JetBlue hit major turbulence in 2007, when an enormous ice storm forced flight cancellations across the East Coast. Surely the airline couldn’t be blamed for this “act of God,” right? Wrong. While its competitors canceled flights promptly so their customers could wait out the delay comfortably at home, JetBlue dragged its feet. This resulted in passengers sitting on the tarmac for hours and snarled operations that lasted nearly…
Are good business leaders born or made in the trenches? Early work experience forges how a person will lead. For many successful CEOs, starting out on the company’s bottom rung has been an invaluable opportunity for learning. For example, David Cote started out at General Electric as an hourly employee when he was 21. By age 33, he’d worked his way up to a midlevel financial planner role…
How will company culture continue to change in the next two years as more Millennials make their way up the ladder? The following answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. 1. More Time-Tracking Tools Millennials are a hyperconnected generation and are growing more accustomed to working…
Remember when you were excited just by the idea of being an entrepreneur? When you sprung out of bed every day, ready to take on the world? Unfortunately, many businesses are so riddled with life-sucking cultures and backward practices that they break down the natural immunity of our personal values. Corrupt cultures corrupt us, and we’re soon running companies so filled with compromises that compromise us that our…
I have a pretty straightforward philosophy on the types of head honchos that are out there. Simply put, there are the leaders and there are the managers. I think the biggest misconception about leadership is that being a leader and being a manager are mutually inclusive, that one can’t exist without the other. Not true. Sure, the head honcho of your company can definitely be a leader if…
Running a business in a closet isn’t easy. Good luck finding privacy to make that important phone call. My 25-strong team dealt with a closet-like office that made productivity a struggle. The mazelike layout meant we were always slamming doors on each other, tripping over stuff, and overhearing everything. Then, everything changed. How a Move Can Improve Company Culture When we moved into an open-plan office in the…
What do the “The Avengers,” “The A-Team,” “The Expendables,” and “X-Men” have in common? They are all stories of individuals combining their talents to achieve a common goal. Teamwork brings victory in the world of fiction, and it can help you succeed in business, too. Collaboration is a big theme for small businesses today for a reason: It works. As CEO of the first e-commerce company in the commercial printing space, I…
I once worked for a large, multinational software company. We had a strong vision and good corporate values and it was a great place to work. But I never quite felt the company’s vision and values actually connected to what we did on a daily basis. Many companies face this challenge to apply their guiding principles on a practical level. I didn’t think we had a well-defined…
Our company, Nextiva, was launched in 2008 with a small team and a small office. This year we are on par to employ over 400 people. While this growth has been exciting for us, it has also come with significant challenges—namely: how can we preserve a cool startup culture of hard work and fun while growing so quickly year-over-year? Will it be possible for us to stay “cool”…
Consider walking into a real-life version of “The Office.” The inappropriate and morally questionable behavior of the staff would make you reconsider your decision to work with — or for — the company. On the other hand, a stale, corporate environment where workers seem to endlessly stare at their monitors is even less appealing. This numb atmosphere that makes you want to run in the opposite direction is…