News & Opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
The $100 Startup
By Porchlight
Chris Guillebeau was in Milwaukee last night as part of his $100 Startup tour. The full room of people who traveled from as far as Chicago got exactly what they hoped for: Hearing Chris share some of the most interesting stories from the book, a discussion of idea navigation, free copies of his book, and personalized signing by Chris. What they also got was a great space, cupcakes, Milwaukee Beer, and pizza arranged by the great folks at Translator.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
The Finch Effect
By Porchlight
Charles Darwin once noticed that finches adapted their beak structures over a few generations to deal with changes in their environment. These adaptations were essential for the birds to survive. They weren't quick fixes, but necessary ones, which helped them find new food sources while other species slowly died off.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
LeaveSmarter: Stephen Shapiro
By Porchlight
Yesterday, Stephen Shapiro was in town for our private LeaveSmarter event, sponsored by BMO Harris/M&I Bank and Whyte Hirschboek Dudek. His talked focused on ideas from his recent book, and 800-CEO-READ Business Book Award winner for 2011, Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition. According to Shapiro, the main problems we have with being innovative, is how we think about things, the kind of questions we ask, and what we already know about the challenges we face.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
ChangeThis: Issue 94
By Porchlight
Unleashing the Creative Reservoir: The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited by Richard Florida “A new social compact—a Creative Compact—can turn our Creative Economy into a just and Creative Society, in which prosperity is widely shared. While driven and shaped by economic logic, the key institutions and initiatives of the future will be shaped, as they always have, by human agency. ” Build This: Your Culturematic Laboratory by Grant McCracken “Ruled by pragmatism and play, your laboratory is fast becoming the place you come to look out into the future.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
High-tech, High-touch Customer Service
By Porchlight
Micah Solomon follows up his book Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit, a book he co-authored with Leonardo Inghilleri, with a new book written just by him, titled, High-tech, High-touch Customer Service. Taking some of the core values of good service and applying them to the increasing level of technology that's involved in our interactions, Solomon tells stories and shares insights about best practices in this constantly changing, yet fundamentally human business landscape we exist in. I sent Micah a few questions after reading the book, and his answers are below.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Austin Kleon in Milwaukee
By Porchlight
AUSTIN KLEON Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative Wednesday, May 9th 12:00pm-2:00pm Hosted by our friends at: Translator 415 E Menomonee St, Milwaukee Steal, you say? Well, while we're not advocating criminal acts, we do want to invite you to a very interesting discussion with Austin Kleon, who talks about creativity, visual thinking, and being an artist online. Some of you may have also seen him in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, PBS, at TEDx and SXSW, or heard him on NPR.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
KnowledgeBlocks Delay
By Porchlight
Many were expecting our new product, KnowledgeBlocks, to launch today. While we certainly wish that were the case, some delays came up that were beyond our control. These should be cleared up by early next week and we'll post again here when the site is officially live.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Live In Wonder
By Porchlight
This book is a little different than most. Many business books, even data heavy academic works, attempt to inspire readers on some level. When we read ideas from people who have spent much time, sometimes years, analyzing, researching, interviewing and pondering how to improve work and life, we see the possibilities a bit more clearly.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Chris Guillebeau in Milwaukee!
By Porchlight
"DEAR BOSS, I’m writing to let you know that your services are no longer required. Thanks for everything, but I’ll be doing things my own way now. " Imagine that today is your final day of working for anyone other than yourself.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
The Apple Experience
By Porchlight
Carmine Gallo is no stranger to Apple. Having written other books about Steve Jobs, he rounds out his trilogy with a book about customer service, called, The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty. But calling this a customer service book is not necessarily accurate either.
Categories: news-opinion
