This is a set of ideas, advice, and questions I put together for several friends that have asked for advice in how to structure their job search and negotiate/evaluate offers. This is primarily geared toward those seeking exec roles in startup or growth-stage companies, but elements might be useful for all kinds of job searches. I’ve been sending it out more frequently so I wanted to share it here for anyone that it might help!
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Execution, Mindset, Values, and Results.
These four elements describe a bit about how we work, why we work, who we are, and what we’re trying to do. It’s important to be as clear as possible with teams on what’s expected and what everyone is striving for. I wrote this to create alignment and transparency for my team.
Continue reading “Execution, Mindset, Values, and Results.”
Building better presentations
Slide decks are everywhere. Like it or not, they’re the standard format for business communication. Why not get good at telling a story in this medium? I recently ran a training on how to build effective and attractive presentations.
What’s Darth Vadar doing up there? Watch the presentation to find out…
Modern marketing metrics
Modern marketing comes down to just one thing:
Creating efficient revenue growth.
This is a bolder goal than many “traditional” marketers may subscribe to but I believe it is the right one. This means that marketing should have an eye on new sales, existing clients, and costs… and the analytics to tie it all togehter.
B2B Sales disruption using tactics from retail (published on Forbes)
A disruptive new sales model is emerging. Business-to-business (B2B) companies are adopting digital-enabled tactics resembling those used by Amazon and eBay when they disrupted retail a decade ago.
Companies that have embraced the model we lay out in the article below can optimize sales, marketing, and product design, with impressive results: double the revenue growth and 30 percent better sales efficiency.
There is a revolution coming in B2B sales — read the article to find out more!
B2B Sales Is Being Massively Disrupted
(Hint: It’s Looking More Like B2C)
When to become a hot-lead generator (published in HBR)
In an age of big data, the most valuable thing a media company has is not real-estate for yet another banner ad. It’s the deep customer understanding that can be gleaned from closely observing user behavior.
Leading media companies today are using that knowledge to help e-commerce partners make more sales by letting them know what each customer wants uaing Amazon ppc management for example and doubling digital revenues by earning affiliate margins rather than selling cost-per-click.
Find out more in this recent article:
5 tactics to make short classes work
Have a short (1-4 hour) class/tutorial to give? Want your students to learn tons and rave about the class? Want them to teach you and stay engaged in the topic moving forward?
Here are a few tips I’ve picked up from running mini-classes in academic and professional settings:
- Listen to the room
- Build skills through lessons
- Let them get their hands dirty
- Do the boring stuff in advance
- Follow up with homeworks
These are mostly related to programming-type topics (see here and here from some examples), but I’ll bet the ideas are broadly applicable. Hopefully you can share some of your experiences as either a student or teacher in the comments!
Lesion Segmentation — Patent Granted!
Back in 2008, I (along with colleagues at Siemens Corporate Research) invented a system to find and segment tumors in full-body MRI scans. It’s challenging to find all types of tumors across the entire body, but the ability to automatically detect tumors wherever they are can aid early detection and save lives.
We patented the findings in 2008 and received confirmation today that the patent has been granted (#8,155,405). Read on for a quick overview of the approach and a few useful links if you’re interested in seeing how it works!
System and Method For Lesion Segmentation In Whole Body MRI.
Gozde Unal, Gregory G. Slabaugh, Tong Fang, Shawn Lankton, Valer Canda, Stefan Thesen, and Shuping Qing. US Patent Number: 8,155,405. Filed March 2008. Granted April 2012.
How to be more insightful
One way consultants add value by being “insightful,” but what does that really mean? What’s more, if you aren’t “insightful” already, how do you improve?
I’ve been thinking about this lately and distilled 4 ways to push your thinking and get more insightful.
- Change your shoes
- Find parallels to things you know
- Ask ‘how’ and ‘why’ to dig deep
- Get super specific
3 hints for Excel excellence
Excel is the go-to tool for business calculations. Simple or complex, weeks of work or merely minutes, you’ll use Excel eventually. As with any tool, knowing a few tricks can transform the output from a clunky mess to a useful, beautiful creation. 
- Learn before you hack
- Make it pretty
- Document everything
These three hints apply to lots of life’s endeavors,
but let’s talk about how they apply to Excel.