Motivated Innovation

Earlier today, I read an article/presentation overview from 2006 entitled " How to Become a Thought Leader ".  The site RainToday.com interviewed established blogger/businessowner and marketing/lead generation thought leader Brian Carroll.  The article was great to read to learn more about how to establish oneself and one's organization amidst the realms of blogging, writing, and public speaking.  An interesting point was raised about "branding" and "reputation". Nowadays, the terms "branding" and "reputation" typically get lumped together.  The terms are often used synonymously in conversation.  Yet, Carroll comments that branding is more focused on a consumer's feeling--which impacts short-term transactions--while reputation comes into play for more complex decisions and purchases.  As such, reputation--which sounds less formal in business lingo--is more important than a brand name. When taking a look at the various aspec...

People familiar with the field of Organizational Development are most likely familiar with the Burke-Litwin Model of Organizational Performance and Change.  Although people not familiar with OD are most likely not familiar with the Burke-Litwin Model, the model contains underlying principles for success that are discussed in business and society. A key component to the Burke-Litwin Model is that it distinguishes between transformational and transactional dimensions.  In layman's terms, organizations focus on both longer-term, bigger picture concepts and shorter-term, day-to-day tasks and details.  In business, sports, and military language, much is said about strategy and tactics.  Strategy deals more with mission, values, and overall goals, while tactics involve actions to achieve the goals and carry out the mission and values.  Other parallels include 'revolutionary vs. evolutionary' (radical change vs. gradual change) and 'leadership vs. management' (agai...

In today's business world, there are an innumerable amount of client relationships through partnerships and outsourced services.  While oftentimes the term 'outsourcing' brings up thoughts of overseas workers speaking different languages, a great deal of outsourcing actually occurs domestically.  Yet, while in the U.S. these different partners speak the English language, each company creates its own terminology.  Thus, there still is a need to understand other languages, even within one traditional language such as American English. Providing 'value add' to a client's or partner's operations goes beyond asserting position as an industry knowledge leader or collecting multitudes of information.  Yes, being an industry knowledge leader brings instant credibility to an organization.  Likewise, an organization able to gather a variety of useful information is one that can help itself and other organizations.  However, it can be quite damaging to a relationshi...

Over the years, much has been said and done regarding creating organizational structure, developing chains of command, standardizing jobs, and eliminating unnecessary thinking from daily job tasks. In particular, successful companies in the business world preach the value of well-defined organizational structure, with organizational charts often being referenced during times of evaluation and change. While the aforementioned concepts can definitely be good, is there a point where too much structure is bad, supervising requirements are excessive, job standardization is demoralizing, and employee thinking becomes devalued? In developing a sound organizational structure and organizational culture, more should be said about the concept of "structured freedom" . From an organizational standpoint, structure needs to be present, as it helps define workers' roles and shapes various group decision-making processes. While structure gets continuously recognized for its value in bus...

***This is a revision of a blog post I originally shared elsewhere on 12/14/2009. Thank you to those who granted me permission to re-share the content of this post.*** In the weeks leading up to graduation, I reflected on the various lessons I had learned while in graduate school. In my preparation for job interviews, I anticipated facing a very open-ended yet deep and meaningful question: What is the most important lesson I have learned from my graduate school experience? As an MBA student, it could be expected that I mention something about management, leadership, economics, politics, professionalism, or etiquette. In class, we spent much time looking into the value of business ethics towards business success, as the rise and fall of Enron revealed a number of ethically questionable decisions. We also experienced the mortgage & housing financial crisis of 2008, with insightful presentations by former Lehman Brothers executive Lawrence McDonald and BGSU Professor Dr. Timoth...

To some, education is one of the most valuable assets of individuals and society as a whole. To others, education is just a useless and misguided waste of time. Obviously, this blog site embraces education--numerous lessons learned from traditional schooling and/or the school of life can be readily applied to the challenges ahead. One academic subject that is embraced by some and rejected by others is "history". History includes a review of cold, hard facts as well as interpretations and opinions. On one hand, there is a cliche that says, "History repeats itself." Mark Twain softened this stance by stating, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." On the other hand, history is just a bunch of names, dates, facts, and figures. As another cliche goes, "Don't dwell on the past." As education should be embraced, the current U.S. economy reflects the importance of studying history. In his book Aftershock , Professor Robert Rei...

I, Richard Fajardo, start this blog without any official representation of any specific employers, religious organizations, political organizations, student organizations, civic organizations, or other social organizations. I write here from my own perspective--my own perception and my own judgment. As an aspiring business leader and aspiring Organizational Development specialist (I hold the credentials of a Master's degree in Business Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Organizational Change), I seek to bring hard work and critical thinking to light in order to lead to positive change in business and society and inspire additional hard work and critical thinking. I promise to be as respectful as possible in my posts, although I am certain that there will be differences of opinion when reading some of my writings. Signed this day, August 21st, 2011, Richard Fajardo