Grade A Entrepreneurs

My friend Franklin Servan-Schreiber delivered a speech last week in Houston at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and will speak on Tuesday at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh about the final weeks of his brother, David Servan-Schreiber. Co-founder of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and [...]

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“What are words for if not to inspire the hearts, minds, and actions of our employees and customers?” Brian Solis asks this before listing a series of buzzwords that operate as “crutches for characterless engagement,” and are “indicative of how businesses see (or don’t see) employees and customers.” His advice is simple: Take a moment [...]

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Notoriety used to give you a chance to be immortalized with a postage stamp, but “now every single one of us has a digital stamp.” This is the opening statement of Erik Qualman’s new book: Digital Leader: 5 Simple Keys to Success and Influence. While Qualman’s previous book, Socialnomics*, analyzed the new challenges and opportunities [...]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis
I just finished reading The 2012 Index of Social Technology in HR and Recruiting, put together by John Sumser and the HR Examiner team.
The report covers initial attempts in leveraging social media in the sourcing and recruiting industry. Although quite a large variety of products are surveyed, the report primarily focuses on the [...]

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I am sure that I am not the only one to have been upset by United Airlines’ customer service many times – and complained. That’s why, this time, I have to admit that they have blown me away by the quality of their service!
Two weeks ago, I forgot a pair of reading glasses that look [...]

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Guest writer: Sophie Delphis
The program I’m doing this year, Opera Academy of California, is presenting a summer line up for pre-professional singers – including a series of master classes, five nights of selected opera scenes and three full operas – for the first time. This is a new venture, with a relatively small group and [...]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis @mddelphis
When I hear people speak of themselves as “leaders,” frankly, I cringe, and I tend only to notice the signs of their inflated egos. Most authentic leaders are usually somewhat understated, well aware that leadership is not a status that enables someone to apply “proven” recipes, but instead a continuous self-rebuilding process [...]

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Just saw this morning a RT by David Szetela of Esther Dyson’s tweet: “Entrepreneurs, before you do the VC or angel deal, take a look: http://bit.ly/9YyFrq.”
Great, great reminder for many entrepreneurs! Don’t wonder, calculate! Do get emotional, calculate! For most entrepreneurs, it’s hard to get funded, and then, when they receive a term-sheet, at the [...]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis
Practically Radical, by Bill Taylor, the co-founder of Fast Company, is about transforming your company, shaking up your industry, and challenging yourself. Now, where do you start? Not from a vacuum: the times for dreams of starting from a clean slate and building up utopias are long gone. So, be practical. Yet adopting [...]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis @mddelphis
Say you’ve worked and socialized with Indians for the last ten or fifteen years in America – does it help you to understand what India is about when you travel over there for a business trip? Maybe a little, but no more than that. India is a complex, multi-dimensional country with an intricately [...]

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