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
Being Open Without Giving Away the Store: The Secret Is a Sandbox Covenant
By Charlene Li
"What's often missing when leaders try to decide how open they should be is a coherent open strategy, something I call 'open-driven objectives.' With an open strategy, decision shifts from if you should be open—because social technology demands a certain amount of openness—to how open you need to be to accomplish your overall strategic goals. In today's world, organizations and their leaders must be open or suffer the consequences—distrust, leaks, resentment, and institutional sclerosis."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Renting the Dream: Housing in America After the Great Reset
By Richard Florida
"We've reached the limits of what George W. Bush used to call the 'ownership society. ' Owning your own home made sense when people could hope to hold a job for most or all of their lives. But in an economy that revolves around mobility and flexibility, a house that can't be sold becomes an economic trap, preventing people from moving freely to economic opportunity. Not only has that piece of the American Dream grown dark, but it's also clear that financial excess in the housing sector was one of the central causes of the economic crisis. Housing sucked up far too much of the nation's and the world's capital, and too many people—already overextended by the purchase of outsized houses—used those homes like virtual ATMs to finance carefree consumption. Every Great Reset has seen our system of housing change, and this one is no different. The rate of home ownership has been on the decline for some time now. Many of those who still choose to buy homes will choose smaller ones, while many more will opt for rental housing.
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Blog / ChangeThis
Interested in the Quickest Route to New Profits and Growth? Focus on Your Pricing
By Rafi Mohammed
"There is a fundamental 'profit disconnect' in business today. Companies work to bring a product to market by investing significant effort and money in research and development, distribution, and marketing strategies. But when it comes to setting a price - how businesses get compensated for their hard work and financial risk - most companies drop the ball. Critical pricing decisions are often made using arbitrary 'this is the way we've always done it' methods. Companies are shortchanging themselves every day."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Enterprise
By Tom Peters
"Enterprise* (*at its best):An emotional, vital, innovative, joyful, creative, entrepreneurial endeavor that maximizes individuals' growth and elicits maximum concerted human potential in the wholehearted service of others.On the one hand, this definition is pretty high-stepping. Idealistic beyond the realm of common sense. But examine it ... one word at a time."
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Blog / ChangeThis
What the Creative World Needs Now Is Organization
By Scott Belsky
"Great execution starts with supreme organization. Ultimately, organization comes down to how you manage your energy. Contrary to popular belief, organization is not about "neatness," it is about efficiency and allowing yourself to take action as swiftly as possible."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Get a Life, Not a Job: Self-Directed Career Acts and the Future of Careers
By Porchlight
"With the downturn in the economy, the elimination of jobs, and the increased desire for work-life balance, people are looking for more stability, greater fulfillment, and increased satisfaction from work. Unfortunately, most people are still operating with an old set of career rules that no longer apply to today's employment reality. Now is the time to take control of your career destiny so you can enjoy greater work-life balance, security fulfillment and satisfaction. The secret lies in understanding the new employment reality and rewriting the rules of what a career can be."
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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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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."
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.