Tag Archives: Leadership

If you can’t answer these questions, your business is irrelevant

in Innovation

We recently met with representatives from one of the largest energy utility providers in Mexico to talk about their current issues and how we might help them transform themselves.

Before we met, I created a list of 20 questions to ask them. These questions, which went into detail about their their current strategy, could give us a inside look of this company’s thinking and what we might be up against.

Here are a few questions that went unanswered and thus got these executives to shake their heads:…

People don’t buy what you do, people buy why you do it

in Leadership

Amps can be a mind boggling thing and it truly boils down to attempting them and thinking. The best counsel I can give anybody beginning is to keep it as basic as could reasonably be expected – the less controls on one amp the better, you get what you pay for, size does make a difference and brand names are notable which is as it should be.

On the off chance that you’re a tenderfoot, at that point you may just need to buy a little practice amp, wherein case there is no genuine need to stress over which one to get as they are for the most part fundamentally the same as at this little size. In the event that a training amp won’t cut it for you, at that point Audio Direct are having some amazing review that anybody can follow securely and discover the amp they are after. Remember these are general tips.

Acoustic and Electric Amps

You will require an acoustic amp for your acoustic guitar and an electric amp for your electric guitar.

Acoustic guitar amps are intended to enhance the genuine tone of your instrument however much as could reasonably be expected. A significant part of the sound quality from your acoustic guitar will originate from the pickup and additionally mouthpiece equipment introduced or accessible to your guitar.

Electric guitar amps are intended to shading and somewhat, control the sound of your electric guitar. Various brands are known for their own particular sound. Specialists are known to utilize different brands of amps at various occasions in their professions and frequently use blends of various amps to accomplish their ideal sound. Be that as it may, it isn’t phenomenal for specific players to stay with one amp to deliver “their” sound. Here are three of the notable ones:

– VOX are generally known for their AC15 and AC30 sounds that were productive in the British Invasion of the American and other significant global music outlines during the 1960s. Prominent groups from this period are The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and The Yardbirds. Different clients of the Vox incorporate U2’s guitarist The Edge, Brian May from Queen, Deep Purple’s unique guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and the young men from Radiohead.

– FENDER are known for their spotless tones and are incredible for including impacts pedals and multi-impacts sheets. They are likewise notable for making wonderful blues tones, especially when played with a Fender guitar. Some popular guitarists who have utilized Fender amps are Eric Clapton, David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Neil Young, Jonny Buckland (Coldplay) and Kurt Cobain (Nirvana).

– MARSHALL amps are extremely mainstream speakers and are interchangeable with power. Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) utilized Marshall enhancement for a lot of his vocation. Jimi Hendrix changed amps all through his vocation searching for the sound on which he at last settled; he turned out to be solely a Marshall amps man. I recall the ’80s being overflowing with Marshall stacks as settings for some noticeable groups. Slice of Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver distinction is one such craftsman and Marshall has remunerated his guitar significance and dedication with two Signature amps.

Nowadays electric guitar amps frequently consolidate strong state hardware innovation and more established cylinder innovation, however numerous guitarists pick all-tube amps due to the tone quality and smoother nature of the amps bending capacities. All-strong state amps are frequently more affordable contrasted with their all-tube and consolidated innovation partners.

Volume

You should consider how boisterous you need to play… the stronger you can go the more you can appreciate the normal tone of the amp. Remembering this, you wouldn’t have any desire to get a high yield amp in case you’re just going to play at home, where in the event that you go it up you’ll disturb many individuals on your square also the individuals with whom you live.

Cylinder amps are seen by the ear as stronger than strong state amps and cylinder tone is as it’s been said ‘creamier’. The yield level can likewise be misleading on the off chance that you don’t see how the numbers work. A protected method to move toward it is in light of this unpleasant guide; a 5-watt amp is heard by the ear to be half as noisy as a 50-watt amp, and a 0.5-watt amp would be a quarter as uproarious as a 50-watt amp. To make sure you know, a 50-watt amp would be bounty boisterous.

More speakers on an amp will make your amp just marginally stronger. One number I’ve heard tossed around is that it is roughly 4dB increment for each additional speaker. An oddity of sound here (called scattering) implies that albeit additional speakers increment the volume yield, the apparent volume can be lower than if there are less speakers secured by a similar amp.

Head and Cab VS Combo

A “taxi” is the different bureau that houses the speakers and the “head” is the real intensifier. Heads can be very overwhelming (particularly all-tube amps) yet there are makers that make littler, lighter, increasingly compact amp heads. Combo amps have the head and speaker parts housed in the one bureau.

Argh! My cerebrum harms… I simply need a decent amp!

By the day’s end, you need to play through an amp that has a sound you like. So proceed to give approximately a shot! Take notes, check audits in magazines and on the web, ask your companions, converse with confided in agents, ask your guitar instructor, do whatever examination you feel important. Ensure you give these amps a shot with your own guitar since it is the sound of your guitar that must be good and satisfying to you.

How Leaders can set the tone for innovation

in Innovation, Leadership

Remember last month I told you about a client who told his staff that they needed to start thinking about what they’ve never thought about? Well this past week I went back to check up on them and see exactly what had happened since our last conversation.

