Practices for Professionals – Effective Use of Discretionary Effort

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In this fast-paced marketplace and certainly during these challenging economic conditions, StrategyDriven Professionals typically find themselves working more than forty hours a work. More common among these professionals is a forty-five hour work week with others working fifty hours a week.

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Recommended Resource – I, Steve

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I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words

edited by George Beahm

About the Reference

I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words edited by George Beahm reveals Steve Jobs’ core beliefs about business in a way no other author has been able to achieve… because these insights come directly from Steve Jobs himself. George’s book systematically covers a wide range of topics from ‘Being the Best’ to ‘Risking Failure’, from ‘Passion’ to ‘Values’, and ‘Beyond Recruiting’ to ‘Firing Employees’.

Throughout I, Steve, three predominate themes are revealed:

  • the intersection between design and business values as expressed in products
  • the importance of people, teamwork, and organizational culture in achieving innovation, and
  • the necessity of cutting against conventional wisdom to fulfill what people want before they know they want it.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like I, Steve because it reveals the intimate thoughts and beliefs of a man who was not only a creative genius but who was also a business giant. Most of Steve Jobs’ approaches align well with the principles and philosophies we recommend business leaders adopt to further the success of their organizations. While we recognize that some may disagree with Steve Jobs’ approach to certain circumstances – and on occasion we do too, all agree he was one of the great leaders and visionaries who has shape our modern world.

StrategyDriven Contributors appreciated the layout of I, Steve, the organization of quotes around meaningful topic areas, the dating of each quote, and Steve Jobs’ life story timeline provided at the end of the book. We found that knowing the setting and circumstances of the Steve Jobs’ quotes provided insightful context from which to interpret them. As such, we recommend first-time readers review the ‘Milestones’ timeline presented at the end of the book first and refer to it often when reading individual quotes.

For it’s intimate portrayal of an American entrepreneurial icon, I, Steve is a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Tribute to Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was one of America’s greatest entrepreneurs who has forever changed our global society. This tribute video by Antonio Marotta and Diana Casadiego was made on one of Steve Jobs’ Macs…

…and this article produced on another.

StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures Best Practice Article

System Development

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Organizational performance measures work together to illustrate a complex picture of performance; cascading up and down the organization and horizontally across it. Subsequently, it is important that the characteristics of performance measures within the system be well aligned to enable multi-indicator information development and data flow.

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How to Turn Disagreements into Great Decisions for Your Small Business

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I find if flattering when someone on my team disagrees with me. It says they care more about the firm than themselves or offending me. The first thing we cover at our two-day strategic planning session is our ‘Rules of Engagement’. It’s posted on an oversized sheet and taped to the wall. It says:

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About the Author

Tom Salonek is the founder and CEO of Intertech, a successful technology and training company in the upper midwest. Intertech twice has been awarded a place on the Inc 500 list of fastest growing companies in the nation and is a seven-time ‘Best Places to Work’ winner in Minnesota. Building a Winning Business 70 Takeways is Tom’s first book. He also blogs at TomSalonek.com. To read Tom Salonek’s complete biography, click here.

Leadership Inspirations – Pursue the Goal

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“Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)
German philosopher, poet, composer, and philologist