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ChangeThis
ChangeThis is our weekly series of essays from today's thought leaders that are meant to evoke conversation by bringing forth new and unique ideas.
ChangeThis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Economic Integrity: How Wealth Is Built on Trust and What That Means for Our Future
By Anna Bernasek
"For too long, the economics profession has minimized the critical role of cooperation in economic activity. Emphasis on the individual has risen above all else and overshadowed the profound ways we depend on each other. You may have heard a successful businessperson boast, 'I did it all myself.' I want to interrupt at that point. Every successful business requires the cooperative effort of many people—the banker who believes in the business plan, the customer who trusts the product, the employee who devotes precious time to the business and its owners."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Death and Life of Corporate Responsibility
By Jeffrey Hollender, Bill Breen
"Corporate responsibility—the notion that companies should include the public interest in all their decision-making—has never been so popular. Nor has it so often proved so phony. [...] Despite the surging interest in conscientious capitalism, there remains a yawning chasm between what companies say they value and what they actually do. Or don't do."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Bring Strategy Back from the Dead
By Walter Kiechel
"The vultures are circling. 'Strategy, as we knew it, is dead,' proclaims Walt Shill, head of Accenture's North American consulting practice. A January 25 Wall Street Journal article quotes him explaining, 'Corporate clients decided that increased flexibility and accelerated decision-making are much more important than simply predicting the future.' A recent white paper from the Boston Consulting Group hung similar crepe. In its research on global powerhouses the firm found some saying they don't 'do strategy' any more.So... Is it time to consign all your three-ring binders of strategic plans to a funeral pyre, maybe heaping the corporate planner onto the blaze for good measure? Well, yes—and no."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Rework: A Better, Easier Way To Succeed In Business
By Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson
"In the real world, you cant have over a dozen employees spread out across eight different cities over two continents. In the real world, you cant attract millions of customers without any salespeople or advertising. In the real world, you cant reveal your formula for success to the rest of the world. But weve done all those things and prospered. The real world isn't a place, its an excuse. Its a justification for not trying. It has nothing to do with you."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Stop the Busywork!: Seven Ways You Can Do More Great Work
By Porchlight
"Imagine everything you do could fall into one of three buckets: Bad Work. Good Work. Great Work. I'm not talking about the quality of the work you deliver - I've no doubt that's fine. I'm talking about the meaning the work has for you and the impact it makes."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Wrecked for the Ordinary: A Manifesto for Misfits
By Jeff Goins
"Something is missing. Something important. Something necessary to making a difference in the world. And most are afraid to find out what it is. This is a manifesto about the discovery process of finding what's missing. It's not as glamorous as a get-rich-quick scheme or as mystical as New Age spirituality. It doesn't shine with the veneer of a car salesmen's suit or catch your eye like a pretty girl. No, it more likely grabs your attention like a week-old bag of garbage sitting in the corner or piques your interest like nails on a chalkboard. Yes, it's hard, but it can't be denied."
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Blog / ChangeThis
5 Secrets of Sales Superstars
By Lisa Earle McLeod
"What's differentiates the great ones? What makes some people superstars, while most of their peers hover near the mediocre middle? It's not too hard to pinpoint the difference between average performers and poor ones. Easy to spot skills like work habits, product knowledge, communication style and use of sales tools, are all indicators of general competence. The challenge for most organizations is not determining the difference between good and bad; it's discerning the difference between good and great. Why are some sales people superstars, while other people in the same situation, selling the same stuff to the same customers experience a much lower rate of success?"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Customer Service Manifesto
By Joseph Jaffe
"Never before in the history of business and marketing has customer service been as front and center. So much so that it is being transformed and reborn in front of our very eyes as arguably one of the most mission critical components that can make or break a business today.The Customer Service Manifesto documents this sea change, introduces the 10 new rules of customer service and introduces a key hypothesis, namely that customer service needs to be elevated to the front office; to that of a strategic imperative which becomes a if not the key differentiator in the board room and beyond."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Is Your Product Launch Doomed?: 10 Ways to Identify an Impending Launch Disaster
By Porchlight
"Products don't sell themselves. The process of introducing a product to market is a serious undertaking. Unfortunately for many companies it's merely an afterthought; a set of deliverables created from a checklist at the end of product development. When the level of effort and resources applied to the creation of the product dwarfs that of the launch, it's no wonder product launches fail to achieve the sales velocity anticipated. What follows are ten easily identifiable signs that help forecast if a product launch may be in trouble. Signs you can address and fix before the launch becomes a disaster."
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Blog / ChangeThis
How To Fascinate: Why Your Brand Should Do A Shot Of Jgermeister
By Sally Hogshead
"If you're under age 45 or so, there's a good chance that you've tried Jgermeister. However the odds are low—quite low—that you actually enjoy the taste. And that's okay. Few people do. Very, very few. I'll wager that most of the people who make Jgermeister don't like the taste of Jgermeister. Yet the brand continues to grow at an astonishing rate. If so many people actively dislike the taste, how does the company manage to sell 83 million bottles a year? With sales increasing up to 40% per year since 1985, Jgermeister is the most popular drink nobody likes. Many companies successfully advertise products and services that consumers don't necessarily need (bottled water, luxury cars) or even enjoy (backache pills, oil changes, burial plots). But here's a brand that manages to sell an extraordinary volume—at a premium price point, no less—of a product that people don't even want, and more to the point, actively dislike."
Categories: changethis
The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin, and was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu, and Michelle Sriwongtong. In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling and writing about books, they kept ChangeThis up and running as a standalone website for 14 years. In 2019, 800-CEO-READ became Porchlight, and we pulled ChangeThis together with the rest of our editorial content under the website you see now. We remain committed to the high-design quality and independent spirit of the original team that brought ChangeThis into the world.