Absolutely nothing.

I wasn’t surprised. The predictable ‘I haven’t had time to think about it’ came up. Sure, they definitely have some ideas like focusing on not just businesses but also consumers and creating a brand for that. Though that’s just an idea and they know they have to do it but again nothing has happened.

The President of the company understands that they need to make time to ‘think about what they’ve never thought about’ but hasn’t really made the decision to do so. Well let me tell you something:

For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting differently. …

Don’t look for examples, be the example

in competition, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy

I have a client who has (so far) the only SaaS payroll management solution for small businesses in Mexico. This is both great and bad. Let me explain…

In our initial meeting I was told they used Workday as an example to follow. Their reasoning was that Workday has a very simple to use and intuitive interface, plus they are the ‘leaders’ in the field. The studied them rigorously and brought the same principles over to their solution.

This hasn’t worked as planned.

Workday has and used a distinct set of capabilities that my client doesn’t have (development experience in new technologies for one). Plus the customer is also different. And Workday’s cluster of capabilities go beyond simple copy and paste design, look and feel.

These cluster of capabilities have to solve the customers problem, make his life easier. Ultimately that’s what matters.…

Innovation posts of the week: Combining scale with agility

in Must reads of the week
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Are you more credible as an innovator?

in Innovation

I found this question at the bottom of an article that states that in order . See below:

The research clearly shows that “when people voice creative ideas, they are viewed by others as having less leadership potential,” says Jack Goncalo, who teaches organizational behavior at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

That may come as a surprise, since many companies claim to prize innovative thinking.

But Goncalo, who led the studies, points out that our deeply ingrained expectations of “creative people” and “effective leaders” are often at loggerheads: Creative types may be seen as mercurial and unpredictable, while leaders “are expected to reduce uncertainty and uphold the norms of the group,” he says.

That’s particularly true in times of economic uncertainty. The data suggest that, when the going gets tough, people crave the security that comes from having leaders who preserve the status quo.

This study further reinforces what we already know about instituting innovation within established organizations, that the forces of human nature are the biggest impediments to innovation.

Naturally, this is the way it’s always been. Human tendency is to prefer the familiar, so naturally people who maintain the status quo will be seen as ‘better’ than creatives. Again, this is a matter of perception. The problem is, as is often the case, in times of uncertainty there are gaps that can be exploited. Opportunities open up because there is a restructuring of the fundamental ideas of the past. Everyone is looking for a light to follow and that light is NOT ‘the same it’s always been’. This is all counter intuitive, but most things that are uncertain are.

But this doesn’t answer the question of this post: Are you more credible as an innovator?

Before answering let me point out that being creative doesn’t mean you’re innovative, although the probability of that happening is much higher than if you’re not creative. Again, this is a matter of definition. What is innovative can be different things to everybody.

So the first thing that needs to happen is the organization has to come to a collective understanding of what ‘innovation’ is to them. That can then help inform how problems are framed and ideas are presented, because if the ideas presented are not aiming at something then most likely they’re going to be shot down and you along with it. I think this is where the fundamental problem is.

Are you more credible as an innovator? If you’ve done it before and it improved/solved a problem then yes. If the ideas are just thrown out there to see what happens then you’re staying right where you are.

We all know we need to innovate continuously to stay relevant, key is making it happen and then all these issues will be kept at bay.

Thoughts?

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Leadership vs Management: Tale of the tape

in Innovation, Leadership

After seeing Scott Berkun’s post on innovation vs usability in numbers, I decided to do my own search on Google’s Ngram Viewer and compared four words: innovation, creativity, management and leadership. Graph below or click through to page:

graph.

As you can see, in the last decade ‘management’ (green) is becoming less relevant in books. Incredibly so is ‘leadership’ (blue). What’s more interesting still now with hindsight is how from 1960 – 2000, mentions of management went to the stratosphere while leadership stayed more or less the same.

Why such discrepancy?

My take is that part of our education system (as well as workplace) is focused on creating managers. The whole industrial revolution was the major cause in this shift. My parents drilled this into my head also and I know a lot of my former classmates desired to become managers and still do. Managers are ‘the boss’ they say. That’s a flawed logic (fixed mindset) in the context of innovation because managers are like the nuts that keep the tires from spinning off the car while it’s moving, they keep the wheels moving. Steady as she goes. Whereas in the creative pursuit the tires will change a lot more than planned for. Hell, the nuts, bolts and structures will change too.

This is what’s taught in most schools: strive to become a manager because you’ll be the one to tell others what to do. Get an MBA from a reputable business school of mba in canada and be the boss.

I guess the economic reset put that notion into submission.

More leadership, less management

Have you ever counted how many leaders vs managers are in organizations? Lots. That needs to change to a healthy balance. My argument is not that management shouldn’t exist, it’s just how it’s perceived that is the problem. By creating more management (structure) we’re alienating others and our own freedom to create. We need more leaders not more managers.

Thoughts?

P.S. Just noticed that since I’ve been writing this blog I’ve never created a ‘management’ category for posts. Will keep it that way. That tells you something Winking smile

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