Category: Industry Mole

Someone told me recently that Millennials approach finding a job in the same way they search for a date on Tinder. As my social media expertise only extends as far as Instagram, I asked him to explain.

“Respect, integrity, communication, excellence.” These were the official core values of Enron, one of the most fraudulent businesses ever formed. I thought of that the other day when the sales director came in saying that it was about time we had a new mission statement.

What is the optimum number of slides you can put in a presentation? The question occurred to me the other day when our sales director Brian gave a pitch to a potentially massive new client. He used 85 slides and ignored all my not so subtle hints that he delete a few.

When Mark Parker became CEO of Nike in 2006, he
asked Steve Jobs for advice. Apple’s founding genius
didn’t mince his words, telling Parker: “Nike makes some
of the best products in the world. Products you lust after.
But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy
stuff and focus on the good stuff.”

“I do not think that I know what I do not know.” Socrates
said that. The great Greek philosopher does not normally
feature in any of those greatest management gurus of alltime
lists, but maybe he should.