The Big Short - A Human Story

Living in New Orleans, it is gratifying to see one of its native sons do well. With the Saints winning the Super Bowl this year behind quarterback Drew Brees and now author Michael Lewis sharing his recent book, The Big Short, Inside the Doomsday Machine, an expose on the recent global financial crisis, there is a lot to be proud of in the "Big Easy".

In the case of Lewis, once you start you can't put down the "Big Short". More than that, while reading it, you can't imagine the story could be true; but it is. More than just a recount of facts about the financial crisis and what happened during the past decade, the book is a deeply human story about a small group of people and what they faced with clear minds amid a group of lunatics.

Read Felix Salmon's review on the Barnes and Noble site, here is an exerpt:

The result is that rarest of beasts in a world drowning in financial-crisis books: a new book which actually breaks news. For instance, Lewis uncovers what could possibly be the single greatest trade that any Wall Street banker ever made: in December 2006 and January 2007, Deutsche's Greg Lippmann paid an insurance premium of 0.28 percentage points to take out insurance on $4 billion of triple-A-rated bonds from Morgan Stanley's Howie Hubler. Less than a year later, that $11 million bet paid off to the tune of a whopping $3.7 billion. I'll save you the math: that's an annual return of more than 33,000%. There's lots more where that came from: this is an assiduously-reported and beautifully-written book. There aren't many reasons to be happy about the global financial crisis, but here's one: that it brought Michael Lewis back to his roots, to produce what is probably the single best piece of financial journalism ever written.

The story illustrates how institutions run by experienced people with a lot of knowledge can fail, quickly and dramatically. What happened in the financial markets can and will increasingly occur in many industries, as leadership becomes disconnected from the day to day realities being impacted by rapid advancements and change.

Watch the recent interview on Charlie Rose where Lewis shares more details and views. Get the book and remember that when everyone thinks they know the facts sometimes they don't.

Why is Google Successful ?

Tom Davenport comments that "you can't emulate everything that Google does", and he's right. But it is instructive to watch his HBR interview as he outlines the unique yet basic things Google has done to be successful. Here are some of Tom's thoughts:

1. Develop a scalable platform;

2. Have an excellent method of testing and deploying new products and services;

3. Have a high tolerance for failure; and

4. Treat knowledge workers in a method that improves their productivity.

Methods of organization and innovation are fundamental to success in any organization and these are but a few. Our companies try and help people adopt the forementioned and other disciplines that are part of best practices for success today. Watch this interesting interview.

Helping Organizations Succeed - Leadership & Emotional Intelligence

Its funny, with all of the existing and emerging tools, the biggest challenge facing businesses is not technology, its people. To get folks to work together well takes a lot of ingredients. Unfortunately in many instances "leadership" is not helping. The issues at the top burden and stiffle the organization and inhibit the potential that readily exists but is unrealized because of the lack of awareness at the top. I have seen it over and over again in many businesses which I have consulted with and participated in.

Daniel Goldman shares some interesting instights on Emotional Intelligence pertaining to leadership. This Harvard Business Review clip, part of an excellent series, is worth a look to learn more about how organizational achievement in the LONG RUN is largely influenced by the emotional intelligence of its leadership.

What is Cloud Computing Exactly ?

I take for granted that many folks really understand what "Cloud Computing" is. Speaking at different events and talking with clients in the fitness, wellness, franchising and other industries, I've recently become more aware that many don't truly understand what the term "Cloud Computing" means.

Its really important for people in any organization to graps the concept of the "Cloud" because it is going to touch everything in our lives and organizations, if it hasn't already started to. Catch up on the basics with this video which is an excellent and short explaination of how Virtualization, Utility Computer and Software as a Service are converging to make Cloud Computing an important aspect of the world today.

Marketing & Twitter

Like a lot of businesses ours has been working on integrating social media. Many Kudos to our team, in particular Denisse, Justin, Robert, Rodney, Kelli, Kristina and others who are experimenting with Twitter, in addition to other tools, over the past few months. It isn't easy and we're just getting started, but we are learning more every day.

Many don't understand the value of Twitter in particular. But a lot of folks have learned, as this Hubspot article expresses, it is VERY valuable if its just used properly. That is the trick using it properly. Watch Mark Shaw's expert twitter tips video that gives some great pointers on adopting this technology to engage your customers and create a discussion friendly environment around your brand.