THINK Week in Review: The “James Stewart” Edition
James/Jimmy Stewart was born May 20, 1908. He's mostly remembered for his natural acting, distinctive drawl and down-to-earth persona. He's lesser known for his quotable insights, such as "Be careful whose toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your ass tomorrow." Most relevant to our experience every day is this little nugget: "Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners." Should be stuck to our computer screens as a daily reminder.
While we tried not to step on any toes this week, we collected the best links of the week for you: Online lending goes from hype to over-hyped, what darts can teach you about life, explore the greatest barriers to growth, try to locate the magic customer experience button and entertain you with 17 cartoons that will change your life.
For online lenders, it's suddenly touch-and-go. "Dangerous is cool when you're in high school," he says of online lenders' dependence on fickle institutional investors. When you're in the money business? Not so much.
The secret to doing better at darts - and life. "Finding an optimum solution for a simplified world is a pretty good description of what computers do best. Finding satisfactory solutions for a realistic world is a good description of what people do well. One downside of the growth in computational power is that the second approach is becoming dangerously subordinate to the first."
The greatest barriers to growth, according to executives. "Growth creates complexity and yet complexity is the number one killer of profitable growth. You cannot win on the outside, in the marketplace, if you are losing on the inside, with an organization stifled by its own growth. But what can you do about it?"
Where's the magical customer experience button? "You need to be able to measure the effect of the customer experience overtime and optimize the parts of the journey that is under performing. Then and only then are you able to offer the best customer experience, which works for both the organization and the customer."
17 cartoons that will change your life. "The future of business is different than we might think. It's part technology. It's part people. It's part change." Enjoy.