quirky

Amazon’s CFO made a striking claim during their 3rd-quarter earnings call at the end of October, 2020. The company had saved $1bn by outlawing non-essential travel in those initial six months of the pandemic. A billion dollars. It gained swift progress around the community of corporate counters of beans.

Another steer from the electioneer. Reflecting on the belief that negative campaigning was yet again the number one choice in the UK vote for campaigners just prior the pandemic. As it was for the previous most recent pair. An interesting nuance of it comes up in post-poll analysis. > Fear truly

> Keep inventing, and don’t despair when at first the idea looks crazy. Remember to wander. Let curiosity be your compass. It remains Day 1. Jeff -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Easy to say when you’re worth so many billions. (See his office [https://imgur.com/UuYbYGk] of 1999, & early thoughts on desks

Yes, salespeople are notorious for not being natural negotiators. Happier to give the shop away to quicken or avoid any relationship-straining haggle rather than buckle down into a serious hard-nosed deliberation over the basis of future client-supplier relationship. Another sales negotiation tidbit picked up lately reminded me of one of

Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a system that requires managers to justify all expenses afresh with each new year. I first encountered this in the mid-Noughties with a client suddenly swamped with execs from their Dutch parent. It wasn’t so much that the discipline was a complete mystery to the

The desire to have better meetings is currently all the rage. How do you start a key meeting? One where a decision must be made. Here’s a terrific paragraph from a recent book review. (A Tale of Two Tyrants, subscription req’d [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/

From a grey Autumn day in Britain’s second-city, Birmingham. A ‘parklet’. A hospitality venue, in this case hotel bar, is allowed to make a covid-compliant outside seating area where once parking bays lay and maximise patron numbers. This sector maybe more than most starkly split between those innovating and

dailymail table graphic -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another emergence from the Brexit deal. The planet’s largest current talks securing a £660bn arrangement. With post-match spin quick to surface. The British leaked documents preferring to suggest their ‘win ratio’ was higher; 28 to 11 with 26 drawn. The European Union strangely opting to