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August 10, 2005

2005 FC Now BlogJam Denouement

What a productive couple of days we've had here in FC Now! To help celebrate the second anniversary of Fast Company's team blog, about 75 readers volunteered to help host FC Now. Over the course of the last two days, Aug. 8-9, participants contributed more than 125 entries -- critical mass indeed!

I've compiled all of the BlogJam entries in an easy-to-access category so folks can catch up on the conversation in one fell swoop. Posts addressed leadership and career development challenges, teamwork, innovation and creativity, design, and a wide range of other topics.

Happy second anniversary, FC Now. And thank you, readers of Fast Company everywhere! We appreciate your ideas, insight, and involvement in the work we do.

Posted by Heath Row at 10:55 AM | 2 Comments

August 9, 2005

Pass It On

In British Columbia these are the closing minutes of Blogjam 2005 and I want to squeeze in a quick last item and a 'thank you'.

A member of the Vancouver Company of Friends passed along an Omidyar notebook that she'd picked up in Chicago. [Aside: Days when friends send me cool swag are good days]

When I opened the package a brightly colored plastic card, the dimensions of a hotel access card, slipped out. It read ... Giving Game.

Continue reading "Pass It On"

Posted by Peter Rees at 11:59 PM | 5 Comments

In Harmony

At the outset let me thank Heath and the FC team for giving me the opportunity to participate in this blogjam all the way from here in India.

As my final post, I'd like to point to Todd Sattersten's post where he asks:

Continue reading "In Harmony"

Posted by Gautam Ghosh at 11:59 PM | 1 Comment

Let's Make FC NEXT Next!

Well, I began this BlogJam just after midnight yesterday, so I guess I'll wrap it up right back where I started. After two days of reading so many compelling, rich and insightful posts from FC readers and contributors, I am more convinced than ever that Fast Company needs to launch a podcast as soon as possible.

FC NEXT (as I've proposed to call it) would be an extraordinary addition to the emerging podcasting universe, not to mention a fantastic way to extend and strengthen the DIY spirit of the FC NOW BlogJam. And I would suggest as well that an FC NEXT podcast would be powerful mechanism for revitalizing the "FC movement" as the publication approaches its tenth anniversary this fall.

Continue reading "Let's Make FC NEXT Next!"

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 11:59 PM | Add Comment

The Time for Action Is Now

The ever common debate is "What is more important -- the idea or the execution?" I have recently come on the side of action.

I have never found the idea part difficult. If you are a student of business, you can find inspiration all around you. Read the business media. Go to conferences. Good ideas are everywhere.

Once you have an idea, you have all sorts of internal hurdles to get past. Will it work? Will anyone like it? What if someone else does the same thing? Suddenly you find yourself in the decision death spiral, analysis paralysis, and all that stuff.

Continue reading "The Time for Action Is Now"

Posted by Todd Sattersten at 11:36 PM | 6 Comments

Life Imitates Art

The producers of Mona Lisa Smile, a Julia Roberts vehicle set at a 1950s women's college and focusing on a generation of women learning to stand up for their rights, settled a lawsuit today in Manhattan.

The retro (and not in a cool way) charge? Paying the film's female musicians less than they paid the male musicians for the same work. It's like it was the 1950's in the production accounting office, too.

According to the EEOC, Revolution Studios and Smile Productions LLC discriminated against 19 female musicians "with malice or with reckless indifference to the federally protected rights" of the workers. It is costing the producers more than $66,000 to clean up their mess - chicken feed - but they are taking some hits in the press, who appreciate the irony, given the firm's intended uplifting message. The initial savings can't be worth this trade-off.

I'm naive, I suppose, to be surprised this kind of thing is still happening, even in blue-safe places like Manhattan and LA. But it doesn't seem like rocket science to pay people who do the same work the same rate...I wonder if our only hope is idiot-proof accounting software. Because the human element seems to have a glitch.

Posted by Jennifer Warwick at 11:17 PM | Add Comment

Wouldn't Life Be Easier If We Took the Customer out of Customer Service?

After an unsatisfactory customer experience a few days ago, I had a follow up conversation with one of the managers. The response was that customers should understand that they cannot always get what they want... Say they wanted green olives instead they should be satisfied to be offered black ones... I also had to hear this decision maker let me know that he had a lot of things to worry about and that things were bound to fall through the cracks, he also offered that he had bigger problems to deal with than my little one... I was left to think that he was not a good listener and that his life would be easier if only he did not have to deal with his customers needs.

