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Four Qualities of a Great Employee

Jan 21st by John Boudreau Posted under Business | 1 Comment

At Astonish Results we look for a few vital qualities in our employees: - Teachability - Positive attitude - Ability to communicate and interact with others - Proactive The older I get the more I realize that the ability to communicate your point of view and cooperate with others is probably THE most important characteristic of a solid employee. Couple that with teachability – the ability to learn and absorb knowledge and positive attitude – and you’ve got yourself Read more [...]

Setting Monthly Goals

Jan 16th by John Boudreau Posted under Business | No Comments

What separates those people who are moving their lives forward from those that stagnate? How do some people seem to always be growing, changing, excited about life, looking forward to the future?I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. Maybe it's because I just turned 40, but I want my life to move forward. I don't want to stagnate. I want to see progress physically, intellectually, spiritually, emotionally. How do I make sure I'm making progress?In my mind it's all about setting goals. I've gotten into the habit of creating life goals. What I realized is that I wasn't defining incremental goals to achieve the life goals I've committed to. They are broadly defined with no real time limit. Read more [...]

Groupon Valued at 15 Billion – Yes I Said 15 Billion!

Jan 14th by John Boudreau Posted under Business | No Comments

I’ve been watching Groupon ever since I read the article about their meteoric growth in Forbes. A recent post on TechCrunch caught my eye. You can see why they turned down Google’s 6 billion dollar offer. Interesting video on Groupon Read more [...]

Great Insights on Improving Performance

Jan 13th by John Boudreau Posted under Business | No Comments

A recent blog post entitled “Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything” on HBR by Tony Schwartz really caught my eye. Mr. Schwartz points to research which dispels the myth that certain people are gifted for certain things and that’s that. Here’s a quote from the post: “I've accepted the incredibly durable myth that some people are born with special talents and gifts, and that the potential to truly excel in any given pursuit is largely determined by our genetic inheritance. “ This turns out not to be true. There are things that you can do to excel. He are Schwartz’s six keys: Pursue what you love Do the hardest work first Practice intensely Seek expect Read more [...]

Interactive UIs and the Xbox Kinect

Jan 12th by John Boudreau Posted under Business | No Comments

Like 8 million other people this Christmas season, I purchase the Kinect system for my kids Xbox. It’s pretty amazing and allows YOU to be the controller. That same weekend, Minority Report was on TV. Check out a clip from the movie here. I couldn't help but think that interactive UIs like we see in Minority Report are not far off from becoming a reality. Read more [...]

Who Is the Process Owner In Your Company?

Jan 11th by John Boudreau Posted under Business | No Comments

In a recent blog on the HBR website, Brad Power asks the question “Where Have All the Process Owners Gone”? In the post Power brings out a couple important points that really spoke to me. Processes must be improved across departments There must be a process owner I can relate to the idea of improving processes. In my experience many companies haven’t even defined their processes in the first place. What I’ve realized recently is that we weren't doing a good job of communicating and improving processes across different departments. It’s easy for individual department managers to be so focused on their piece of the puzzle that they miss the big picture. Cross-departmental Read more [...]

Great Post on How to Stay Optimistic

Jan 10th by John Boudreau Posted under Business | No Comments

I just read a great post on the Forbes entrepreneur blog. Dr. Steven Beglas revealed some research on how people stay optimistic in midst of difficult circumstances. Optimists view each problem as a short term event or a cost of doing business. They believe that good times are just on the horizon. This fuels their enthusiasm and keeps gas in their tank to keep going. Secondly, optimists view negative events to outside, temporary causes. They devalue the importance of a negative event in their minds. When a positive event occurs, they attribute the event to a permanent personal cause. It’s interesting to me how much what you think can affect how you feel which affects what you do. Optimistic Read more [...]

Astonish Results 2011 Annual Company Meeting Insights

Jan 5th by John Boudreau Posted under Business | No Comments

At Astonish we have a yearly company meeting. Our meeting is today and I thought I would write about one of the major points I’m going to share with our company. It’s called the “right things” model. I first heard about this concept for Vern Harnish’s book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. The model goes like this, in order for a company to accomplish its mission it needs to have the following components. The Right People This is a no-brainer and obvious point. You must have the right people in your company if you want to succeed. Unfortunately, I see that all too often, this is NOT the case. Company leadership cannot make the tough call to let the wrong people Read more [...]