Corporate Thought

Richard Medcalf

Richard and I spoke about cell phones and as he said: Don’t put your phone on the table at lunch or dinner.

Although there is nothing on this, I loved the idea of “I have a saying” followed by a mantra.

Richard spoke about language defining the culture.  Here is more about that concept.

I mentioned The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz to Richard and the first agreement to be impeccable with your words.

Richard suggested checking out the CXO’s Checklist for Challenging Times available on his website.

I was unaware of VUCA: Volatile – Uncertain – Complex = Ambiguous.  Apparently it’s a thing.  Here is a website to get you started.

Richard recommended reading The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb (I concur).

Richard can be reached at xquadrant.com and he podcasts at the Impact Multiplier CEO (available wherever you get podcasts) and on LinkedIn @richardmedcalf

Conversation 33 with Howard Polansky

I made a pitch for O.H. Ingram Whiskey - Hank Ingram, thinking you need to be the official whiskey of Corporate Thought!

I referenced the episode of this podcast with Joan Samson

With regard to meditation, I am referring to Dan Harris.  His meltdown.  The book I was talking about is 10% Happier.

Howard talked about the app Think Up.

Howard mentioned Dan Sullivan and his business Strategic Coach

Howard told us to check out the hidden page on his website for a video tracking his system.

Howard told us to read books in a particular order:

1. Get a Grip by Gino Wickman

2. Build a Business, Not a Job by David Finkel

3. Traction by Gino Wickman

Howard mentioned one of his favorite podcasts, The School of Greatness by Lewis Howes

Howard can be reached at [email protected]

Jacob Glenn

Jacob started his career with Hyland Software. 

Jacob had a difficult business divorce and told us how he dealt with it. This article may have been helpful to Jacob at the start of his businesses. www.thebalancesmb.com/why-business-partnerships-fail-4107045

Jacob speaks proudly of his team and brought the interesting point of asking potential employees about the hobbies and projects they have on the side. He explained that many of them work on side projects together. He believes it is important for them to use the valleys between customer projects to work on some of these side projects as part of the corporate culture and he will fund some aspects of these projects.

Jacob’s software company works on IOT (internet of things) projects. We spoke about IOT integration and he described a “smart faucet” for a customer and how it entered the mainstream being made fun of on the Daily Show. For more on IOT: www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-the-internet-of-things-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-iot-right-now

Jacob and I had a long conversation on corporate culture and finding the right fit with employees and exiting those from the organization that just don’t fit before the situation becomes toxic.

Jacob talked about books that inspired him along the way and how books that might have been important at one point in his career lost value as his career was built. His list of books included:

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosoki

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

Before the Exit by Dan Andrews

The Family Board Meeting by Jim Shields

Own the Day, Own Your Life by Aubrey Marcus

Jacob’s company is M Genio .http://mgenio.com

He can be found on Linkedin @jacobglenn or email him - [email protected]

Brant dropped a list of books on me and I have been very busy reading!

These include:

The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton

Goliath by Mathew Stoller

Team of Teams by Stanley McCrystal

and Dare to Lead by Brene Brown

Brant is the bestselling author of The Lean Entrepreneur

Brant started the advisory company Moves the Needle.

I introduced Brant to the Cautionary Tales podcast with Tim Harford

Brant also wrote The Entrepreneurs Guide to Client Development which is coming out with an updated version for its 10th anniversary.  Learn more at Startupbluebook.com

Brant is on all sodial media as @Brantcooper

and you can email him at [email protected].  He told us he answers all email and he is looking for interesting stories of business development to tie into his next book!

Adrianne used the expression “Building the airplane mid flight “ which reminded me of the similar metaphor “building the bicycle while riding it”. So I found this.

Adrianne told us about her “do not do list”. I had never heard about those before but clearly its a thing.

I mentioned Team of Teams to Adrianne. I’ve mentioned the book before but here is an article on the takeaways from the book.

Adrianne is a very visual person - She uses Trello and Airtable - she described as a spreadsheet on crack. 

Adrianne is a big learner and reader and uses LinkedIn Learning and Medium.com a lot.

Adrianne can be reached at www.savivets.org and on LinkedIn @adrinnephilips. You can email her at [email protected]

Marc Summe is an amazing entrepreneur and CEO of Minute7, a cloud based time and expense tracking tool.

Why do lawyers use 6 minute increments? I found this interesting article about the move away from billable hours for lawyers,

Marc is watching Ozark which I caught up on after the episode was recorded.  He just re-watched Back to The Future and reported it is still good after all these years. I mentioned The Breakfast Club, Ferris Buller’s Day Off, The Goonies and Gremlins as also standing the test of time but not Crocodile Dundee.

I mentioned John Krasinski’s Some Good News and Curb Your Enthusiasm as funny lighthearted things to watch when life needs something funny.

Marc also mentioned The Last Dance the multipart documentary about the Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

Marc mentioned Atlassian the owners of Trello which is one of my go-to tools that I use everyday and Stella Fayman, apparently now Garber.  Her twitter handle is @startupstella

Marc can be found by emailing him at [email protected]  He is @marcsumme on Linkedin or check out minute7.com

There were some connection issues that affected the quality of the recording but in typical Corporate Thought fashion, the episode is presented here with all the flaws so please bear with it as you learn about the impressive Jessica Katz

Jessica coaches businesses in Agile. She also talks about the subset Scrum. Here is an overview.

Jessica spoke about Gravity Payments and their CEO Dan Price and his decision to make a minimum salary of $70,000. Here is the full story.

I asked Jessica about the book Team of Teams which she knew well. It caused her to mention a company called Buurtzorgout of the Netherlands which is disrupting the nursing care industry by creating a teaming approach.

I told Jessica about Atomic Habits by James Clear which we featured on our social media posts recently.

For learning more about Agile and Scrum Jessica recommended Scrum Essentials by Ken Rubin. I think she meant Essential Scrum by the same author.

Jessica is currently reading (actually listening) to Paths of Alir by Melissa McPhail and next she is reading So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

Jessica recommends that people really start with understanding their why and to state the culture of their company right at the beginning.

Jessica can be found at liberatedelephant.com 

Ritesh and his brother Jigar are clearly both serial entrepreneurs.

Ritesh told the story of Justin Kan and the start up of Twitch

I taught Ritesh about Oblique Strategies, the card set developed by Brian Eno

Ritesh caught up on a show called Humans and he is currently watching Into the Night with his brother and dad.

Ritesh and Jigar can be found at theticketfairy.com