Many of the startup investors I know are disappointed that so few of the startup ideas they see are really innovative or disruptive. Most of us are incremental or linear thinkers, and we miss the really big opportunities, like the next smartphone or space travel. That ability to “see around the next corner” seems to be […]

Innovation is the key to long-term business success, both in startups as well as established organizations. Yet every business and every entrepreneur I know struggles with this challenge, focused on hiring the right people and implementing the right process. Yet, in my experience, the key seems to be more a discipline of innovative thinking from […]

If you are frustrated by a lack of accountability in your workplace, you are not alone. The real question is what you can do to improve it, as a manager, or even as a concerned team member. Accountability is all about taking responsibility for getting things done as expected, without excuses. Low accountability leads to mistrust, low […]

Effective communication is an absolute requirement for successfully starting a business, but it doesn’t come naturally to many entrepreneurs. Communication is considered a social skill, and inventors and engineers, for example, are not known to be social butterflies. Founders have to communicate their ideas and products to investors, business partners, and the rest of the […]

The keys to sustainable success start with building a solid business platform initially, with a strong support structure for scalability, sustainability, and long-term leadership. The proper support structure can only be built if you commit to and implement the following strategy elements…

Board expert Nancy Falls outlines the most common mistakes with boards…

Many entrepreneurs never get past their first-stage focus on their innovative product, scaling the business globally, organizing a structure to handle thousands of employees, and concentrating their focus “on the business” rather than working “in the business.” In my experience, here are some of the key elements of that “second-stage” of entrepreneurship.a

It’s no longer possible to separate customer support from the overall customer experience. Both are part of the relationship that you build with your customers through a compendium of all the interactions you have with them. Any one of these can be the key to amazing advocacy, or the beginning of an aggressive visible campaign against you. The world today is small, and there is no room to hide. Be responsive, do more, and you will get more.

The message I hear publicly from most entrepreneurs is that you have to think outside the box and take big risks to ever beat the odds and be among the less than ten percent that experience real success. But privately, as a mentor to many entrepreneurs, I see mindsets and attributes that may be equally critical to success but are not readily admitted, for fear of being too wacky.