The 2012 Influential Business Book Shortlist

The books on your shelf say something about you. That’s why most of us have books that we put on our shelves over the past year which we haven’t quite had a chance to read yet – but still display as a declaration of what we believe. As an author, I usually make it fully

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2013 Trend – Hyper-Local Commerce

What’s the Trend? New services and technology makes it easier for anyone to invest in local businesses and buy from local merchants. The consumer desire to “shop local” will have plenty of help in the coming year from a suite of online tools, innovations and personalization technology that help anyone in any location around the

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2013 Trends – Friend-Sourced Travel

What’s the Trend? New and old friends change the travel experience by curating where to go, and offering more local authentic experiences. Your friends are the new travel agent and tour guides, as a host of new services online and offline enable any traveler to get recommendations for unique experiences from friends. Beyond recommendations, this

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How To Spot A Trend: 7 Social Media Trends That Matter In 20 ...

There has been a single pink folder on my desk since January 15th of this year. That day matters to me for two reasons – first because its my birthday, and second because it’s the day when I start an empty folder with the intention of collecting ideas for my year end trend report. Then

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SBF: What’s Behind Your Curtain?

Several weeks ago I saw a television special about television (no, that wasn’t a typo!). It was one of those programs where they look at old shows and interview the actors about what their lives are like now. When they came to Garry Shandling, the former star of the self-created Larry Sanders Show – this

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How MindValley Is Building the Next TED (Only More Useful)

This morning I watched an amazing TED video of flying robots that can operate autonomously and collaborate with each other at the same time. It is exciting technology … just the kind of thing you would expect to come out of a TED event. As I write this, the video (and its big finish where

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What The Amish Paradox Can Teach You About Marketing

Last year on a trip back to the US from South Africa, I picked up a magazine about a topic I knew very little about. It is of the common tricks I use to learn about different industries outside of the ones I work directly with – and in this case, the magazine I ended

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The 4 Principles Of Delusional Economics

When it comes to economic theories, there is plenty of fascination in the business world around how to explain what drives business and purchasing activities. Behavioural economics, the field of economics concerned with examining why people behave the way they do when it comes to their purchasing behaviour, is hot right now.  Bestselling books like

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How "HateSurfing" Can Help Your Small Business

Most of us have heard the statistic that it is about ten times more likely that someone will post a comment online about a negative experience than a positive one.  It is not hard to believe if we just imagine our own experiences.  When we are a satisfied customer, usually the easy thing to do

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How To Make Your Business Recyclable Instead Of Green

Despite how it might seem, this is not another post about how you can create a more “green” business. Being green is a great business practice, and has the side benefit of helping your small business to make a positive difference in the world. When we think of recycling, it is no surprise that most

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