Episodes & Visions: The Archives
These archives are an evolving collection of articles, columns, blog entries, and opinion pieces, with presentations and videos soon to arrive. Check back to see the collection grow.
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Let's Go Exploring
By Noel Ward
I
was hoeing out my office over the holidays when I found a book of
Calvin & Hobbes, my favorite comic strip, penned by Bill Watterson.
The strip ended on New Year's Eve in 1995. That happened to be a Sunday
and I had cut the final color strip from the newspaper and kept it with
the book. Copyright laws prevent me from showing the strip here, but it
opens with Calvin and Hobbes trekking through deep snow with a
toboggan. More...
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Business Essentials
by Noel Ward
So
much of business success remains in the basics. All the marvelous ERP
systems, contact managers, Flash-y websites, and CRM campaigns all come
back to the fact that at the end of day the basic rules of
business--and life--still apply.
A recent hunt for a new used car afforded me the chance to see how a number of companies treated their customers... and what we can learn from them.
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Laissez le Knowledge Roulez
by Noel Ward
Alem
threaded his dilapidated cab through traffic toward the hotel at the
far end of Poydras. He was from Ethiopia and spoke a patois of accented
English. Working towards becoming a citizen, he was learning things
most of us have long forgotten, was very interested in history and how
the U.S. has come to be the way it is today. He asked questions. “I
learn something new from everyone,” he told me.
That was the start of three interesting days in New Orleans.
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Playing to a Passion for Quality
by Noel Ward
New car buyers in Japan are known to run their hands under the edges of the bumpers, feeling for burrs and rough mold ridges. Finding such invisible but offending blemishes means the manufacturer lacked attention to detail and marks the car as being of less than top quality. Likewise, many Japanese are enthralled by the wares of such quality-exuding fashion designers as Armani, Fendi, or Prada. This passion for quality is embedded in the cultural DNA of Japan and extends beyond Toyota bumpers and designer fashions all the way to printed documents.
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