Recapping 2011

Happy New Year 2012. Before last year fades into our collective memories, I want to recap some lessons that I learned (or re-learned) in 2011.

Over the holidays I was performing some admin on my website. The task was to implement a Blog feature to allow anyone to add comments without having the hassle of joining my website. While I was doing this task, I also looked back over the past eighteen months at the recurring themes about which I had written.

Not coincidentally, these themes mapped to the critical success factors for many start-up and early stage companies, namely Recruiting, acquiring and managing talent; Leveraging networks and connections; Developing go-to-market strategy and sales traction; and Operationally executing to get results. To re-visit these Blogs, I have created a list of the titles (with hyperlinks) to provide easy access to any that you may have missed reading. Also feel free to add comments

The Power of the Network

It's a Small World
More on Networking
How email damages your Personal Brand
When people ask how I build my Network
Two Economies

Talent and Recruiting

Recruiting Top Talent – Part II
Relevance
Recruiting Top Talent
What happens when It Happened Again happens to you
It happened again.
Meatball Surgery and other interesting practices of Start-ups
How are you hiring today?
Hiring Senior Talent – Part II
Hiring Senior Talent
Trust and Referrals
Teach me, Coach me, Tell Me
Senior Talent – The Art of a Great Hire

The Importance of Sales

Why is selling my product or service so hard?
Why do we hate (our own) sales people?
Choosing Top Sales People
Are you trying to sell market leading to market laggards?
Improving Sales: The Excuse Department is Closed
Will my product sell?
How I hire Sales People

Strategy 

The New Economic Reality 
Making Big Bets #2
Being Competitively Different
Software Pricing – What message are you sending your customer?
Making Big Bets
Managing Risk in your Go-to-Market Strategy
Looking at your Target Market through a Different lens

Startups

YASN
Legal Advice for Start-ups. (and stories from resultant miscues)
Do you want to start a start-up?
Engaging Talent and Resources beyond your Company's Four Walls
830,000% ROI
Five Questions to test if your start-up will be successful?
Starting a Start-up Part II
Starting a Start-up
Why is the start-up world different? (or How to choose your advisors and employees)
Six Characteristics of a Technology Juggernaut
Youthful Entrepreneur: An Oxymoron?
A glimpse into the VC world

Operations and Leadership

GOYAADI
The Case of Beer Time Management Rule
Leading in tough times, Managing tough messages
Betting your Job
7am
Business Ethics and the Bottomline Part II 
Business Ethics and the Bottomline
Managing Change
      Chapter 1: Leading Change – Part 1 of a Series
      Chapter 2: Leading Change – The Art of Change Management
      Chapter 3: Leading Change in a Perfect Storm
      Chapter 4: Leading Change – The Need for Speed
      Chapter 5: Leading Change – Putting it all Together
      Chapter 6: Change Management in SME
Optimists, Pessimists and Pragmatists
Focus – Focus – Focus
When is it time to fire?