Doug's Blog Archives – Page 38 of 58

16 Dec 2009

The iPhone is Ruining the Country

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:39-06:00December 16th, 2009|Categories: Doug's Blog, Technology|

A great tongue and cheek review (by John Dvorak) on how cell phones and all of the bells and whistles that come with them are really just time wasters.

Let's face it, goofing off is goofing off. Pretending otherwise is… well goofy.

The funniest part, many of the comments are arguing with him about how they use their iPhones to do things like fly over a friend's house as examples of useful productivity (the killer app).

Don't get me wrong, every tool has a purpose. But if you are goofing off, don't confuse it with productivity. Oh, and get back to work, the […]

14 Dec 2009

Blue Oceans, Red Oceans and Small Ponds

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:52-06:00December 14th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

I just recently finished reading Blue Ocean Strategy. I found the book to be quite informative with a lot of good concepts that can be put into practical application. In the book they talked about the convergence of competition in the bloody red oceans and the need to create blue oceans of value innovation to break out of the red ocean into the uncontested markets of the blue ocean (read bigger profits).

One premise of the book is that there a sort of formula (a process and tools) that can be applied to create blue oceans in a low risk fashion; sort […]

8 Dec 2009

Clear Window, Foggy Mirror… Honest Self-Reflection Is Harder

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:58-06:00December 8th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

As I mentioned the last post, we are in the middle of some cold weather. I was taking a shower this morning and the sun was shining through the window, warming up the room. The steam from the shower fogged up the mirror (which was in the shade) before it fogged up the window. This got me to thinking…

Have you ever seen someone in a bad relationship or pursuing destructive behaviour and thought to yourself, the answer is obvious on what needs to happen next. Same thing when looking at someone else's business issues, the answers are fairly clear to you. […]

5 Dec 2009

Black, White and Shades of Grey

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:05-06:00December 5th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

I have two border collies. They are black and white.

Friday it started snowing and really blowing; blizzard conditions. Falling snow is white. Blowing snow causes white-outs, even at night. Ice you don't see on the road is called black ice.

This morning we woke up and our snow was grey, not white. Not a light grey, a fairly dark grey.

The field to the north of us is bare soil. The wind was blowing from the north all night… strong enough to move a substantial portion of the field into our yard along with the drifting snow.

The dogs were outside playing […]

30 Nov 2009

200 Posts and a Little Wiser

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:11-06:00November 30th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Mindset and Motivation|

Over the last 18 months of blogging I have covered a wide variety of topics concerning business, business strategy, HR, demographics, personal development, software development, etc.

In fact, if you look at the pattern of articles you can see the things that are foremost in my mind over a period of time.

Over the last six months, I have moved a lot more focus onto what makes entrepreneurs succeed. Does this mean I don't care about software development?

Nope, in fact it means that the software I am now interested in building is comprised of tools to help entrepreneurs and businesses succeed. I […]

27 Nov 2009

Information Overload – Blink

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:16-06:00November 27th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation, Technology|

Your brain processes things at two levels: conscious and subconscious (not unconscious).

Conscious thought demands information, cost and benefit analysis, pros and cons. We demand more information. But more information does not equal understanding. Understanding vast amounts of information is very difficult. You can still draw the wrong conclusion, especially under stress.

Worst of all, decisions take a lot longer to make. What if we make a mistake? If I just had a little more information I could make a risk free decision. Analysis paralysis. You can also make a wrong conclusion and stick to it because that is what all the […]

20 Nov 2009

Great Leadership and Management

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:20-06:00November 20th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

The age old discussion around what is the difference between great leaders and managers continues.

Marcus Buckingham in "The One Thing You Need to Know" sheds a little light on this.

Great managers are focused on maximizing the performance of the people they manage by developing talent. Great managers are catalysts… speed up the reaction between each employee's talents and the company's goals. They are motivated by helping people grow.

Great leaders rally people to a better future. The focus on the future and the drive to accomplish something new/better is what drives a leader.

Some people have both traits […]

18 Nov 2009

Becoming a Small Giant

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:25-06:00November 18th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

I recently finished reading "Small Giants – Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big" by Bo Burlington.

I enjoyed the book, though like most of these books, you need to determine how and what you will apply to yourself.

My basic take-aways include:

Find a product/service that the market needs and is willing to pay for,
Build a company that is great at delivering that product/service,
Determine what you really want from the company you are building,
Let your growth be a result of providing a great product/service and building a great company,
You have choices: you can be great and stay relatively small […]

17 Nov 2009

Learning from Experience

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:34-06:00November 17th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

I have a country neighbour who decided to put up a fence. They acquired those 6 foot high by 8 foot long, pre-assembled solid fence panels and proceeded to put the fence up using 4×4 posts set in dirt every 8 feet.

It gets really windy in this region. Howling windy. And they are located in an unsheltered lot.

They got about 8-10 panels up before the first wind and rainstorm struck from the north. The next day we saw part of the fence leaning at a 45 degree angle, a bobcat (tractor) holding part of the fence up and a bunch of boards holding […]

13 Nov 2009

What Does the Other Person Really Want?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:51-06:00November 13th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Mindset and Motivation, Sales|

We often go into a situation with preconceived notions about what we want and what the benefits are to the other person or organization.

This applies to partnerships, client relationships, vendor relationships, employee-employer relationships, and personal relationships.

Don't jump to the solution until you really understand the problem.

Otherwise your hammer will make everything a nail.

How do you get this understanding?

You ask and then… listen.

Simple in concept? You bet. Hard for most of us to pull off consistently? Certainly or the world of relationships would be a lot simpler.

Business Owners

What are your personal goals? Does your role in the business align with your […]

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