Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Shareef Mahdavi
The most important college course I took had nothing to do with my psychology major or my interest in organizational behavior and what makes workers happy. It was during my sophomore year that I signed up for Critical Thinking 212, a small class of 15 at the University of Michigan where we sat around the table and talked.
The professor challenged us in every class on what we read and wrote. He wouldn’t accept quick answers but made us dig deeper in developing our thoughts and arguments. H...
Monday, December 5, 2011
Shareef Mahdavi
If you find yourself wondering what's happened to innovation and the ability for Americans to invent new products, you will want to watch this video tour of Tech Shop SF, a member-based place (Kinda like your high school woodshop... on steroids!) where people can bring their dreams to life by prototyping new product concepts.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Shareef Mahdavi
Like many of you, I get a daily Groupon email and will often take a look to see what special deal is being offered. I admit to being intrigued by the upcoming Tomato Battle (modeled after the annual rite in Buñol, Spain) taking place in my town next weekend, but I'll leave it up to a few thousand others to enjoy that event.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Shareef Mahdavi
Fojol Bros. food truck
Fojol Bros. food truck. Click here for video.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Shareef Mahdavi
Jan. 1 will mark a special birthday for 7,596 people. It will also serve as a cultural milestone as the day when the very first baby boomers turn 65 years of age. It's hard to say "65 years old" because most boomers wouldn't describe themselves that way.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Shareef Mahdavi
Those of you who are baseball fans will immediately recognize these three icons and their significance to the San Francisco Giants, who have just won their first-ever World Series. Being a resident of the City by the Bay, I too have come down with a bad case of Giants fever, paying a small fortune for the "cure" by going to game 1 of the fall classic last week.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Shareef Mahdavi
Technology is moving at a torrent pace, affecting just about everything in our daily lives at home, at work and at play. As the world becomes increasingly high-tech, consumers have a corresponding need for "high-touch." I first learned about this concept as one of ten "megatrends" in the 1982 book of the same name by futurist John Naisbitt. This megatrend still holds true today, nearly 30 years later, as evidenced by several business leaders I had the chance to meet at the recent thinkAbout conference on the "experience economy."
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Shareef Mahdavi
Whenever I see employee surveys that indicate the majority of workers are not happy with their current job, I get concerned. In my view, it takes happy employees to create happy customers. That is, high customer satisfaction and outstanding customer experiences don't just happen on their own. They are the result of dedicated employees who understand and live out on a daily basis their organization's mission and values.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Shareef Mahdavi
Medicare recently announced that it wants to take 21.5% from physicians in the form of reduced payments. That puts it more than one-fifth of the way toward the year 2017, now forecast by Medicare's trustees as the date the system will go broke (2 years ahead of schedule, I might add). Any wrangling and arguing about reducing the cuts may act as a form of self-preservation in the short term. This effort, however, is eerily similar to re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.