Archive for the ‘Street & Book Smarts’ Category
Posted on October 1, 2008 - by Jeffrey
Where to have a meeting
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I had a meeting at Starbucks the other day (one of many that have been had there) and I started to think if the places I am meeting at have an effect on the outcome of the meeting itself. Now there have been many things written on this, studies done and tape sets made, but if you are reading this then you are here to get my opinion anyway…so here it is:
If you think it will break the meeting it will. If you go with it, then it probably won’t.
A few things this depends on…
- How comfortable you are in public situations?
- Can you control the meeting with outside distractions?
- Is there enough room for everyone you are with? (big issue in NYC public places)
- Will there be any note taking or paper signing?
- How long will the meeting be?
Posted on September 8, 2008 - by Jeffrey
Cooperative Competition
I go back and forth on this topic from time to time; sometimes I feel it’s good and sometimes not. In any negotiation, there is a winner and a looser. Same goes with cooperative completion. If you are all trying to work together, there has been some sort of agreement or verbal understanding that everyone has come too.
This situation is no different.
The reason I go back and forth on the subject I because when it’s good for me, I like it and when it’s bad for me, I don’t…We’ll Duh!
Recently a business associate of mine came back and wanted to work together after we had previously talked about doing something exclusive. Since that, he had gone and basically slept with everyone else in the business and currently has some sort of light partnership with them. Business is business so I am not offended that he went a different direction.
Posted on July 23, 2008 - by Jeffrey
The Anatomy of a Good Business Meeting
At this point in my life I have acquired a lot of meetings and been in front of some pretty serious people. I
have learned that there is an art to having a good and productive meeting with a potential client/partner and it is a skill similar to being a good actor. I touched on the importance of meetings briefly in a previous article, but I felt that the anatomy of a good meeting deserved a greater explanation.
An initial meeting usually goes one of three ways in my experience.
- Synergies with potential benefits to all parties, definite second meeting
- Possible synergies but wrong department, maybe get a follow up with the right people
- Waste of Time
As I went to more and more meetings I realized that a lot of them tended to be a waste of time. People going through the motions to fill their day, stroking each others ego so to speak. This is where the screening process comes into play.
Posted on July 16, 2008 - by Jeffrey
Are you in the boys club?
We all know that contacts help in business, the right ones anyway. Too many times I have been to meetings where everyone thinks we are in the right place talking to the right person when we are really not. The problem is that big companies have so many employees and VP’s and blabla that it is easy to get confused with it all.
I have two schools of thought when it comes to this:
- Pitch until you find the right person and hope for the right meeting
- Be in the “boys club” or know someone in the club
(the slow way and the fast track) (more…)
Posted on June 4, 2008 - by Jeffrey
Jack of All Trades, Master of None?
This statement used to make sense to me, but lately I feel it only applies to certain parts of life and business. The basic idea (if it wasn’t obvious) is that if you spend your time trying to learn everything, you will be moderately good at most of the things..but never a master of one of them. I have a different approach to this. My feeling is that if you have a reasonably high IQ and pretty good street smarts, you can be a master of three (3), not just one. Say master one thing, then expand to a new subject while concentrating on the other still, then eventually incorporating a third.
Managing it All
This isn’t an easy process and concentrating on up to three projects at once can get a little “hairy”, but if you are a die hard capitalist then this will probably fit right into your current schedule. I have to stress that when I am working on three (projects, ideas, companies) things at once I usually don’t even think of doing anything else. I may come across a niche idea and do an hour or two of research on it, but it will take a lot of compelling information to make me drop something I am currently working on.
Choosing Your Three “things”
Posted on June 2, 2008 - by Jeffrey
People don’t want to think anymore
You would be surprised how many people in high up positions don’t have the vision to be innovative. It’s like everyone is so worried about loosing their job and making a mistake that no one wants to ever take a chance. Companies are all watching each other to see what the other is doing. One company in the space makes a move, then the others all follow like sheep.
This is why it has become so easy for small companies to forge ahead these days. It takes very little to move a herd of 4 people in a different direction as supposed to moving a 4000 person herd to a new concept. I understand how this works, but why?
How do companies ever expect to be the best and stay at the top without innovation from within?
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