I am a historian by initial training and I love a good story. Though the great man (gender deliberate) of history approach has had its day there are still things that we can learn from stories of notable individuals. JB Steenkamp’s Time To Lead is the archetype of old-fashioned history-based leadership work. When you think…
The Perils Of Status
Most people worry about being low status. That makes sense. It really isn’t great to be low status. Academia is so status-obsessed it often makes me laugh. Doctor this, and professor that. I’m just waiting for carpets that non-doctors can’t walk on and we’ll have gone full-on House of Lords. This reminds me of the…
In Defense Of Robots And Their Judgments
A second post on the book, Noise, by Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein. For the first see here. The authors are experts in human judgment and they have a few useful comments in defense of robots and their judgments. Arguments Against, And For, Robots Noise is a book about the problems of variability in human judgment….
Understanding Data Analytics, And ‘Competitive Advantage’
Anil Maheshwari’s Data Analytics Made Accessible is a helpful book. Schools use it as a textbook and it has that feel. There is a lot of information there in a somewhat ‘just the facts’ sort of format. It should help with understanding data analytics. Useful Information To Aid In Understanding Data Analytics The book is…
The Problem Of Noise
Three major names in the field of decision-making teamed up to write about the problem of noise. Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel prize in economics despite not being an economist, Oliver Sibony, apparently a knight in the French Order of the Légion d’Honneur, and Cass Sunstein of Barack Obama’s White House and Nudge fame,…
The Right To Donate: A Critical View
Every now and then it’s useful to read something you have no clue what the author is talking about. I don’t mean you don’t understand the terminology or math. I mean you look at what they are saying, you register their meaning, and say, ‘huh?’ This is the reaction I got to Gordon Boyce’s ‘Valuing…
Costs Of Not Experimenting
Today I’ll look at the work of Uri Gneezy and John List. Specifically their book, The Why Axis. These are very well respected scholars and they are strong proponents of more real-world testing. Today I most want to highlight the idea that there are very sizable costs of not experimenting. Business Managers Under-Experiment The authors…
Customer Centricity And CLV
Peter Fader is a major figure in the study of customers. Specifically, he is closely linked to the idea of how companies value customers and focus on serving the customers that are most important to the firm. His 2019 book with Sarah E. Toms, The Customer Centricity Playbook, looks at customer centricity and CLV. The…
Customer Centricity And Customer Equity
Customer centricity is a very good book. It is short and has an excellent point. You could read it in a long bath despite there being much to learn from it. So what then can we learn about customer centricity and customer equity from Peter Fader’s book? A Strong Start And Clear View Of Customer…
Angel And Demon Customers
Larry Selden and Geoffrey Colvin had a book back in 2003 that made quite a stir. It introduced the idea of angel and demon customers. This was a catchy way of explaining the notion that not all customers are profitable. Indeed, Selden and Colvin argue that customers should not all be treated the same. What…