Shop Talk Minipodcast - Sydney Finkelstein on 4 Decisionmaking Red Flags

We talked to Sydney Finkelstein, co-author of "Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You" back in March. In this excerpt, Syd discusses 4 red flag conditions that could indicate faulty decisionmaking.

Minipodcast (4:59)

For more information, you can access a web site with more resources about "Think Again."

Minipodcast with Robert Wiesheu - in-country agents for selling

In this minipodcast, my friend Robert Wiesheu, who has sold in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for more than 10 years, discusses a little-known corner of the sales world: the use of local agents to break into a new country market. It's a challenging area with lots of traps - listen to Robert's common-sense recommendations.

Podcast file (2:21)

Related post:
Full Shop Talk Podcast with Robert Wiesheu

Shop Talk Podcast: Roberto Verganti on "Design-Driven Innovation"

Roberto Verganti's book "Design-Driven Innovation" is one of the best business books of the year. It discusses the methods certain companies use to create products with radically new meanings, offering customers something they never realized they wanted and generating long-term competitive advantage and outsized profits as well. In this podcast, Professor Verganti discusses the ideas behind the book and how it applies to companies like Apple, BMW, Artemide, and Harley-Davidson.

For more information, visit the book's companion website.

Podcast: Roberto Verganti on Design-Driven Innovation (mp3, 39:41)

Timeline:

0:35 What is the "meaning" of a product?

6:00 The meaningfulness of the iPhone

13:50 The role of "interpreters" in Design-Driven Innovation

19:50 Relationships between companies and interpreters

23:45 What is the CEO's role in Design-Driven Innovation?

30:00 How much of the CEO's time is required?

33:25 More resources on Design-Driven Innovation

Related post:
Review: "Design-Driven Innovation"

[Theme music: "Up the Coast" from West Indian Girl's CD "4th and Wall"]

Shop Talk Podcast: Update from Honda's Todd Mittleman on Green Cars

We talked to Todd Mittleman of Honda last spring about Honda's environmentally-focused cars, the Civic GX natural gas vehicle and the FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle (which, at the time, had not yet been released).

Well, a lot has changed in a year. The FCX is now out, and that's the least of the news since then. People have reined in spending in many ways, not least of which is their utter reluctance to purchase a car from any manufacturer.

So how do green vehicles fit into Honda's strategy now? We brought Todd back for another discussion. Podcast file: todd-mittleman-mar-2009 (21:37).

Highlights:
0:25 Description of Civic GX and FCX Clarity
4:15 Positioning of "green" vehicles in current economic climate
8:20 Does the US government's support of alternate energy help the GX and Clarity?
10:45 Positioning of the new hybrid Insight versus the GX
14:17 More on the FCX Clarity
15:50 First customer feedback on the Clarity

(Photo: the Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle)

Shop Talk Podcast #17: Sydney Finkelstein on "Think Again"

I recently finished "Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You" and it is my favorite business book of the year so far. Sydney Finkelstein and his co-authors, Jo Whitehead and Andrew Campbell, systematically dissect why we sometimes make and carry through terrible business decisions--whether it's a poor acquisition decision, an ill-fated product redesign, or even deciding to park our money with Bernie Madoff or Allen Stanford. Even better, they let us know how to create structures that identify possibly faulty decisions in order to avoid them or, at minimum, monitor their outcomes carefully so bad ones can be reversed as quickly as possible.

Syd is a clear, engaging speaker, and was a delight to have on the podcast. Listen in for a 20-minute lesson on how we decide and how we can decide better. The podcast file is here.

Summary:

0:33 - Why studying decisions gone wrong is interesting and useful

1:05 - How our brain's evolution impacts sound decisionmaking

2:35 - Has the complexity of our businesses outpaced our brain's ability to keep up?

3:38 - Four red-flag conditions indicating possible faulty decisionmaking

8:03 - Decision-affecting attachments to people, ideas, things

9:20 - Important decisionmaking process safeguards

For more information, you can access a web site with more resources about "Think Again."