Posted by Serge Lescouarnec at 11:16 PM | 6 Comments

Become More Innovative: The 95-5 Strategy

Here's my contribution to our innovative leadership theme: Apply my 95-5 Strategy to pre-select the results. Like radar, relevant results come from reading the screen accurately. Focus beyond distractions and act on what helps you achieve your professional and personal goals, consistently. It's about results and this proven tool helps achieve results.

As Tolstoy suggested: "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing oneself." The key then is to make better choices on the most important project we will ever work on (ourselves!).

Here's how:

Continue reading "Become More Innovative: The 95-5 Strategy"

Posted by CoachPaul at 11:11 PM | Add Comment

The Leadership Web

A few weeks ago I attended a wonderful garden party celebrating the launch of a new women-owned consulting group. In attendance were scores of interesting, engaged women leaders from a rich variety of organizations, all of whom shared a common interest -- developing their own capacities as leaders and reaching out to connect with, support and learn from other women on that same journey.

In the forward to Enlightened Power: How Women are Transforming the Practice of Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2005), David Gergen, director of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, states that leadership -- regardless of gender -- can be viewed as a series of concentric circles.

Continue reading "The Leadership Web"

Posted by Beth Stoner at 10:54 PM | 3 Comments

Elvis Is Leaving the Building

Since my 15 minutes of fame (or fame among 15 people) is coming to an end... I wanted to express my appreciation to the team at Fast Company for inviting to be a guest contributor to Blogjam 2005. It's been interesting reading... and fun to participate.

Here's my parting words of wisdom for anyone who may be able to learn something about innovation from my own ride thus far: 24 years in general management, marketing and new product development...

Be passionate - Yes, strategies and processes are important. But personal passion, perseverance, risk taking, informed intuition and vision always trump process and conventional wisdom
Broaden your horizons - Avoid routine at all cost, push yourself to explore outside of your comfort zone.
Make connections - Innovation is all about seeing and exploiting connections and intersections of opportunities. See what's there, not just what you're looking for.
Work with people you like - Life is too short to put up with bullshit. The politics and backstabbing of my last corporate role challenged my values, but I chose to change my work rather than change my values. Work with people and clients you genuinely enjoy -- You'll be more creative and productive than you ever thought possible. I am.

Repeat... life is short.

Posted by Mike Docherty at 9:32 PM | 1 Comment

Call for New Leadership in the Music Industry

I was just listening to a podcast entitled The Future of Music hosted by David Slusher from IT Conversations. He was interviewing the authors of the book of the same name, Gerd Leonhard and David Kusek.

David indicated that he has made his own music buying a political statement since the RIAA started suing it's customers. I'm not certain who else reading this is actively boycotting RIAA labeled music, but I'm game.

Continue reading "Call for New Leadership in the Music Industry"

Posted by Miss Rogue at 8:55 PM | 1 Comments

Corporate Marketing Is a Conversation

I'm very impressed that Fast Company is opening up its server space to its audience in celebraton of the blogjam 2005. It represents an openness that we don't see much from business publications, and certainly not from the corporate world. What I find unique about blogjam is how FC now has evangelists who can serve as publicists for their magazine and their blog. Are there any of us who hasn't casually dropped the fact that we're blogging for fastcompany at least once?

It's smart, it's fun -- and it's valuable for companies to learn that their audience has something to say.

As Brian put it earlier, no company wants to get Dell'd. Dell's problem is not something that is easily measured in terms of sales figures for this quarter. How many people stopped buying Dell because of a Jeff Jarvis post?

Continue reading "Corporate Marketing Is a Conversation"

Posted by James Durbin at 8:16 PM | 1 Comment

How Innovative Leadership Impacts Customer Experience: Part 2

This may sound like the beginning of a bad joke: What do you get when you combine:

• A nuclear engineer
• A rap artist
• An FBI agent
• An AOL / Time Warner executive
• A professional stand-up comedian

How about a church leadership team? As an experience architect, I've been exploring ways that innovative leadership is imprinted on customer experience. New Life Christian Church is a great case study. It's one of those unique places where the customer experience definitely reflects the drive and innovation of its leaders... and there's something to be learned for all.

