Rubicon Consulting - Behind The Scenes

rss feed

Follow Nilofer Merchant by subscribing to her RSS feed.

win markets:

Nilofer's Strategy Blog

other leaders:

Journal Archive

Random Ideas

Good Comeback Line

“If his very smart cat could write it, my very smart tortoise could write his database.”
Continue

A friend sent this to me today

By letting go It all gets done. The world is won By those who let it go. But when you try and try, The world is beyond winning.
Continue

A major business magazine which has a gear section asked me to contribute ideas. I am so pleased as I love, love, love this section. And it got me thinking, “if I only had to choose 1 or 2 things,…
Continue

What did I learn on vacation?

I went on vacation a while back and have been processing still on what I learned. Lisbon and London are beautiful. Sintra and Obidos places that truly deserve to be on the list of 1,000 places to see before you…
Continue

How to do PR like Apple, or be Einstein, or Win Markets

A friend, Joel West, sent an email on Apple PR…an interesting article on Apple’s PR. The article answers: how does Apple do it? Well Graham has you and every other corporation in the world covered by providing seven easy steps…
Continue

Book-o-rama

I had a new experience. I went to a bookstore and didn’t buy a thing. I didn’t think that was possible. Perhaps I have a fever? Or, did I forget my wallet? Naah, I just feel that having about 30…
Continue

Being Alone: Aaah So Needed

(Like so many before me who have learned this… I am passing it along…) I need to, nay scratch that — I will learn to take time out and be alone to listen to my own voice. I just spent…
Continue

Seeking 4 mentors and 1 dog

I can’t think of a business leader I know who doesn’t value a great mentor. We all have them. We should stand up and thank all the people whose wisdom and coaching have gotten us through a tight spot. Mentors…
Continue

Sign

At Microsoft Silicon Valley offices, at a conference. Sign in the coffee room. “Friends Don’t Let Friends go to Dot.coms”…
Continue

There was this whale…

I’m envious of people who can come up with crisp clear descriptions of things, and especially if they can make an analogy that causes it to stick in the mind. One I heard yesterday: That would be as hard as…
Continue

It’s January 17th, no 18th, soon to be 19th…

I turned around for just a wee second, and you were gone. Took a week off of work before the holidays for shutdown and break, then a week to sit on the beach and recoup and then realized that —-whoa…
Continue

Web 2.0 Investment Opportunities

At the web 2.0 conference here in San Francisco and will be doing a series of posts. I would guess 30% of the attendees are VC / Capital / Investment / Analyst types. And between them and the web start-ups,…
Continue

Getting over ourselves!

We in Silicon Valley try and buy happiness. We believe money brings freedom. We believe seeking happiness through security will fill us up. We believe seeking happiness through status will fill us up. We believe seeking happiness through power will…
Continue

Reserve seems key to Creating

I am sitting in Logan airport with a clean email inbox. First time in weeks, if not months, I think. I’ve been swimming pretty hard lately as there have been several client things really needing attention. But sitting here with…
Continue

Be the non-anxious presence…

Leaders reveal their capability and their character when things go sideways. Edwin Friedman says that he best leaders are a “non-anxious presence in an anxious world.” While my day job can include client meetings, speeches, getting quoted by Business week,…
Continue

The day after Mother’s Day and I was back at work…

I leave the house. Almost always in the same way. Smoochies in the morning from the big guy and the little guy. The little guy every now and then withholds, because he knows it’ll prolong the leaving. It’s a…
Continue

American Apparel in Los Gatos

There’s been some flack in Los Gatos about whether to allow an American Apparel store to open up in downtown. The primary concern is that a big mall-type outlet store will join a town’s historic, quaint business district and make…
Continue

Decision-making done right

THE MISSION: Our mission, should you decide to accept it, is to read this article and think of your own ‘mission impossible’ task of making decisions at your company. You should then comment, and post your memories and experiences. THE…
Continue

Community is what we all seek

Just finished a book, Plainsong, that my stepdaughter lent me. It’s an interesting story of 2 brother farmers, a pregnant high-schooler, two young boys deserted by their mother, and so on. Good book and well written. The richness of the…
Continue

Darn that Ben Franklin

I’ve been away from posting here lately. My company has a newsletter we publish and I was responsible for doing the intro copy to our collective work. [For those interested, you can check it out at www.rubiconconsulting.com.] I guess I…
Continue

Get a Going

If you hang around me a while, you might hear this very southern voice and phrase “Get a going” come out of my mouth. It usually generates a look because seeing an Indian woman say this with a southern voice…
Continue

I thinks, I thinks, and nothing happens

Putting a book on the shelf, and flipped through to see what I underlined. Yes, I underline books. But that’s why I don’t use the library. I buy the book. My husband, whose mother was a librarian, gets squeamish…
Continue

Cher Marcel, no Reason to Call

It was a tough week. So I tucked myself into bed a bit early on Friday evening and finished reading Jonathan Saffron Foer’s book called “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”. I’m sure you could go to Amazon or Salon to…
Continue

Reflecting our Culture

This funky website has words that are being considered for entry into the Merriam-Webster dictionary. This month’s entry has some that spark my interest: metanoia (noun) : a transformative change of heart; especially : a spiritual conversion. Gotta remember that…
Continue

Who wants you to be their Leader?

The Wall Street Journal Bookmark’s section this morning reviewed a book called “Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?” Besides noting the great title (who came up with that?!), I thought that is a question any executive should ask…
Continue

3 questions to a personality profile

In 3 questions, this quiz got close to knowing the personality. At work, it didn’t mention that I should be in service, or an entrepreneur. Both of which I think is central to who I am. And it neglected to mention I like spending time outdoors doing backpacking on weekends. But hey, other than that generally okay. Not bad for the simplicity of it.
Continue