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That’s Quotable [Marissa Mayer]

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Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Product and User Experience of Google, as quoted from her interview at Le Web Conference (December 10, 2008)

“I like to hire people who have two traits. They’re smart, and they get things done.”

TechCrunch added, “She also talked about the joy of working with a team where every member was passionate about the project. But the key message resonated. Smart people who aren’t closers tend to flail.”

I find it interesting to watch out innovative companies build teams to create a competitive advantage. There is an art to hiring the right people for the right role.

I’m Not Sure I Like Christians

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I shared with a few of my friends earlier this week that I was brainstorming a list of why I don’t like Christians. That may sound odd to you coming from a pastor. After all, I’m in the help-people-become-Christians business.

Honestly, though, with some exceptions including the friends I get to work with on a daily basis, I typically try to stay away from Christians. They aren’t much fun to be around. Among other things, they kind of make it difficult for me to explain why I find joy through my faith.

I may share  my list of reasons that I don’t like Christians sometime in the future. In the mean time, though, one of my buddies found this article from The Onion. It’s filled with sarcasm which I know some Christians in the audience won’t like. Since I happen to appreciate sarcasm as a valid form of humor within the bounds of my faith, I know I’ve already broken several rules that will certainly doom me to the hot place.

That aside, Janet wrote:

“I’m here to tell you there are lots of Christians who aren’t anything like the preconceived notions you may have. We’re not all into ‘turning the other cheek.’ We don’t spend our days committing random acts of kindness for no credit. And although we believe that the moral precepts in the Book of Leviticus are the infallible word of God, it doesn’t mean we’re all obsessed with extremist notions like ‘righteousness’ and ‘justice.’

“My faith in the Lord is about the pure, simple values: raising children right, saying grace at the table, strictly forbidding those who are Methodists or Presbyterians from receiving communion because their beliefs are heresies, and curing homosexuals. That’s all. Just the core beliefs. You won’t see me going on some frothy-mouthed tirade about being a comfort to the downtrodden.”

Check out the rest of Janet’s article. I promise you it’ll make you feel uncomfortable. Remember it’s only one person’s perspective of Christians. I wonder, though, how many perceive us as Janet does. My guess is quite a few.

I hate to admit, but I’m a Christian and I’m not sure I like Christians.

That’s Quotable [Kate Sweetman]

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Kate Sweetman, author of Leadership Code: 5 Rules to Lead By, as quoted on FastCompany.com (November 14, 2008)

“Strategy is often delegated upward to the CEO or senior management team, which have a legitimate responsibility to shape the direction of the entire company. But strategic traction comes when employees at all levels of the company not only understand where the company is going, but they are excited by it, remember it, and know what to do to make it happen in their day-to-day decisions. They will have valid points of view about how the strategy will be operationalized internally, including which difficulties need to be overcome and how.”

That’s Quotable [Stephanie Chick]

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Stephanie Chick, Professional Coach, as quoted in an interview with Marshall Goldsmith in Business Week (October 14, 2008)

“Talent is a given. Everybody needs it to get in the door. Unleashing genius takes more time and effort and is a messy process. It’s a process of trial and error, and success doesn’t happen overnight. It really requires companies to be committed to figuring out what really drives and motivates their employees and to be patient with the process of self-discovery. Because unleashing employee potential doesn’t follow a linear path.

“You must also provide an open and trusting environment that embraces creativity, flexibility, and self-expression. And finally, you’ve got to be willing to strike a balance between performance and permitting employees to learn from mistakes. Genius is the byproduct of continuous learning and growth and failure is part of learning.”

Check out the rest of the interview about “Unleashing the Genius in Your Workforce.”

That’s Quotable [John Wang]

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John Wang, Chief Marketing Officer of HTC, as quoted in Fast Company (September 2008)

“Let me share with you how we think about brand. There is a very important difference between brand value and brand recognition. Brand value means something to the end user. Brand recognition, all it means is a bunch of advertising to make people recognize the brand name. At HTC we care about brand value, not brand recognition. Building brand value is like earning respect; you have to earn respect, you cannot buy respect. And the way to earn respect is by continuing to deliver innovative products and creating value for the market, and that has to be done time after time again. It is a journey.”

Check out the rest of the article on innovation at HTC.

That’s Quotable [Erwin McManus]

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Erwin McManus, lead pastor of Mosaic, as quoted in Outreach Magazine (Sept/Oct 2008):

“I think the role of pastors at this time in history is to be a curator of human talent. They need to learn how to cultivate, how to identify, how to nurture, how to develop and unleash the God-given potential in every person.”

That’s Quotable [Phil Cooke]

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Phil Cooke, owner of Cooke Pictures, as quoted on his blog (June 9, 2009)

“I’m shocked at the number of people that just keep doing the same thing year after year as if the direction of the ministry, audience numbers, response, income – whatever, will magically change. But getting from point A to point B doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through a well thought out plan.

“And by the way – when it comes to churches – changing graphics, cool music, lighting effects, or dumping the choir robes isn’t a strategy. That’s just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. You need a fundamental re-think of what story your church or ministry is trying to tell, what that means to your audience, how to connect with that audience, and why it’s absolutely urgent they respond right now.”

That’s Quotable [Cammie Dunaway]

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Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal (April 23, 2008)

“What we see is consumers are increasingly turning to friends, family and news articles as credible sources of information about products, more so than in the past. It is because consumers are getting much smarter, because they have better access to information and they are able to share information online. They are bombarded with advertising messages — so they have more tools to avoid that advertising today.”

That’s Quotable [Jeff Bezos]

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Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com as quoted on BusinessWeek.com (April 17, 2008)

I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate. That’s actually a serious point. If you’re going to do something that’s never been done before—which is basically what innovation is—people are going to misunderstand it just because it’s new.

That’s Quotable [Josh Silverman]

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Josh Silverman, CEO of Skype as quoted on Share Skype Blog (April 21, 2008)

We’re looking at every aspect, every stage of the user journey. From when you download the client and make your first call, all the way through the range of products we have, from the desktop to mobile. We’re going to focus on where the biggest pain-points are along that
journey, in order to make the whole experience seamless and delightfully easy. If we do it right, we’ll be relevant to more people more often.

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