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Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

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Innovation & Brainstorming – Tom Kelley’s approach

by Rick Baker
On Feb 20, 2011
Some good thinking...
 
From Tom Kelley - ‘The Ten Faces of Innovation’
  • The Anthropologist
  • The Experimenter
  • The Cross-Pollinator
  • The Hurdler
  • The Collaborator
  • The Director
  • The Experience Architect
  • The Set Designer
  • The Storyteller
  • The Caregiver
Link to Tom Kelley’s 10 Faces website.
 
And, some suggestions for Brainstorming...
  1. go for quantity (say 100 ideas)
  2. encourage wild ideas (check out www.halfbakery.com)
  3. be visual
  4. defer judgment
  5. one conversation at a time
  6. have a facilitator and a scribe
Helping organizations innovate: www.ideo.com.

Tags:

Personalities @ Work

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Put Your Best Brain Forward

by Rick Baker
On Feb 19, 2011

Put Your Best Brain Forward

Our LinkedIn Group - Profile

The unicorn is the only mythological creature not created with fear in mind.

That unicorn trait impresses us.

We have called this LinkedIn group ‘Put Your Best Brain Forward’ because the people in this group have a particular interest in understanding the human brain. We are thinkers who are interested in how brains work.

We want to get the most out of our brains…we want to understand how we can help our brains help us perform better. When others are interested we want to help others understand what we have learned about the human brain.

The people in our group are curious. We enjoy self-education. We are life-long learners. And, many of us enjoy teaching.

We also enjoy exchanging thoughts and ideas with one another: that’s a key method we use to expand and solidify our thoughts.

Who should join this group?

• People who think the human brain is important enough to study and talk about
• People who want to keep up to date with what is known about the human brain
• People who want to read about the brain
• People who want to write about the brain
• People who want to improve their brains so they can perform better, particularly at their ‘work role’
• People who have a sense of humour/humor
• Creative people

Restrictions?

• Our group has committed to meet and surpass all LinkedIn requirements and rules, so a request to join our group will signal your agreement to help us excel in this area.
• We encourage creative thought and hearty debate….and ‘fair play’.

Tags:

Put Your Best Brain Forward

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Sales Tweet #155

by Rick Baker
On Feb 18, 2011
Sales Tweet #155 Ernest Seller is so experienced he knows how to make old sales mistakes in new ways.
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
That’s the Boss talking out loud. He is working on the right words to compliment Ernest at their next weekly sales meeting. As mentioned in an earlier Sales Tweet, those management-training courses the company gave to Ernest’s Boss are really paying off.

Tags:

Thought Tweets | Ernest Seller

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Allison Graham visits our Centre For Family Business

by Rick Baker
On Feb 17, 2011
‘Business Cards to Business Relationships’
 
Allison Graham gave an excellent presentation of her ‘business relationship’ ideas at our January CFFB breakfast…lots of buzz during and after the event.
 
While everyone knows relationships are an essential part of business success, few people provide straight-up advice on how to go about building better relationships with other business people.
 
Allison Graham is exceptional. Allison provides straight-up advice…both in person, as she did at CFFB last month, and in her book ‘BUSINESS CARDS to BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS, How to Build the Ultimate Network’.
 
Here are some examples of Allison’s views and recommendations:
  • Networking is connecting with others and letting others connect with you
  • Networking can be taught and learned
  • Put some strategy into your networking
  • Make eye contact when you shake hands
  • Your business card is still a great marketing tool
  • Print out your database, read through it, figure out the top 20 people you should get to know this year and the top 20 events you should attend this year
  • If you are over 50 then mentor younger folks…help them understand how to give
As you can see from the above samples, Allison provides definitions, covers the thinking behind building relationships, and recommends specific actions you can use to build your ultimate network. That’s a full package of help.
 
Yes – those were just a few samples of how Allison goes about helping people network.
 
To learn much more, you should buy a copy of Allison’s book ‘BUSINESS CARDS to BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS, How to Build the Ultimate Network’.
 
Here’s a link to Allison’s website www.elevatebiz.ca
 
Thank you for sharing your expertise at our January CFFB event, Allison.
 
PS: We like Allison’s book so much we bought more copies to give to our clients. Allison took the time to sign these copies. We would be honoured to give one of our author-signed copies to the first CFFB member who sends an email to us, requesting a copy of ‘BUSINESS CARDS TO BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS’.

Tags:

Family Business and CFFB

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Sales Tweet #154

by Rick Baker
On Feb 17, 2011
Sales Tweet #154 Ernest Seller isn’t the kind of guy who gossips about others...he talks about himself.
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
As mentioned at Sales Tweet #151, Ernest has this tendency to spiral-talk. He gets off topic and he spirals around talking about himself. While this is a bit of a challenge for the people across the table from Ernest, every cloud has a silver lining. Ernest does not gossip about other people. He does not bad-mouth other people. He does not bad-mouth competition.

Tags:

Thought Tweets | Ernest Seller

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The Perfect Pitch

by Rick Baker
On Feb 16, 2011
More thoughts on pitching business ideas
 
I had the pleasure of visiting with my friend Chris Labrador at The Communitech Hub a week ago.
 
At one point in our conversation we discussed business ideas and how to pitch business ideas, what works and what does not work.
 
I was impressed by Chris’ recommendations, which I will now share with you.
 
Chris recommended pitches be no longer than 5 slides.
 
Chris recommended those 5 slides cover the following:
  1. Clearly state the problem/opportunity (the two sides of the same coin)
  2. Why it's worth solving/winning (dimensions things and puts them into perspective)
  3. Who is the competition (quantitative & qualitative assessment of 'belief' systems - tangible and perceived - in play)
  4. How to address the problem/opportunity and beat the competition (the key elements of the value proposition ad differentiators)
  5. Assuming you've made it this far, the roadmap (key activities and milestones over the next significant period of time)
Chris – thank you for sharing your thoughts and excellent advice.

Tags:

Business Plan: Writing Plans | Communication: Improving Communication

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