quirky

I’ve often been struck by how similar the job of a journalist can be to new business salespeople. The Times columnist Simon Barnes [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/simon_barnes/] passed on this pearl about his tuition: > “It’s the first thing you learn on

Bloomberg News introduced me to the latest in a long-line of recently uncovered shady financial practices. It involves hiding the true state of losses by misleadingly moving around debt positions; their scrolling headline text  “ Abacus transactions allowed Goldman Sachs to shuffle debt risk like beads“. Whilst such a policy rightly

Always captivated by entrepreneurial vigour, one tale I enjoyed learning involved B&Q. They changed the face of their sector in the UK, and latterly all over the world, even opening their giant DIY retail warehouses in China. When delving into the story it’s clear that of the

I was a victim of the hype and wanted to watch the 1st-tee shot of Cheetah Woods from the US Masters last night. Unfortunately, and perhaps fittingly, the live feed from the golf course went down and pictures failed to reach across the globe. I tried to see if there

I caught a glimpse of an entertaining niche in management and team training on a BBC World rolling news segment the other day. A group of German forest rangers teach leadership lessons based on how wolves behave. In lovely footage from the wolves natural habitat, one of the experts divulged

Losing deals? Not sure why? In denial perhaps? I came across a summary of 1962’s “landmark” The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions written by Thomas Kuhn, the lessons of which could help any sales person in a dip get back on track quicker. (Here’s a different overviewfrom wikipedia. [http:

In downtime lately I’ve been reading a couple of books that have an entertaining subtext; scientists can be wrong, you sometimes need to stand up to them. Sample quote: “…the arrogant side of science; a belief that it should have monopoly over the debate.”1 The precise context of

I can thank Michael Brooks [http://www.michaelbrooks.org/]‘ 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense for reacquainting me with Occam’s Razor. This is a principle that whenever you need to find or choose a solution, the simplest one tends to be the winner. It is reminiscent of the