Start up stories for small businesses and entrepreneurs
I came across this BBC website called Start-Up Stories there’s some good material in here. I just listened to Max Levchin, the founder of Pay-Pal, talk about how he got started:
Destiny plays it’s role – he bumped into his business partner because he was seeking an air conditioned room to get out of the heat. Lesson: he put himself in the environment to meet people.
Change and adapt – the initial Pay-Pal business was designed for a mobile device. It changed to a web based payment system when an eBay vendor asked for their logo so he could use it as a payment mechanism on his eBay store. Lesson: create a product and get it out, no matter how basic. Then listen to customers
Don’t do it alone – he would never build a business without a partner. Lesson: don’t be afraid to share the pie.
{sorry, the BBC website is archaic, it wont let you embed their video in your site.}
With the World Cup in full flight, this short film highlights a disturbing side to the sport that rarely gets much airtime over the glitz and razz of soccer’s celebrity roadshow:
“deadly Mediterranean crossings, broken promises, vanishing agents, brutal living conditions, and families torn apart. It’s estimated that 20,000 young African soccer players are now stranded in Europe. Many more never even make it that far and remain stuck in transit, in port towns across Africa”
Is spanking employees effective? Probably not, if you apply the findings of a recent survey on the effects of spanking with children. A recent Time Magazine article reports that :
“ children’s short-term response to spanking may make them act out more in the long run. Of the nearly 2,500 youngsters in the study, those who were spanked more frequently at age 3 were much more likely to be aggressive by age 5…The odds of a child being more aggressive increased by 50% if he had been spanked.” Read more
It’s pretty simple really, corporal punishment instills fear instead of understanding and repeated reinforcement leads to the following.
Aggressive behavior becomes the answer to problems
Spanking has a downward spiral; it becomes less effective the more it’s used
It spreads to other children. Kids copy kids.
We see much the same logic when it comes to man’s best friend. Beating the hell out of your dog because it misbehaves is the worst thing to do if you want to train it: you create a downward spiral by relating good behavior to fear.
"I'm ok, you're the problem pal"
Cesar Millan the famous dog whisperer, is all about this – he focuses on training the owner, not the dog.
Much of this logic can be applied to life inside the office.
Ok, we don’t have literal spanking at work for the most part (there are exceptions of course and usually they prove to be costly – “Woman spanked at work sues for $1.2m“) but it does happen in the figurative sense pretty often. We all know about the Sergeant Major boss who thinks yelling and belittling employees is the way to lead.
Here’s something to think about.
Does ruling by fear at work have a similar effect to spanking a child?
Aggressive behavior becomes the answer to problems (child) ===> Communication & team work dies because nobody listens and everyone confronts (work)
Spanking has a downward spiral (child) ===> Motivation is killed and employees eventually switch-off. A culture of “Tell-me-what to do” vs “hear what i think” ensues (work)
It spreads to other children. Kids copy kids (child) ===> A company becomes what the boss does. The destructive culture spreads like a virus
As the world’s largest sporting event nears its curtain raising game next week and 750 millions viewers get ready to draw up their chairs for the World Cup final on July 11th, a controversy builds around the most essential part to the world’s most popular game: the ball. An article in the New York Times on the subject caught my eye because it made me think, is this another example of a company not talking to it’s customer?
The newly designed ball, christened Jabulani {“to celebrate” in Zulu}, is ruffling the feathers of everyone who kicks it, particularly, goalkeepers. I wont repeat the entire story, you can read it on the NYT’s website.
“The ball was designed to be groovier than a Beach Boys album, made of molded polyurethane panels with a grippy feel, and engineered to provide the shooter maximum control. It has been tested in wind tunnels. Robots whacked at the ball to simulate free kicks and corner kicks. The party-hearty wives and girlfriends of England’s players took it out and got it drunk.”
So it seems that it was tested and researched in every way. Apart from one, that is – with those who are going to use it (the customer). Surely, they tried out this thing with players and asked them what they thought? Maybe not! Obviously, they didn’t take much notice if they did.
It served as a good reality check for me. Do the easy thing and talk to your customers, it’s not rocket science (some ideas). Maybe, i’m over sensitive about this since it’s currently a contentious topic of discussion at my own company, OpenStudy.com.
