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By Michael Deforge
Culled from mini comics, online comics, and anthology contributions, Very Casual collects notable short stories from Michael DeForge's prolific oeuvre.
By Garth Ennis
Originally published as A walk through hell, #1-5.
By Alan Moore
"Batman created by Bob Kane withe Bill Finger."
Blog / ChangeThis
By Joe Azelby, Bob Azelby
"The Azelby brothers grew up in Northern New Jersey, just outside New York City, with their eldest sister Terri and a middle brother Tom. Their dad was a New York City police officer and their mother was a substitute teacher at the local catholic grade school. The brothers thoroughly enjoyed their childhood and the many stories they lived or heard from that era shaped their view of the world and inform their business decision making today. The manifesto they would like to share is a very simple one. If you want to impart a lesson and have it stick in the minds of your audience, it is best to do it within a story. . . stories go deep under your skin and penetrate both the conscious and subconscious mind. You will almost always remember a good story and it's quite likely you'll remember the message within it. We want to share a few memorable stories from our "Growing Up Jersey" collection that we draw upon today to help us lead large complex businesses. If you remember these stories a few days from now or they pop into your mind a few weeks from now then our manifesto may have some validity.
July 10, 2013
By Cy Wakeman
"People have come to believe that suffering is now part of working life, and are suffering more than ever. Tough economic times have left fewer people to do the same amount of work. Jobs people used to love have become overwhelming; jobs they never loved have become intolerable. Success seems like an impossible dream as people strive to do more with less. They've seen good people get laid off and good jobs outsourced to cheaper workers. This is madness. It is not an imagination. But there is hope. In some of the worst circumstances, it is still possible to find people who are performing well and are happy. This article will provide you with some tips for how you too can be a happy, high performer—a high value player."
By Bob Rice
"Harvard's biggest single financial bet is on timber, not stocks. Yale has just 6% of its endowment in US equities; instead, it's long "absolute return," "private equity," and real assets. Each is up more than100% over the past decade. In the meantime, typical investors have, at best, treaded water. And that's no anomaly. In 7 of the 11 decades since 1900, the classic 60/40, stock/bond portfolio has returned an average real return of a whopping. . . 1%. Yes, those other four decades were big winners; but then those gains were walloped by the kinds of big crashes that are only becoming more frequent. Fact is, a class system has developed among investors over the past few decades. Elite money managers have used a proprietary set of tools to ride economic cycles up, but also to avoid big losses during downturns. Meanwhile, the rest of us all thought that "investing" was synonymous with simply buying stocks and bonds, with maybe a bit of real estate tossed in. [. . . ] Fortunately, times have changed—even if most people still don't know it.
June 05, 2013
By Maxine Kamin
"Do we care about talking to each other anymore, or are we settling for mostly texts, emails, tweets, and electronic quickies? Is this like quickie sex, compared to romantic adventures with all the accoutrements of a love making session? Are we too busy to really connect? What is the draw of fast talk? We often think that quick communication saves time. This is true in some cases. Relying only on cursory communication though runs the risk of misunderstanding, and a lot of hoopla about 'what did she mean by that e-mail?' Once those questions get started, they take on a life of their own and end up as huge time wasters, not time savers, and the intent of the communication may be lost, and so badly misinterpreted that trust goes astray in the translation. Let's regroup and think about the advantages of face-to-face communication, what might get in the way, and types of skills that promote cooperation, even in difficult instances."
By Debra Kaye
"If companies want to innovate the way successful bold newcomers have, they have to unplug from the constraints of 'That's the way we've always done it' and recharge, starting with the mantra, 'Let's just not do that anymore. ' They need to be willing to take market risks that more traditional companies are often unwilling or unable to take. Consider that Apple doesn't have a formal innovation 'funnel' process with established procedures, nor do Amazon or Facebook. In this volatile world the old model of process innovation needs a new framework. It isn't in sync with the way our minds work, which brain research tells us is more serendipitous than linear. Innovation just doesn't lend itself to being predictable and risk free. Innovation demands looking at the world differently, and finding connections between seemingly disconnected things. Corporate protocol, management hierarchies, and rigid assumptions about customer needs often create anxiety and stifle freedom of thought and exploration. ".
May 15, 2013
By Henry Cloud Ph.D
"I believe that among all of the things that a leader does, one of the most important ones is to set "boundaries." Basically, a "boundary" is a property line. It defines what will exist on a property and what will not. The property line around your home is like that....it defines where your property begins and ends, and you are in charge of exactly what will happen on that property. And, to our point here, within your business or organization. Leaders must establish some key boundaries in some very key areas if they want to get results. And, thanks to brain research, we now can scientifically get a peek into why the leaders who do establish these kinds of boundaries get the results that they get."
By Lee Cockerell
"Customer Service is Not a Department It's also not a complaint desk, or a website, or a phone number, or an option on a phone menu. Nor is it a task or a chore. It's the responsibility of everyone in the organization, from the CEO to the lowest-ranking front line employee. In effect, everyone in the company is a customer service rep, because each of them has some impact on the customer's experience. As an executive, you may never see or speak to a customer, but you model how they should be treated with every interaction you have, with vendors, creditors, suppliers, and especially your employees. Treat everyone with sincerity and respect and it will trickle down to your customers."
April 10, 2013
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