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Can a Techie Ever Understand a Customer?
At the recent ProductCamp in Austin, I heard a well-respected researcher make the following comment: ‘Techies will never understand customers.' That's quite a statement. And it's false. I used to run a tech company. We employed 48 techies, so I guess I can qualify as knowing a bit how they think. As they began doing their work as project managers, programmers, and systems designers, I heard them frequently say: "Customers are stupid. They tell me what they want, and then when I give it to them they don't want it."
Place Those Small Bets, Quickly!
Nothing goes so well with that first cup of coffee as having your biases confirmed! In yesterday's Wall Street Journal ("In Search of Growth Leaders"), University of Virginia/Darden Graduate School of Business Prof Sean Carr, et al., lay out a growth model. There are, more or less, two flavors of companies:

Another Career Option Bites the Dust
I guess I can never be a Supreme Court justice.

The Ether and the Scrum
Every day I get emails from entrepreneurs that make me think. In this case, it’s from a friend who is on the fundraising trail. He started off the email with “I felt compelled to share this with you as someone who would appreciate it.” I thought it was dynamite and asked him if I could share it since – in its unedited form – it captured so nicely what I expect many entrepreneurs feel. And, just as importantly, it’s something I hope VC’s realize that entrepreneurs – even very experienced ones – feel.
Never Look Back! Never Look Back?
I will not tell you what got me thinking about this. And a lot of other data will be suppressed as well ...

Favoritism is a Huge Problem
John Wooden, the late famous basketball coach at UCLA once made the following statement: "Treating everyone the same is the most sure way to show favoritism." I puzzled over this statement for a while because I was taught it was important to treat everyone the same way in order to avoid playing favorites. John was indicating exactly the opposite is true. I believe his point is that individuals are all different, and each person has unique needs. If a leader treats everyone the same way, then he or she is really not being fair. Would you agree with that interpretation or is there something else I am missing in John's point. I believe there are seven antidotes to playing favorites in the workplace. They are listed in this article.
Celebrities And Their Three Basic Elements In Advertising Techniques
In all advertising techniques, the use of celebrities ranks as number one. Three basic qualifiers help the businesses to successfully carry out their purpose. These are Reliability, Appeal, and Competence. The Reliability is one that makes the consumers believe in the product promoted. The endorser therefore, must be reliable. His reliability as a person should be well established, otherwise, his reliability as a product endorser is dubious.
Our country is broke (in more ways than one), so how do we fix it?
An outside the box look at some of our current and future issues as a nation and world.
The Key to Extraordinary Leadership
What makes an extraordinary leader? What qualities do powerful leaders have that inspire others and help them achieve a new level of excellence? Anthony Robbins: "Leaders are those individuals who live by empowering beliefs and teach others to tap into their full capabilities by shifting the beliefs that have been limiting them." The most significant obstacle to tapping into your own authentic leadership abilites is what you believe about yourself and everyone around you culminating in an on-going story about how things are and how you are.Extraordinary levels of leadership are only made possible by understanding the true power of belief.

U.S. Dollar Forecast for 2009
Want to find out where the dollar is heading in 2009? Read on...
Why an Outstanding Resume is Not Enough to Get an Interview: Reason 5
Many people think that a powerful, well written résumé is sufficient to give them the edge needed to secure a job interview. While an outstanding résumé is absolutely necessary, it may not always be sufficient. This is the fifth in a series of short articles which outlines the factors, other than your resume, which could determine whether you will be amongst the chosen few from the multitude.
Why an Outstanding Resume is Not Enough to Get an Interview: Reason 3
Many people think that a powerful, well written résumé is sufficient to give them the edge needed to secure a job interview. While an outstanding résumé is absolutely necessary, it may not always be sufficient. This is the third in a series of short articles which outlines the factors, other than your resume, which could determine whether you will be amongst the chosen few from the multitude.
Floating with a sinking feeling a different perspective
Opportunities for adjustment to succeed in the current business climate

What Bookkeeping Software Package Should You Use?
I am well aware that there are few places for you to go and ask questions about the different accounting packages that are available. Not many of you have an accountant in the early days of business so where do you go for unbiased and expert advice on the choice of bookkeeping package? Do you ask friends and colleagues? Do you wait for months until you find a review in a magazine of 2 or 3 packages and use that? Or do you go to one of the large computer stores and look at what packages they sell and pick one of those?
Neat Appearance in Sales and Management
You see, if you stand out people will notice you. If people are noticing you among the thousands in the crowd you never know when an opportunity will come your way that will enhance your life. How many times have you left your house just to run up to 7/11 or something and you’re hoping no one sees you? Well, we all know what happens. Of course, the one person you never wanted to see you in that condition pops up out of nowhere!
SWOT Analysis Is No Magic 8 Ball
Q: A key investor in my business has suggested that I hire a consultant to do a SWOT Analysis to help plan for the future. I try not to argue with my investors, but I'm not so sure I need to have this done. What do you think? -- Laurie B. A: Laurie, before you call in the SWOT team to deal with this investor (sorry, couldn't resist that one), let me tell you exactly what a SWOT Analysis is and how it can not only help you plan for
Prayers That Are Always Answered
Prayer can be a touchy subject, often because it is so easily misunderstood. Once we can connect with its essence, its essential role in life becomes clear.
DEEP REFLECTION
A reflective habit is one of the most powerful techniques that you can adopt to become an increasingly conscious learner. It may appear at first difficult and time wasting. However with patience and practice, the real value of reflection will become clear.

