Category Archives: Functional Skills

Are You Afraid of Your Financial Statements?

I picked up this little book, Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements – the search for the company with durable competitive advantage (Scribner: New York, 2008), thinking that I might learn something valuable about the current economic mess … Continue reading

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Podcast – “Price is only an issue in the absence of value”

Learn where value really comes from and how to leverage total value.

This podcast is 7 minutes 21 seconds long

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“Price is only an issue in the absence of value”

At a recent business meeting, Stephen Giulietti (VP Wealth Management at Smith Barney, Boston),  dropped this business aphorism in the midst of a story, “Price is only an issue in the absence of value.” This pithy little sentence reminded me … Continue reading

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Podcast – Hiding Innovations from Customers

“Push here to lock end” – are you hiding innovations from customers?

This podcast is 3 minutes 51 seconds long. The text is available here.

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Hiding Innovations from Customers

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I learned something quite startling. The age-old problem of rolls of aluminum foil, plastic wrap, and other rolled goods jumping out of the box when you are dispensing them was actually solved years ago by a … Continue reading

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Podcast – Why and How to Develop a Business Plan for an Ongoing Firm

Why you need a business plan and how to develop one that leads to action not the dust bin.

This podcast is 13 minutes 10 seconds long. A transcript of the podcast is available in PDF download format here.

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Successful Intelligence – R. J. Sternberg – book review

Successful Intelligence: how practical and creative intelligence determine success in life by Robert J. Sternberg (NY: Penguin Putnam, 1997) (download a PDF of this book review whitepaper) Throughout my life I have been interested in intelligence, mine and that of … Continue reading

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“Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”

In today’s New York Times Warren Buffett writes about why he is buying American equities. He includes the following epigram: “A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” Here … Continue reading

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Podcast – Don’t Bad Mouth The Competition

More reasons why the old maxim is still true: “Don’t Bad Mouth The Competition”.

This podcast is 4 minutes 9 seconds long.

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Don’t Bad Mouth The Competition

The other day I met a business person and was chatting about the marketplace for his business – plumbing actually – and found myself listening to a small scale tirade attacking several of his competitors for what he felt to … Continue reading

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