As the year winds down I want to pay tribute to someone, who whether you realize it or not probably had a major influence on your life at some point both in personal and professional terms. Stephen Covey—the educator, speaker and businessman, and the author in 1989 of the seminal The Seven Habits of Highly […]
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Lindahl Joins Vested as a Center of Excellence
Please join me in welcoming our first international Vested Center of Excellence – Lindahl Law Firm in Sweden! It is not only exciting because Lindahl is our first international CoE that is skilled in providing Vested coaching, consulting and legal advice to companies wanting to implement Vested, but it is also the first law firm […]
Leading with Vision Takes…Vision
A recent Fast Company article talks about leading with farsightedness and leaders who are able to articulate possible futures in ways that are compelling and inclusive. The article makes a distinction between leaders and truly visionary, game-changing leaders; we know however that those in the latter category – a Steven Jobs, for example – don’t […]
Innovation Should Include the Business Model
Sometimes even the finest, most modern technology won’t get off the ground—or irrigate it—if it’s not in sync with the business model. That’s the lesson presented in an HBR Blog network post this month by Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine, “When Business Models Trump Technology.” It’s a story about a new spin on an old […]
Lawyers Suing Lawyers about Outsourced Legal Work
There are times when I read an article or news story and scratch my head and say, “Really?” That thought occurred to me in spades as I read about Unocal’s horrible experience from outsourcing litigation portfolio using a reverse auction process. The fiasco is described in an article by Ashley Post in InsideCounsel Magazine. Now […]
Put the Bias on Trust
Seth Godin, who as you know by now is one of my favorite “go-to” writers and bloggers, talks about having a “bias for trust” based on two truths. This first is that we shouldn’t “waste time” initiating relationships “that are not going to thrive and benefit both sides,” he says. Exactly! You don’t get to […]
David vs Goliath: Play by the Rules to Change the Game
I’m a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell. One of his 2009 New Yorker articles has been circulating around the internet of late and I paused to read it (again). The title is “How David Beats Goliath: When underdogs break the rules.” He uses the story of the Redwood, CA National Junior girls’ basketball team, which […]
The Competitive Advantage of Collaboration and Trust
You probably haven’t thought much about the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his “Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men,” lately, nor have I. It’s understandable. For one thing Rousseau wrote his essay in 1775; for another, he does not immediately spring to mind when considering Vested, collaboration and outsourcing. But thanks to […]
Mean It When You Measure It
I often teach, talk and write about the 10 Ailments that can disrupt, derail or even destroy an outsource or business relationship—and many of these ailments relate either directly or indirectly to the foibles of measuring performance. A recent post by Paul Michelman on the HBR Blog Network stresses the necessity of getting the metrics […]
Vested: One Size Fits All
The latest Vested book released this month, Vested: How P&G, McDonald’s and Microsoft are Redefining Winning in Business Relationships, examines how real-life, real-time companies use the Vested approach of collaboration, creating and sharing value, trust and innovation to achieve amazing long-term success. But this win-win formula is not just for the big companies named in […]
