We glorify leadership and encourage everyone to be leaders. There are hundreds of books on leadership, a plethora of expensive leadership consultants, and even a pithy saying about being the lead dog in the sled. But we can’t all be leaders. After all, then there would be no one to follow the leaders. And without…
The numerosity heuristic can ruin your diet. According to numerosity, people pay more attention to the number of units rather than the type of units which leads to faulty conclusions. Research shows we will pay more for a 7-day vacation than a one week vacation, and will complain less about a flight that is delayed for…
Have you ever made dinner reservations at multiple restaurants and then forgotten to cancel the ones that you didn’t use? While multiple reservations might be convenient for diners, no-shows cost restaurants thousands of dollars per month. The most common way to reduce these losses is to take customers’ credit card information at the time of…
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. In English, this is a popular phrase that suggests you can’t get something for nothing. (Readers, is there a similar saying in other languages?) Like many common phrases, its origin is shrouded in mystery. At the heart of the phrase, the concept of a “free lunch” refers…
Learning about the numerosity heuristic can save you money. As a three-time CEO, I’ve had a lot of experience with incentive stock options and have been appalled by how poorly they are understood by employees. Many employees fixated on the number of shares they were granted, rather than the percentage of shares outstanding. They would multiply their…
This weekend’s Wall Street Journal contained an article by former Chrysler and General Motors executive Bob Lutz called “Life Lessons from a Car Guy.” Lutz believes that different kinds of organizations require different kinds of leaders. A loosely-connected conglomerate like General Electric requires a leader with vision and portfolio management skills; investing/divesting lines of business,…
At the 84th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, Sukanya Roy, a 14-year-old from northeastern Pennsylvania, correctly spelled cymotrichous to win the top prize over 274 other spellers after 20 rounds. Cymotrichous? I had no idea that word existed, let alone what it meant. Cymotrichous, which means having wavy hair, isn’t even recognized by the spell checker in Microsoft…
Even though I’m not normally a fan of prognostication, last week I attended the Churchill Club’s 13th annual Top 10 Tech Trends event due to its unusual format. Curt Carlson, President and CEO of SRI International, offered ten predictions that will most impact technology over the next three years. The validity of the trends were…
Would you drive 20 minutes out of your way to save $5 on a $15 calculator? Would you drive the same distance to save $5 on a $125 leather jacket? According to research from Richard Thaler, 68% of respondents would drive to get the calculator but only 29% for the leather jacket. On the surface,…
In a blog and twitter infected world, you would think that we have all learned to be brief. A never-ending parade of 50 slide ppt decks, run-on emails, and hour-plus lectures reminds me that we haven’t. It’s hard to get to the point. If you’re guilty of long emails or verbose marketing copy, remember the…