Continue reading "How Innovative Leadership Impacts Customer Experience: Part 2"

Posted by Leigh from LivePath.net at 7:39 PM | Add Comment

Inclusive Innovation

As I read some of the BlogJam posts, I cannot help but ask the following question:

If I'm not "personally brilliant," is there a role for me to play in the work of innovation?

I certainly hope and believe the answer is yes. If we're going to talk about distributed, collaborative "open innovation" that transcends the old-school proprietary R&D approach, then we need to think about how to make innovation as inclusive as possible, allowing everyone to connect to the work in ways that feel personally authentic to those individuals. I don't believe that we should try to limit involvement in innovation (intentionally or otherwise) to only the select few people who possess the "right" combination of genetic traits, personal attributes or learned skills.

As I wrote in a post yesterday, not everyone working on innovation needs to be a wild-eyed, right-brain creative power-brainstomer/prototyper. Innovation demands all kinds of talents, and I think we should look for ways to capitalize on all of them. Our organizations truly cannot afford to waste any brain cells!

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 7:00 PM | 21 Comments

Mind the Gap

There are few things that are more annoying than catching yourself doing something you know you shouldn’t do. I was talking to a friend of mine about this, and he, being the coach that he is, said this:

Much of our angst and frustration in life and business is based on being stuck in that gap between what we know and how we act and behave.

Continue reading "Mind the Gap"

Posted by Risto Pakarinen at 6:34 PM | 1 Comment

Intensifying Your Initiative: 5 Tips

Without harnessing the power of initiative, the wheel of innovation comes to a screeching halt. We all have a desire to "make a difference" or to make improvements in our lives, but for a variety of reasons, many people face challenges in regard to taking initiative in one form or another. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to enhance your power of initiative, and the payoffs are huge.

1. Give Yourself Permission to Decide for Yourself
Waiting for others to join you in your initiative can slow the wheels of innovation and drag out the process.

2. Make Choices and Act on Them
Keep in mind that you don't have to come up with the best possible decision, you just have to come up with one way that will work.

3. Don't Wait to Be Inspired; Get Inspired!
Take responsibility for feeding positive input into your mental process.

4. Increase Your Accountability
Practice increasing your initiative by stepping up to the plate and volunteering to lead projects.

5. Live By Your Word
Make a firm commitment to yourself that you will keep your promises, no matter what.

See the Tips for Awareness, Curiosity and Focus.

Posted by Jim Canterucci at 5:42 PM | 5 Comments

Don't Treat Me Like A Pre-Schooler -- OK, Do

In a recent report from Fox News and WebMD, research on preschool-aged children comes to an interesting conclusion:

A new study shows that children whose mothers supported their autonomy by giving them responsibilities and offering them choices in kindergarten were better off socially and academically later in third grade.

Researchers say this "autonomy supportive" parenting approach involves focusing on the child's perspective, explaining the rationale for requests, providing choices, and not using controlling language.

Wouldn't this be true in most situations? Aren't employees more successful and better problem-solvers when they feel a sense of control and ownership (autonomy) in their work environment? Hasn't Fast Company written enough articles to show that the innovative companies pass leadership roles around the table based on a person's area of expertise and giftedness?

Unfortunately, many "bosses" view their employees with the mindset that they have "pre-school" capabilities and must be controlled and micro-managed in order to be effective. If that's how it's going to be, they should at least be willing to include a nap time in the afternoon.

Update: This article in Management Issues adds an exclamation point to exactly what I'm talking about.

Posted by Tim Milburn at 5:29 PM | Add Comment

Barriers to Innovation

Following up on the discussion started by Roger Smith in his post Can Innovation be Bought? -- it's an interesting angle to consider that senior management's lack of familiarity or confidence with external innovations may be a barrier to their implementation.

But is it possible that the managers citing this lack of confidence are putting a new face on the old "not invented here" mentality? Many companies using "closed" models for innovation have long used it as a defense to maintaining their internal staffs and large R&D budgets. P&G and others are showing the true power of open innovation models in the market today.

