by Charles Plant | Jan 15, 2013 | Innovation, Leaders
I was upset yesterday to learn of the suicide of Aaron Swartz, the founder of Reddit and RSS particularly so because it ties into society’s debate about internet freedom. Swartz had been charged by the US government essentially for stealing academic papers in an attempt to make them freely available.
I find this somewhat disturbing as for the most part the taxpayer pays for academics to conduct research which is then published in private journals for which the taxpayer must pay again for access.
Even worse, universities pay faculty to conduct and publish research which is given away to the private publishers for free, and then purchased back from them by the university to put in the library.
This is just perhaps one more facet of the education system that is desperately in need of innovation. While some attempts at innovations such as the flipped classroom model, massively open online courses, online textbook publishing, and open journals have been tried it is still a very closed system.
The system protects who gets in, who gets out, how they learn, how they teach, research and publish. Because it is publicly funded we should deserve more but the system is entirely closed, expensive at every entry point, and self protecting.
Aaron’s death is a pathetic reminder of how a closed system can bully those who try to innovate from within or without.
by Charles Plant | Jan 14, 2013 | Leadership Development
You may have heard of the new trend sweeping the world of medicine. It’s called Evidence Based Medicine. It uses the best current evidence to make decisions about the care of individual patients. The logical ones among you might wonder, if they don’t use evidence, then what would they use?
Well Evidence Based Management is making its inroads into the world of business albeit a bit more slowly. Same question. If you aren’t using evidence to make management decisions then what are you using?
Evidence based management means getting the facts and then using those facts to make management decisions. Simple isn’t it but few people do it. What they do instead is make decisions based primarily on gut feel, habit, ideology, or even better, wishful thinking.
Evidence based management does not mean waiting to get all the facts, completely ignoring your gut, or ignoring ethics or values. It just means getting the best evidence you can in the time allowed and using that evidence as one factor in how you make your decisions.
by Charles Plant | Jan 11, 2013 | Leadership Development, Uncategorized
In case you’re worried about one of your plans turning into an epic fail, take heart, you’ll be in good company. Here are a bunch of epic fails.
- In 1899 Henry Ford started the Detroit Automobile Co. Unfortunately for Ford, its cars were too expensive and of low quality.
- Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express fame tried to introduce an electronic delivery service, Zapmail, in 1984 to compete with fax machines. Zapmail was a total failure and cost the company nearly $350 million over two years.
- Walt Disney suffered from a number of major financial setbacks in the late 1920s and 1930s and by the early 1930s his company was $4 million in debt.
- What list of epic fails is complete without Steve Jobs. Fired from Apple in 1985, he founded NeXT a company that made a computer workstation for educators. With a high price tag and reports of numerous bugs, sales never took off and NeXT burned through hundreds of millions of dollars.
- In the 1970s, Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Traf-O-Data, a computer business serving local governments that automatically read paper tapes from traffic counters. The business became a bust when the state of Washington offered to tabulate the tapes for cities for free.
by Charles Plant | Jan 10, 2013 | Leadership Development
Or could it be that you’re failing at planning?
- According to recent studies, between 70% and 90% of organizations that have formulated strategies fail to execute them.
- A Fortune Magazine study has shown that 7 out of 10 CEOs who fail do so not because of bad strategy, but because of bad execution.
- In another study of Times 1000 companies, 80% of directors said they had the right strategies but only 14% thought they were implementing them well. Only 1 in 3 companies, in their own assessment, were achieving significant strategic success.
- Research published by the Harvard Business Review shows that on average, companies deliver only 63% of the performance that is anticipated in their strategic plans.
If you’re worried about failing to meet your plans for the year, don’t forget what John Lennon said. “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
by Charles Plant | Jan 9, 2013 | Leadership Development
By now you should have set your goals for the year. Time to figure out a plan for how you’re going to achieve them. In case you need reminding, I’ve gone back to Aesop’s Fables.
In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.
“Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”
“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant,”and recommend you to do the same.” “Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:
It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.
I was upset yesterday to learn of the suicide of Aaron Swartz, the founder of Reddit and RSS particularly so because it ties into society’s debate about internet freedom. Swartz had been charged by the US government essentially for stealing academic papers in an attempt to make them freely available.
