On the Recruiting Value of Slogans and Bluster — Not

By Tim Berry

Is this just me? The message says “looking for ball busting MBAs to join my firm. (no wimps) great opportunity to kick tail in renewable energy.” Does that make you shudder? It reminds me of big-company sales mentality where quality is measured by bravado and the customer is a tool to be conquered. It smacks... Read More »

New Game: Social Media Snooping vs. Social Media Cleansing

By Tim Berry

The other shoe dropping: Business Insider posted This Company Will Expose All Your Most Embarrassing Online Moments a few days ago. It’s about a service company that helps employers by doing a social-media online background check on a potential employee. It was more than two years ago that I first saw a business plan for... Read More »

Those Sad Stories of Elephants and Mice in Startups and High Tech

By Tim Berry

Big squashes little. The elephant steps on a mouse and kills it, but never even notices. We stop on ants on the sidewalk without realizing. You can probably think of a lot of these cases. I had a friend who rode a big wave in the late 1980s with a PC-compatible add-on board that enabled... Read More »

True Story: Why I Lied to You When You Called

By Tim Berry

I’m a bit embarrassed about this story. It’s about lying. You’ll see if you read on that it wasn’t bad lying, not tricking anybody for any bad reason. But it’s a true story, so I’m posting it here because 1.) it might be useful to somebody; and 2.) I’m curious about how often it happens.... Read More »

Charting the Lesson of Wikipedia’s Jimmy Appeal

By Tim Berry

Yesterday I posted here David McCandless’ fascinating 18-minute talk on data visualization, in which he puts up charts and graphs as a window into patterns and relationships in numbers. Watching that talk led me to discover his Information is Beautiful blog, which is a great source of ideas and insights. For example, the chart shown... Read More »

One Real Case: Does Fake Buzz Work? Do Fake Reviews Work?

By Tim Berry

Annoying, yes, but does it work? We all assume spam works because it keeps on coming, right? What about putting fake comments on blogs, faking reviews at amazon.com and elsewhere? We all hate those tactics when we see them, but the real question for today is whether or not those tactics actually work. Are the... Read More »

3 Stories of Spectacular Trash-and-Burn Job Quitting

By Tim Berry

Talk about letters of resignation! Burning bridges? Well, maybe one of these bridges needed burning. Still, maybe we need to review the 1950s blockbuster movie The Bridge on the River Kwai, on the merit of burning bridges. There is job satisfaction, and end-of-job satisfaction. There are two great quitting stories in today’s news (or maybe... Read More »

No You Don’t Want a Blue Chip Business Plan Writer

By Tim Berry

I’m dealing with a very difficult question today. It’s about an email I received. It starts with this: I need a blue chip Business Plan Writer. My objective is to introduce [some related] Legislation globally and then to use that legislation to [help a family member]. Obviously I’m leaving out details. I assure you it’s... Read More »