Continue reading "Barriers to Innovation"

Posted by Mike Docherty at 4:58 PM | 1 Comment

3Q's: Dan Cederholm

The new workings of the Web require a new way to think about Web design. SimpleBitsDan Cederholm is a designer and writer who has championed simplified, standards-based design in his books and his work for high-profile sites like Fast Company, Inc.com, ESPN, Blogger, Odeo and others. We asked Dan 3Q's about enlightened Web design:

Q: It seems as though we're moving into a new phase of Web development -- the '2.0' era which will privilege portable, extensible, syndicated information. Some have called it the era of interfaces. Whatever the keywords, it seems ripe for the kind of streamlined design approach you evangelize at simplebits.com. Do you see the same sort of shift underway?

Continue reading "3Q's: Dan Cederholm"

Posted by Brian Oberkirch at 4:38 PM | Add Comment

Blog War 2006

I read recently where another politician has engaged a blog as a campaign tool. As the 2006 elections get closer, we are going to see more and more of the politicians and their advisors jumping on the blog bandwagon or as I preach, "drinking the blog Kool-Aid." As these candidates start to get up to speed with the blogs, you will begin to see groups of republican bloggers and democrat bloggers, all banding together for what I'm predicting will be a Blog War 2006.

Consultants and designers will be on full tilt demand as each side vies for the lead position in the Blog War. Battles will be won or lost on the best talent of blogger, and the best of the PR people helping spin posts and respond to comments. Those with the most readers will get the best publicity, and the one with the most links will win at the polling places. As go the blogs so do the candidates.

We already saw what the 2004 elections did with the power of blogs. That power will now be harnessed into a single focus and that will be to elect someone to an office. Albeit only a single tool, it may prove to be the most powerful tool in the hands of the proper team.

Posted by James Turner at 4:33 PM | Add Comment

Learning for Life

In an age where markets influence moods, mercies, and marriages, I thought it time to break from the business of learning, per se, to focus on its place in what matters most. I work hard to create time each day, amongst my agendas and emergencies, to learn. I can do so because I've accepted it as a necessity while also making it somewhat of a hobby. Here are the reigning truths that help me through.

1. Out with Balance, in with Choice. The term balance is a legacy from the years we worked to "have it all," implying we must juggle everything so it fits on some tightrope-walking life. Get over it; no one can do it ALL, whether living, working, or learning. Learn your limits. Realize you will have to make choices and accept that sometimes they won’t always be right.

Continue reading "Learning for Life"

Posted by at 4:22 PM | Add Comment

Expand Your Focus: 4 Tips

Expanding your focus is one of the most valuable aspects of developing your personal brilliance. When what you are doing is the same as what you are thinking, you are present and focused. In this state of mind, you have a feeling of mental smoothness, even when there's a lot happening.

1. Broaden Your View
Consider the big picture with all of its components and possibilities.

2. Look Beneath the Surface
Appearances can be deceiving. Take a closer look.

3. Practice Being Present
When your mind wanders into the past or future, gently bring it back to "now."

4. Observe with Flexible Intent
Be clear about what you are looking for in each situation and simultaneously be open to learning something entirely different.

See the Tips for Awareness, and Curiosity, as well.

Posted by Jim Canterucci at 4:05 PM | 2 Comments

Let's Start at the Very Beginning

"When in your 40s, do you get to actually, like, try something you've never tried and learn something new? So that's the great thing. But once you get into it, it's also the terrible thing. Because it's terrible to feel stupid again. And I felt stupid every day for the last two weeks."

So goes Ira Glass, the creator of the very popular public radio program, This American Life, commenting on how he feels about creating a TV version of his show as a pilot for Showtime.

Continue reading "Let's Start at the Very Beginning"

Posted by Jeffrey Cufaude at 3:56 PM | Add Comment

Planning 100 Days Ahead

For a while I ran a little mailing list called "1000 days." It was supposed to track plans and ideas and techniques that people were using to look at their life 3+ years into the future, and to think about all of the techniques you could use to be aware of your responsibilities and options that far ahead of time. After over a month of inactivity there and a bunch of changes in my own life I started to realize that while that's a very useful perspective to have for a lot of things, it's also really good and important and useful to keep a zoomed-in focus on what is happening in the next 100 days in your life. Conveniently that's about the size of a fiscal quarter, the time between estimated tax payments if you're doing that, and in some handy way just enough time to go from idea to prototype for a lot of new ventures. Here are some good sources for other people thinking about how to look at the first 100 days of a project: Continue reading "Planning 100 Days Ahead"

Posted by Edward Vielmetti at 3:42 PM | Add Comment

Opportunity in Market Failure

As an addition to an earlier post Social Impact and Profit, I want to point to a recent paper by Stanford's James Phills who takes a closer look at the role of the social entrepreneur in the marketplace.

