Artisanal longevity, or how to sustain an artisanal business for the long haul

How would you achieve an artisanal longevity measured in centuries or even millennia? I found the answer to this question in an excellent New York Times article on the remarkable phenomenon of centuries-old heritage businesses in Japan. Now you might be asking what does Ichiwa – a 1,200 year old mochi shop in Kyoto – …

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Up or down: business resilience in a two-button economy

In an economic crisis, business resilience will get stress tested. Every business will face an elevator moment so to speak. Is your business going up or down? Does the crisis make you sink or swim? For many enterprises, crises have the effect of putting your business in an express elevator going down to the basement …

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7 rules on becoming a better bespoke customer

Conventional wisdom is the path of least resistance. For the most part, I find this to be the case with contemporary discussions of craft. Much of it tends to focus on the shortcomings of craft businesses and how to run them better. This seems natural. But my take is more unconventional and contrarian. It’s about …

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Coronavirus structure

Leadership in the age of COVID-19 or how not to lead in a crisis

Leadership is as old as humanity. It goes hand in hand with any kind of organization, flat or hierarchical. I’d like to think our ability to lead has progressed in parallel to the advances we have made culturally, economically and politically. In areas like medicine, that progressive arc seems unquestionable. For example, thanks to international …

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Hudson Yards shopping entrance. Photo credit: Juhn Maing

Retail apocalypse or renaissance? The battle for two kinds of retail mastery

That retailing is being disrupted has become painfully obvious in the last couple of years. In 2017, the phrase “retail apocalypse” was coined to describe legacy retailers closing thousands of stores in the US. This has been usually attributed to the two-pronged attack by Amazon on price and convenience. Other reasons include excessive debt held …

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Downgrade Apple? Why Wall Street is missing the boat on AAPL

Right after Apple decided to no longer report unit sales going forward last Friday, investors and analysts have pummeled AAPL by downgrading and selling off the stock. So is this reporting change innocuous or is it sign of troubling times ahead? In the words of one analyst, this reporting change at least creates the appearance that …

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