Last month, I did a presentation at Linn Area Credit Union in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on innovation. The CEO, Jenny Lorenz, had heard me deliver this talk at the Symitar Annual Conference and arranged for me to come and also deliver it to her entire team. It’s one thing to talk a good game related […]
Category Archives: Management
Are Terms of Service a Mandate or Guideline?
On October 13th, there was an organized effort to boycott Twitter. I have previously written a blog post “Are You Prepared for a Boycott?” but I wanted to further explore the incident. The galvanizing issue was Twitter’s suspension of Rose McGowan’s account over “violations of policy” stemming from a phone number Ms. McGowan had tweeted. […]
Can you overcome the Einstellung Effect?
Can your brain come up with truly creative ideas that overpower your built-in confirmation bias? Or does your experience with “good” solutions in the past negate your ability to come up with “great” ideas? Scientific American released a special edition magazine this year focused on “Mysteries of the Mind.” Beginning on page 29, there was […]
My Interview with Ray Davis
As emcee of the Community Bankers Association of Georgia annual conference, I interviewed Ray Davis, former CEO of Umpqua Bank. Ray is iconic for taking Umpqua, a small $140 million institution located in rural Oregon, and transforming it into a $20 billion juggernaut. As I frequently talk about the success of Umpqua when I speak […]
Branch of the Future? I Hope Not!
I was in Atlanta, Georgia, for a series of business meetings, and happened to be at a trendy restaurant near the Federal Reserve Bank in Midtown. My breakfast meeting was ending, and as we were discussing the state of branch transformation in financial institutions, my guest suggested I check out the new Bank of America […]
Cocky Goliaths Can Fall Hard
The year was 2004. Two software giants were duking it out for supremacy in the microcomputer market. Well, that’s not really true. They were not equally gigantic, at least in relative terms. The giant was Microsoft and in 2004, it had a revenue of $36 billion. Its “competitor” was Apple and in 2004, it had […]
Does OK Mean I Agree or I Understand?
Words matter. They convey a specific meaning, both to the speaker and to the listener, but the meaning sent is not always the meaning received. Picture a husband or wife coming in the door to his or her home after a hard day of work. Their spouse is in the kitchen, busily preparing dinner. “Hi […]
Jamaican Blue Coffee
While I was in Jamaica for the Destination Experience event, I took the opportunity to learn more about Jamaican coffee production. As an owner of an artisan coffee roasting business (www.thebeanery.com), I try to learn as much as possible about coffee production. Since I was in Jamaica, I wanted to connect with someone who makes […]
Dr. Kingsley Chin and Knowing Your Why
Upon arrival in Jamaica, I was alerted that one of the Destination Experience advisory board members would come to the airport and pick us up for the long ride from Montego Bay to Kingston. This saved us from an even longer bus ride. We met up with Ron McKay and during that 3-hour drive, I got […]
A BMW’r? For Me? OK!
I traveled to Austin for a consulting engagement and arrived at AVIS Preferred to pick up my rental car. Normally, my name is on the Preferred board, where you can just find your name, identify the space in which your car is waiting, and off you go. Every now and then, however, I find my […]