In Social Entrepreneurs: Correcting Market Failures, Phills writes:

Continue reading "Opportunity in Market Failure"

Posted by Peter Rees at 3:20 PM | 1 Comment

Wikimaniacs or Wikirealists?

Wiki maniacs were in full attendance at Wikimania last week. Not just the participants in the Wikipedia community, but users and developers of open source wiki. Seventy of 400 attendees were members of the press, which served to amplify the impact of the event, but also highlight the changing of the guard.

Jimmy Wales was busy doing more than putting a face on a community with back to back interviews throughout the conference. One interview with a German daily, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, was poorly translated into a Reuters story that ran with the false lead that Wikipedia was going to tighten editorial controls and consequently Slashdotted.

Continue reading "Wikimaniacs or Wikirealists?"

Posted by Ross Mayfield at 2:53 PM | Add Comment

Differentiation That Works?

Mark Northern asked in his previous post about differentiators that work. Here's .02 cents from someone in the trenches with folks engineering new products and messages every day.

The differentiators that work are the differentiators that matter most. The differentiators that matter most depend on the individual. Individuals in today's marketplace don't always know what they want, and are conditioned to be more fickle, discontent and less patient.

Delivering differentiation messaging effectively is unquestionably more complex today than it ever has been. This isn't just because our customers are now more educated than ever. We're also dealing with online and offline channel proliferation, a lack of data standards, systems integration, and a shortage of seasoned quantitative analytics staff who can make sense out of mounting customer information...

But that's a topic for another day... Here's the good news: In this era of tight competition and commoditization, the differentiator that matters most may have less to do with your product than you think.

Continue reading "Differentiation That Works?"

Posted by Leigh from LivePath.net at 2:46 PM | Add Comment

Effective Innovation: Large or Small?

Which companies are the most effective in investing in innovation/R&D? Large companies have many more resources to dedicate, but small companies specialize in what they know best. So is there a way to determine which gets the biggest bang for their buck?

In 2004 Journal of Business & Economic Studies article "R&D intensity and financial constraints," Benedicte Millet-Reyes investigated the impacts of financial constraints on the return achieved by R&D projects. He determined that larger firms invested a significantly higher percentage of their revenues in R&D than did smaller firms. But, smaller firms generated a return on their investment that was 19% higher than larger firms. He believes that this difference is due to smaller firms spending more time and effort selecting a project in which to invest. The financial constraints of the smaller firm require it to make fewer, but more critical, decisions about how to invest its resources. Increased attention in the selection process has a direct impact on the return of the R&D project.

He also determined that smaller firms experienced a higher cost of capital, therefore, higher returns from a research project are required in order to justify its pursuit. So perhaps small firms are in a position where they have to be more effective in their research if they are to remain solvent.

Posted by Roger Smith at 2:46 PM

More Advice from a Clueless Small Business Wannabe

This is a continuation of an entry I posted yesterday, examining the lessons I've learned over the last year of trying to teach myself business topics, specifically so that I can hopefully start a new commercial arts center here in Chicago next year.

The government is your friend. Being in the arts as I have over the last 16 years, I've tended over the years to see the government mostly as irrelevant at best, sometimes dangerous at worst. One of the great pleasant surprises of the last year, though, has been discovering how legitimately great the Small Business Administration here in the US really is, and how (at least here in Chicago) they really do want to help Capraesque people like me (with an idea and a dream, dagnabit, and, well, not much else).

Continue reading "More Advice from a Clueless Small Business Wannabe"

Posted by Jason Pettus at 2:42 PM | Add Comment

Get Out

Studies at the University of Illinois' Human Environment Research Laboratory make the case that symptoms of ADD/ADHD may be greatly reduced by spending time in nature. The greener the setting the more relief.

If kids who spend more time outside pay more attention inside shouldn't we consider that the same might be true for us?

Working and playing in outdoor settings restores focus and improves concentration. Plus, green spaces tend to help us be more creative and authentic. There's something magical about being around bugs and in fresh air that keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously or from thinking in the same old ways.

Do you take some of your indoor work outside? If so, tell us what and how it goes.

Posted by at 2:41 PM | Add Comment

Small + Disruptive = Powerful

I live a stone's throw from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Apple is hiring.

