremost. A manager has to innovate and […]

Respect is not kissing up

Respect. The word gets used a great deal but do people ‘get’ it? It’s not just an Aretha Franklin song or a hot topic issue now because of “donglegate” – I mean, who cares about forking repos? Respect is a must in any company, social situation, or everyday interaction. I haven’t given it much thought […]

Our work environment impacts our creativity

The following is a guest post by Lilian Sohn. With Content Marketing being the buzz word in 2013, online marketers are struggling more and more to come up with innovative and impressive ideas to promote their clients’ businesses online. Not only should the content be an original and interesting read to their audience, it should […]

To succeed in business you need to think like a superhero

I’m a bit of a comic book geek; I read them, collect them and chase the writer and artists to sign them. Everyone has a vice, that’s one of mine. But it got me thinking about how many lessons from comics could be translated into business life. Technology can be your superpower Look at how […]

Compensation for work is much more than salary

There are two metrics of success that most people acknowledge readily: money and power.  The further you are up on the food chain, the more responsibility you naturally have, but also the more a company must trust you with this responsibility. Compensation is supposed to be proportional to your output of work and responsibility. However, […]

The war being waged on technology

With the recent announcements that Yahoo and now Best Buy are not allowing employees to telecommute, it seems some people simply refuse to keep up with technology of work. It looks like top executives are resisting, and not in the noble motion picture kind of way where humans have to fight off evil robots. Humans, […]

Marissa Mayer needs to shock the Yahoo! system

In a recent post, Jeanne Roué-Taylor expressed her skepticism for the Yahoo! decision to no longer allow employees to work from home. That was the first day of a breaking story and from the outset, it looked like a poor decision and significant step backward for a Silicon valley stalwart (though a bit of a […]

Best advice: start with the end in mind

LinkedIn is running another INfluencer series called “Best Advice I ever received” so here at SuccessfulWorkplace we’re doing the same. Early in my career, when I was a Business Analyst leading software implementation projects, a manager told me: “Start with the end in mind.” What she meant was, think about how you want the system […]

Best advice: worry more about how you do it

I’ve received two pieces of advice that I follow more than the million suggestions I’ve been given over the years. Graduate School Professor The first comes from a professor I had in graduate school. I had one of those “there is no answer” questions for him and he told me, “Mr. Webb, it is rarely […]

Do you need a degree to be a great CEO?

They say one in four graduates will fail to find a job. And now the New York Times claims that even the lowest paid office job requires a graduate degree. This just seems a waste of talent and an ever decreasing spiral that both defeats the whole purpose of pursuing a degree but also its value […]

So you’re in the Top 1%…

So, who got one of these through the post then ? As soon as the email dropped into the inbox, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn were awash with people posting their new-found ‘elite’ status. Whether you were in the top 1%, 5% or 10% it was a chance to raise the profile even more by telling […]