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Enterprise Garage Consultancy

Why we pay more for beer than we should

Flying carWe may not get the flying car any time soon (although at least the two companies Aeromobil and Terrafugia are working on it), but at least self-driving cars are pretty close to how we will drive soon.

And the financial industry is experiencing disruption as well, not just automotive. From crypto-currencies, a glassblower inventing the credit card payment system Square, crowdsourced money borrowing LendingClub, Kickstarter, to mobile payment system M-Pesa in Africa, many ideas are coming in. A large company such as UBS cannot rest on their laurels and has to act. If you are a FinTech startup or have a great idea in the banking secotr, now it's the time to register for the Future of Finance Challenge. Read more about this in UBS CIO Oliver Bussman's blog post.


Behavioral EconomicsBehavioral Economics questions the assumption of economists that people are rational players on markets. Why would we accept the price a bottle of beer from the bar in the resort to be higher, than from the 7/11 across the street, given that a friend is bringing it to us and we get the same experience? Or that we do worse work when we are promised a high reward? A lot of studies show that: 8 examples of monetary rewards leading to worse outcomes.

We need to learn a lot about those irrationalities and we can prepare and be alert. Whenever somebody talks about motivating people with money, think twice and read up. Like some of these articles below. Or the books by Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational) and Richard Thaler (Misbehaving).

Articles I liked about BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS:

  1. Culture Amp: How unlimited vacation policies might not be doing your employees any favors
  2. RPI News: Minority Rules: Scientists Discover Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas

Pitch & SpeakingA Pitch with a good story can be worth a lot of money. Ask Palm-founder Jeff Hawkins. Instead of showing a boring slide deck to the investors, he tossed a wooden block on the table. The wooden block that he had crafted in his garage represented a pretotype of what would become the Palm Pilot. That switched the discussion from boring assumptions to ideas and imagination. "Could it also do this?", "Can you put it in a purse?"

While the Palm is now history, the lessons are clear: humans are hardwired to hear stories, and that's why a good story is always better than facts to convince people. Train your pitch and story-telling skills!

Articles I liked around PITCH:


IntrapreneurshipPolaroid was one of these behemoths that seemingly nothing could throw out of their path. Employees and management were extremely proud of their hundred million dollars of innovation projects that only they could lift. Or so. Sure, the instant camera was their biggest hit. But as their competitor they missed the new times. Polaroid filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

As has been documented through interviews and analysis in a study, management focused on a top-down approach to innovation, bet hundreds of millions on a few unproven technologies and ideas. And overlooked that consumers didn't want a faster instant camera, but digital camera. Today of course that would never happen, or would it? Still too many companies don't learn from history and don't empower their employees to come bottom-up up with new ideas. They actively discourage their employees thinking they do the opposite. Intrapreneurship is tough. The good news is: it can be learned. The next time an employee comes with an idea, instead of responding with WTF, say this: "That's interesting. Show me!"

Articles I liked around INTRAPRENEURSHIP:

  1. LinkedIn: What The Imagination of Dying Has to Do With Finding Out What Drives You
  2. Five Thirty Eight: The Best Jobs Now Require You To Be A People Person
  3. Firstround: Influencers Aren't Born, They're Built — Here's How

NSFW - The Wawona Tree!

Wawona TreeToday's NSFW - internet lingo for Not Safe For Work - comes from the most amazing technology-provider: Mother Earth. In and around Silicon Valley, redwood trees are just one of those things that amaze me every single time. If you visit one of the state parks and walk among those living giants and learn about their age that goes up to 2,500 years, then you can't just be not humble.

One of those living wonders was the 2,300-year-old Wawona tree, a famous giant sequoia that stood in Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. It had a height of 69 m (227 feet) and measured 27 m (90 feet) in circumference. A tunnel was cut through the tree in 1881. Alas, in 1969 an estimated two ton load of snow on its crown finally made the tree collapse. Enjoy pictures through different decades with this sequoia.

Hug a tree today!

Mario

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