But it's not the Apples, Oracles, Intels or Ciscos that make the economy hum here. "Historically, it is start-ups, not established companies, that create the bulk of new jobs here," says the San Jose Mercury News this past Sunday.

And there's lots of venture capital money flowing into innovative start-ups (far higher than any year before 1999). Yet the question remains, "So Why Isn't the Valley Booming?" (San Jose Mercury News, August 7, 2005).

Continue reading "Small + Disruptive = Powerful"

Posted by Evelyn Rodriguez at 2:20 PM | Add Comment

Professional Development with ROI?

Most team building and professional development curriculums are very good at creating an atmosphere of fun and connection. Playing games and executing team exercises definitely have their place. And it is good to deepen relationships and increase communication. But the purpose behind any professional development program should be about acquiring the very skills that allow your team to produce more and better results... in other words... INCREASE PROFIT.

So why does a manager, entrepreneur or CEO struggle so much with motivating their staff strive for more? Two Reasons 1) people only operate from a place of self-interest 2) Philosophically more attention needs to be paid on the purpose of business.

Neither one of which are complicated, but do require some explanation.

Continue reading "Professional Development with ROI?"

Posted by Mark Allen Grainger at 2:13 PM | Add Comment

Why All the M&A Activity? Count Your Sandwich Shops

Why do you think today's business news is teeming with M&A activity: Adidas buys Reebok. P&G buys Gillette. SBC buys AT&T. Because the old guard is searching for a solution. A solution to what? Let me enlighten you by telling you about some recent sandwich shop activity right outside my office door.

When I moved into my office about four years ago, there were three Italian sandwich establishments within a one-block radius (Fortunately for me, there was also a YMCA within walking distance). The subs at all three (or hoagies, heroes, grinders, poor boys, torpedoes) were all above average in quality and competitively priced. It was truly difficult to tell one tuna with the works from another.

Fast-forward four years and the number of sub shops has doubled, without a corresponding increase in population. And now you can indeed tell the difference between one tuna with the works and another, due primarily to the uniqueness of the bread. What does this have to do with M&A activity? Everything.

Continue reading "Why All the M&A Activity? Count Your Sandwich Shops"

Posted by Tom Asacker at 2:10 PM | Add Comment

Dude, You're Getting Dell'd

Or: Are you really ready for the rise of DIY media?

We'll let others hash out if Web 2.0 is the right term for what is happening on the Web right now. What is already having an impact on the way we do business is the arrival of the remixable Web, with the 'audience' now taking an active role with their own DIY media tools. Blogs, sure. But also homebrewed podcasts, shared & tagged photo libraries, and now, today, word of YouTube (flickr for video). With tools like Technorati & del.icio.us, these do-it-yourself media creations find their own audience. And quickly.

What's your plan for listening in and responding to this multitude of voices?

Continue reading "Dude, You're Getting Dell'd"

Posted by Brian Oberkirch at 2:08 PM | 7 Comments

Honestly! Can You Succeed Honestly?

Lew Wasserman said, "First you get on, then you get honest, then you get honors." How honest and transparent can you be and still succeed? Errors of omission are as egregious as errors of commision from a purely ethical standpoint. How ethical is it when you urgently need to raise money to "maneuver" another person's mindset to create an urgency in them to give you their money that may not be a true urgency for them? Maybe it comes down to having a competitive advantage. After all Tiger Woods doesn't need to cheat. Why should you?

Posted by at 1:53 PM | 1 Comment

Finding My Path in the Blogosphere...

Even though I toyed on and off with Blogs using first Blogger and mostly Typepad it is not until March of this year (2005) that I became a steady blogger. I have to thank Debbie Galant of Baristanet for giving me a ready made name Serge The Concierge for my first blog when she first wrote about my business, Montclair Concierges.

I started the Blog as a way to communicate with potential customers by sharing things I know about and also things related somehow to the services we offer. It has been interesting to see some food and music items picked up by readers around the world. I am trying to keep my blog writing part of my day even though I skip some days due to lack of time or inspiration.

Continue reading "Finding My Path in the Blogosphere..."

Posted by Serge Lescouarnec at 1:44 PM | Add Comment

Catalyze Curiosity: 7 Tips

Curiosity helps you clarify problems, ideas, and situations, and it encourages you to explore how they could be different. Actively exploring the environme