To successfully create the next generation of smart connected products and services, companies will need to build entirely new capabilities and get used to running multiple business models and new product roadmaps in the future. Here in a nutshell are the recommendations this will lay out in more detail over …

A customer-facing environment is any space in which a customer comes into contact with your brand. The most obvious example is, of course, the retail store. However, this is just a starting point: hotels, galleries, museums, airport lounges, airplanes, train carriages, theme parks and office lobbies are just some of …

No one ever became famous by sitting at home watching the latest chick show on the WB (and repeats of it at eleven P.M.) in flannel pajamas with a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. No, you, my friend, are going to have to go out. And going …

Curious to understand how we’d come to be a throwaway society, I started looking into how plastics were made, and why they were invented in the first place. The word ‘plastic’ comes from the Greek verb plassein, which means to mould or to shape. Fossil fuels – oil, gas and …

As long as capitalism has existed, it has had a problem with work. Laboring can be degrading, arduous, and dangerous. Wages may not be sufficient to live on. At other times the work itself is boring, and alienation sets in. Sometimes work disappears, as in the 1930s, or in the …

Think of purpose as a lighthouse, or a North Star, to lead the way; a place of central focus. It could be a word, a question, or a commitment. It can be your focus for a year or longer. For some people, it is as specific as getting on a …

Have you noticed when a conversation changed your emotional state? Perhaps during a job interview in which you discovered that the position was a wonderful fit for your abilities, you noticed yourself shifting to excitement (joy); or alternatively if you realized the position was not a good fit, you may …

Knowing what you do about body language, you may make a deliberate attempt to conceal your reactions. Some people train themselves to mute their reactions. Health care professionals, as an example, are taught to maintain poker faces in the midst of some disturbing situations. That training can result in a …

This is a big one and might be the most difficult to implement practically. A natural consequence of surrendering and letting go is that we gradually become free of attachments. “Attachment” is an attitude of “clinging-ness” and “craving-ness.” It is a mental requirement that an outcome be a certain way …

In the sociology of professions, cognitive and normative features of profession, as I have focused upon previously, are crucial features in the professional definitiont of music therapy. As we have seen, much of the knowledge and many of the skills and attitudes pertaining to the profession of music therapy are …

What does it mean to be a man? It is a question that many of my friends and I have pondered over. We have spent countless years trying to define our “maleness” and in the process, made a whole lot of mistakes while encountering even more growing pains. What has …

Understanding your growing space is key to a successful vegetable garden, and getting the most from the plot. Before even putting a seed into the ground, observe the space: where does the sun fall and at what time of day; what type of soil do you have; what is growing …

When our institutions are laid low, it’s often because of internal events and intentionally counterproductive decisions of leadership. Think of Volkswagen in the wake of a systematic effort to cheat on emissions tests. Such events—ethical shortcuts, fraud, deception, misrepresentations—are invariably self-imposed internal episodes that arise because people …

I feel it’s important not to just give people techniques and strategies, but to give them a deeper understanding of the psychology that underlies the discipline in question, be it sales, leadership, negotiation, persuasion, or achievement. Why? Let me go back to a simple statement that goes back to …

The method of pricing is the most powerful lever available to sourcing professionals. The way we ask for a price, determines how vendors respond, how much of our spend is covered, what we learn about the supplier economics, how to measure savings and track results, how we manage the category …

Every business has good days and bad days. Sometimes you will not hit the numbers you want to see, and other times you will completely exceed expectations. There is little reason to get overly concerned about these small fluctuations unless they contribute to a consistent trend of losses. More often …

In the beginning, women in America made quilts out of necessity. It was simple: Members of their family were cold. They first made them with fabric scraps and material they repurposed; later, they made them out of an abundance of fabric suddenly available thanks to the Industrial Revolution. But whether …

USB microphones are an ideal solution for OFF voice recordings, gameplays, screencast tutorials, gamers, podcasts, etc. The quality offered by any of these models is so good that it is even possible to use them in a professional studio. At least if we want a portable solution that makes it …

Unfortunately, just before my fifth birthday, my parents split up. We moved across the country to Parsippany, NJ, where my mother had grown up, and her parents still lived. As you can imagine, moving from the desert in the southwest to northern New Jersey was quite the culture shock for …