Culture and Negotiation
Posted by: Owen on Wednesday, 30th Apr, 2008
Interesting chapter in my Negotiation text tonight about the emphasis some people place on recognising differences and similarities in particular cultures and the reality of how irrelevant it sometimes is. Here’s a poignant section from the text:
It is important, however, to recognise the existence of cultural diversity and it is advisable to acquire knowledge of [...]
The “sell cheap, get famous” ploy
Posted by: Owen on Sunday, 27th Apr, 2008
Here’s a great paragraph from the chapter of my Negotiation text I was reading this evening:
We are all familiar, I hope, with how advertisements refer not to ‘low wages’ but always to ‘good prospects’, and how buyers speak not of ‘oneoff low priced orders’ but vaguely of ‘the possibilities of high volume purchases’. The ‘Chinese [...]
Elements of Sustainable Companies
Posted by: Owen on Friday, 21st Mar, 2008
I came across this great list of attributes that are critical to the success of a start-up. Check these out:
Clarity of Purpose - Summarize the company’s business on the back of a business card. Interesting test of how clear your objectives and targets are.
Large Markets - Address existing markets poised for rapid growth or change. [...]
SEO for hire
Posted by: Owen on Saturday, 24th Nov, 2007
Here’s an interesting idea. Agents of Value offer a set of outsourced webmaster services including web development, graphic design and search engine optimisation. While it’s not uncommon for companies to outsource seo, I don’t think I’ve come across anyone who offers to take over the entire webmaster function. Presumably this model replaces having an internal [...]
In Rainbows - One month on
Posted by: Owen on Tuesday, 6th Nov, 2007
So, it’s been a month since Radiohead released their new album, In Rainbows, based on a pricing model where punters decide how much they are ready to pay for it. There was lots of speculation as to what this means for the music industry, but we now have some hard and fast figures as to [...]
Involved in Work Connexions
Posted by: Owen on Friday, 19th Oct, 2007
I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to Leo recently and will be helping him in the near future to develop his ideas and direct the technology efforts behind his latest initiative: Work Connexions. It’s a great little idea, one that is sparked from a need in the market for business networking and online [...]
Living in an online world
Posted by: Owen on Wednesday, 17th Oct, 2007
I was reading in the New York Times that Silicon Valley Startups are commanding high prices again, even though they have little revenue to show. Seems like nowadays all it takes is to hire a few technology gurus, go through the throes of company formation, establish a clientele and then try to sell your company [...]
FONtastic voyage
Posted by: Owen on Thursday, 4th Oct, 2007
I had blogged about FON more than a year ago and it’s great to see them grow from strength to strength. Today they’re in the news together with BT announcing a joint venture in a bid to penetrate the UK market. The details of the deal are still a bit unclear, but from a technology [...]
Finding Business Opportunities online
Posted by: Owen on Sunday, 23rd Sep, 2007
Are you looking for a specific opportunities to start a new business or expand an existing one? If so, the Internet is full of different places to look. In the Isle of Man we have WorkConnexions which is a brilliant resource for business networking. If you’re looking for something on a broader scale, check out [...]
Location Based Services
Posted by: Owen on Friday, 31st Aug, 2007
It’s been a couple of years since I came face-to-face with location based services (LBS). I had been at a Microsoft conference where a very early version of what was to become the MapPoint Location Service was demoed. There seemed to be quite a few applications that would have benefited from this, but there seemed [...]
Running a web conference
Posted by: Owen on Wednesday, 1st Aug, 2007
Have you ever taken part in a web conference? I’ve been wanted to try it out at work ever since I started watching Marketing Pilgrim’s Live Streaming Webcast. So, in the meantime I’ve been looking around at different providers to try and find one I can use.
Running a web conference can be an excellent idea [...]
Using the Internet to scale your business
Posted by: Owen on Monday, 30th Jul, 2007
I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Dr Helen Nightingale last Friday over lunch and we had a pretty interesting conversation over her plans to start up a new website focusing on delivering advice and self-help over issues relating to anxiety, trauma, insomnia and other mental issues. It was actually quite refreshing to [...]
Do it online … or not ?
Posted by: Owen on Tuesday, 17th Jul, 2007
I need to renew my car insurance this morning, having received a letter from DirectLine a few days ago, so I promptly headed down to their website to see how I could do this. Turns out, you can log into your account, see your policy details, even amend them and place a claim online, however [...]
3D Mind Maps
Posted by: Owen on Friday, 1st Jun, 2007
I find that when I’m studying I tend to keep notes in a form very similar to Mind Maps. I find it quite intuitive yet, I’ve never taken it a step further to look at computer information organizer software. There’s a selection of packages you can use as an Information Organizer, including FreeMind and Labyrinth [...]
Executive Coaching
Posted by: Owen on Tuesday, 29th May, 2007
What do British Airways, General Motors, Apple, Bell Labs and Oracle have in common? Well, they’re some of the clients of The Forte Institute, and what an impressive list of clients that is. The Forte Institute is a company that specialises in Executive Coaching and have their own methodology which helps them attain great results. [...]
