Is your purpose statement really just a marketing gimmick?

When Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, went viral, it fueled the resurgence of the purpose driven organization. Of course, the best practice in corporate development has long included the development of mission (and vision and values) as a cultural baseline for strategy. But, as the corporate world has increasingly come to…

Read More

Is the Shared Economy furthering the wealth divide?

I spent this a good part of last week at one of my favorite conferences of the year — Fortune’s BrainstormTech conference. The conference brings together executives from the Media, Technology and Information Services sectors to discuss the state of the industry and various tech trends. Every year I feel like I come away with…

Read More

Why reputation matters when it comes to deep personalization

Your reputation matters when it comes to deep personalization In a recent article, Fast Company outlined United’s struggle with deep personalization. The author describes the challenge that Linda Jojo, United’s EVP of Technology and Chief Digital Officer has as she sponsors the development of United’s next generation app. “We’re actually trying to arm our employees…

Read More

Stay close to your customer, even if it is cliche

Several years ago I sat with one of my mentors and asked for his advice. Having been a big time CEO for several decades, I felt like all of our conversations were steeped in lessons learned. But, this time around I wanted to know what he considered to be the one piece of wisdom he…

Read More

4 Counterintuitive Actions That Improve Productivity

Most of us don’t know how to take a break. Holidays, vacations, and weekends don’t really give us the down time we need to recharge our batteries, clear our minds and optimize performance. Many of us tend to stay immersed in our work, checking in and staying abreast of what’s going on “back at the…

Read More

Two tricks for limiting email fatigue

Email fatigue is one of the most rampant illnesses in America today. It’s a disabling sicknesses that keeps folks continually working and in a state of distraction. It renders folks nearly incapable of deep thinking and rest. It keeps them continually processing the 57 unread and 5324 unarchived emails sitting in their inbox. I know,…

Read More

Why network when you can attend these events?

I’ve made it no secret that I’m far from the world’s best networker. In fact, as a raging introvert, I struggle to enjoy your typical glad-handing event.  I’ll network, but, it’s not without pain. I have to plan carefully and prepare my mind. I envy those who love to network (and insist they join me…

Read More

Engineering Cultures Suck at Product

I laughed out loud this morning as I read a blog from High Scalability that noted “Engineering Cultures Suck at Product.” The author couldn’t be more right and it’s about time that this message becomes mainstream. The reason I decided to build 3Pillar from an independent consultancy into a product development specialist in 2009 is…

Read More

CES 2018: Why Your Data is No Longer a Value Proposition

As I recently wrote, the era of IoT as the future has come to an end. Connectivity saturation has arrived and set the expectation for nearly every modern product to be a “connected” product, collecting data about its usage and environment. And this saturation of connectivity has brought about a saturation of data. Nearly every…

Read More

CES 2018: IoT is Officially Dead

Take a gander through any technology publication, stop by a technology event, or, dive headfirst into a conversation with your average technologist and you’ll undoubtedly trip over a conversation about the Internet of Things. The idea of connecting devices – not just computers, tablets and phones – but an unlimited variety of “things” to the…

Read More