- August 6, 2018
- Posted by: Stephen Johnson
- Category: Vistage
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been
Apple made history this week by becoming the first company to achieve a trillion dollar market cap. Given Apple’s success in recent years, you might not be surprised that it passed this milestone, but its 40-year history has not been a straight upward sloping line. There was a time when Apple was nearly bankrupt …..and who would have ever thought that Apple’s renaissance would be due to products that weren’t computers, such as its version of the Walkman (remember that?) and then reinventing the telephone?
A short article from the New York Times recaps the journey to a trillion dollar value. This is required business history reading for any C-Level thinker. What a long strange trip it’s been!
Are You Under the Disfluence?
Fairly or not, life is a first impression business, and as the saying goes we rarely get a second chance to make a first impression. Part of this is how we speak, especially in front of groups and how we rely on “fillers” or “crutch words” such as “Um, “Ah”, “You know” and many others which communications experts call ‘disfluencies’, “that diminish our credibility and distract from our message.”
Spend a few minutes with this two page HBR article to help you and your team (especially sales people) make a better first impression and get the “disfluencies” out of your company’s presentations. (Share this with the young people in your life as well.)
A Big Box Bounces Back
The retail electronics landscape is notable for its many casualties, including CompUSA, RadioShack, and Circuit City. Once Best Buy was feared to be next. But Wait! Best Buy has not only survived but is making a comeback. Best Buy’s early years were about getting people to Best Buy Stores and onto its website; Best Buy’s future will be about getting its people into our homes.
Find out why Best Buy Should be Dead, But It’s Thriving in the Age of Amazon. With Amazon poised to disrupt so many businesses, this story may help you get ready for the day that it’s your turn to cope with Amazon. With so many traditional retailers, (Toys R’ Us, Brookstone, Sears etc.) vanishing, or about to vanish, it’s good to see one fighting back with great leadership and good ideas.
Econ Recon
The Urge to Surge: After years of very slow economic recovery, the economy seems to suddenly be in high gear. Will it last? (History says no, economies run in cycles) Economist Brian Wesbury has a few thoughts about the matter. Learn what he thinks about the “Economic Surge.”
H2Go!: The year may be a little more than half over but there’s still time to reach your goals. A new report from Vistage research, Decision Factors for H2, will provide some forecasts and insights to get you through.