Posts By Dick Davies

Innovation

Long ago, Merlin Mann wrote, “Innovation is starting where the last person stopped.” I remembered that. I figure good ideas are a by-product of posting two a week and seeing 20 a month to exercise my thinker. Or keeping good notes. Which means having paper and a writing stick most of the time. And payingRead… Read more »

Work

Jay Deragon has written a post, Social Shifts In Thinking, about how the American economy has fundamentally changed, and not for the first time! It’s a short post, well worth a read. His last sentence is You can’t see the solutions unless you change how to think about solutions. The same day I was treatedRead… Read more »

Choke That Temptation

I was presiding over a science fair last week, when suddenly, a new class came in and no judges were noticing! I hurried to notify the judges, but was stopped by the press of happy students, happy judges, real learning just busting out all over. Then I thought to myself, these judges are Ph. Ds,Read… Read more »

Judging A School Science Fair

(Guest post) Last Wednesday I volunteered as a Washington Academy of Sciences Science Fair Judge at Paint Branch High School. I was a bit nervous, because I never judged a Science Fair before, and my only experiences judging young adults and children were for student horse shows. When I arrived, a nice student led meRead… Read more »

Rainmaker 13 – Are You Making The Most of Your Opportunity?

Technology isn’t about electronics. Technology is about how we work. Moving forward is usually a random walk. The first few versions of an improvement are often hilarious…after we’ve recovered. Databases are capturing and holding a lot of information about our customers. That is supposed to give a great benefit for selling. To err is human.Read… Read more »

Sales Culture

The discipline of sales does more than provide the funds that power the organization. The skills developed in the practice of sales have a far-reaching effect on the organization. Sales as Change Agent The fastest way to change an organization’s culture is to change what customers buy. Communication The skill to enlarge influence is communication.Read… Read more »

The High Cost of Maintaining

I was participating in a market entry strategy session and reached a conclusion that unless you already have a commanding lead in a category, it’s better to build your strategy around disruptive innovation. Look for: Fewer features, Much less cost, Taking advantage of newer technology, and Scaling to many more customers. Sometimes “maintenance” is codeRead… Read more »