Who Are Your Customers
Unless you can answer these questions, the best products and services in the world will not be enough to make your business successful. Focus on the customer!
7 Things You Need to Know about Employee Motivation
The process of learning how to best motivate your employees is long but rewarding. Employee motivation is one of the greatest factors that influence your business’s ability to generate profit, it’s important that you know how to motivate the people working for you in the most effective way.
10 Ways to Help Your Visitors Trust You
Trust is a key usability issue when it comes to running a successful online business. Most people automatically view web businesses with a bias against them compared to their brick and mortar counterparts. Your ability to convince your visitors that yours is a trustworthy business is one of the key components to getting visitors to convert into customers. Creating a website that conveys trust can be tricky. There are rarely any answers that are always "right" for every visitor. There are, however, several factors that have universal appeal to the weary shopper.

Effective Use of Corporate Events and Public Relations
Whatever you are promoting, you need to explain to your audiences on an emotional level. This article explains the how-to.

Ten More Important “Lessons Learned” For Leaders, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
Building upon another article I wrote on important lessons learned for leaders, I thought about additional important “lessons learned” for leaders that could be shared. The potential reward and return on efforts related to the strategic action to identify the “lessons learned” from our experiences merits additional thought. I found another great quote to share to confirm the value and importance of the “lessons learned” approach. The following is a quote from John Keats. “Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid. Here are 10 more important "lessons learned" for leaders.
Is There a Difference Between Training and Learning?
This free article by Derek Stockley defines the terms 'training' and 'learning'. The key differences are discussed and the implications for managers and team leaders are canvassed.
Quote: Taking African products where there’s no bias
While more established economies begin to focus on the revenue potential of emerging economies, many of those emerging economies are also seeing the benefits of selling to each other.
Five Levels of Decision Making
Clear, helpful advice on how to approach making good decisions as a leader.

ROI: Return on Investment or Return on Illusion?
Do we really know what makes up a true return on investment? And more importantly, do we know the cost/benefit ratio well enough to really ignore understanding this elusive construct. Read here for the reality about ROI.

Other bias Related Articles

The SEO Halo Effect
The halo effect is a cognitive bias that occurs when a person's positive or negative traits seem to "spill over" from one area of their personality to another in others' perceptions of them. (as defined by Wikipedia)

10 Ways to Help Your Visitors Trust You
Trust is a key usability issue when it comes to running a successful online business. Most people automatically view web businesses with a bias against them compared to their brick and mortar counterparts. Your ability to convince your visitors that yours is a trustworthy business is one of the key components to getting visitors to convert into customers. Creating a website that conveys trust can be tricky. There are rarely any answers that are always "right" for every visitor. There are, however, several factors that have universal appeal to the weary shopper.

Xenophobia and You
If fear lies at the root of every midlife crisis (and it does), then what steps must we take to defeat it? Overcoming cultural bias is a primary strategy.
Honest Evaluation of the Potential Opportunity - Healthy Skeptic Or a Dose of Paranoia?
Effectively understanding the process of online research when looking into potential business opportunities is an absolute must for the serious entrepreneur. Simply plugging a term into your search engine of choice and then perusing the results is hardly effective, and can result in inaccruate and unncessary bias.
Media Bias: Can Small Business Survive?
When I went to journalism school decades ago, we were taught that the media is supposed to be objective. In fact, the true hard-core journalists I knew refused even to vote in elections, just as a precaution against forming an unwanted bias. Wow! What a difference from that day to this. Now we are fed a steady diet by the media, not of the news and facts, but of the "direction" and agenda. Dissent is unwelcome on good days and openly fought on most. Not that it matters, but it's hard to figure out whether we have a state-run media in the U.S. or a media-run state!

Hyperfocus - Control Cash - Write! - Pulse Faster
Fast growth companies continue to hire even as our economy struggles to recover. What makes these companies tick? How do they continue to prosper and grow in these economic times? Here are our ‘Final Four” timeless strategies for doing just that. And successful executive teams gather once a week vs. annually to get some talk time around the strategies I've outlined for growing your business. It's about having a bias for action …
Change Management - Some Basic Tactics For Managers
Change has become a source of fear in many people, especially for those in the business sector. It is looked upon as something that signals the coming of difficult times. If members of the workforce would just view the change without bias, it can be proven to be far from what its reputation stands for.
The Red Team: A Simple But Effective Method to Improve Mission Planning
In mission planning, the practice of utilizing a Red Team is necessary. A Red Team is a simple means to overcome the overconfidence bias and the theory of "groupthink," the need for groups to seek conformity and unanimity in planning and decision making. Tactical planning processes must be subjected to a Red Team to minimize errors and to foresee future problems.
Confirmation Bias and Groupthink
Look for glass ceilings in your company as likely indicators of a confirmation bias at work. By adopting the "it's this way for a reason" approach, you'll challenge those reasons with objective data, begin to identify root causes, blast beyond groupthink, and begin building real change strategy.

Inclusion at Work and Why This is an Important Behavior for a Manager
Self-awareness is the key to Inclusion of work. Inclusion is a very important behavior for a manager. It helps in developing self-esteem, high productivity, bias towards people.
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