Great stuff from Harvard Business Online:

Discovering Your Authentic Leadership
"The ongoing problems in business leadership over the past five years have underscored the need for a new kind of leader in the 21st century: the authentic leader. Author Bill George, a Harvard Business School professor and the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, and his colleagues, conducted the largest leadership development study ever undertaken. They interviewed 125 business leaders from different racial, religious, national, and socioeconomic backgrounds to understand how leaders become, and remain, authentic. Their interviews showed that you do not have to be born with any particular characteristics or traits to lead. You also do not have to be at the top of your organization.

Anyone can learn to be an authentic leader. The journey begins with leaders understanding their life stories. Authentic leaders frame their stories in ways that allow them to see themselves not as passive observers but as individuals who learn from their experiences. Read more

Saying "I love you…"
…to your customer is appropriate 365 days a year.

In marketing, every day is Valentine's Day. The ongoing romance of your customer is a never ending process. Our customers are constantly being courted by our competitors. Our job is to flirt, to woo and to seduce.

“Advertising is a seduction, not a debate.”
–David Ogilvy Read more

There are evolving definitions of the term 'brand', and the search for meaning leads us deep into the human brain. The deepest, yet simplest, modern-day insights on branding are within Ben Mack's best-selling book, "Think Two Products Ahead" which you had better read first.
Read more

An article in the current issue of The Harvard Business Review validates a nasty little secret: the best products aren’t necessarily the most successful. Read more