Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

I'm not a born networker. I go to a lot of events and conferences, but I'm not great at walking up to strangers, unless I have a specific goal in mind. Even when I do go home with a fistful of business cards, there's a good chance they'll wind up crammed in the back of a drawer

The book: Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries, by Peter Sims; Free Press.

%excerpt% Read the original here: How I Did It: Tumi’s Charlie Clifford

It's a speech we've heard time and time again: A corporate CEO or entrepreneur will take the stage and proclaim "Our greatest asset is not in our inventory or our sales or our products—but in our people." True, but times have changed. In order to fully realize—and leverage—an employee's full value, a successful company needs to find creative ways to tap into its employees' networks (both online and offline).

01 / Groupon > > For integrating web and the real-world shopping experience, changing consumer behavior, democratizing small businesses, and spawning an entire new category. The fastest-growing company in Web history, Groupon's flash deal site marries cents-off coupons to a Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy. The company broke into the black just seven months after inception; globally, more than 500 copycat sites have already sprung up.

Each year , I help fellow entrepreneurs and investors judge the MBA business plan competition at Harvard Business School. This year, I noted which pitch approaches seemed to work best and which tactics fell flat. Here are five things that worked in this year's presentations—and that you should consider including in your next business plan pitch: 1

Why do Managers shy away from giving performance feedback, both positive and negative? Constructive feedback is crucial to career development, employee satisfaction, employee retention and employee motivation. Employee feedback should be given as frequently as possible; both formally through the annual performance review forms and ensuing discussions, but also informally through ongoing conversations and coaching

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today. Office-space shortage in the South Bay.

Six months ago when I started working at Parallels as CEO I knew that I would not be able to accomplish everything I wanted overnight. So I asked myself, "What are the key challenges I want to tackle first?" I worked with my leadership team to define our business priorities and establish clear, measurable goals so we could achieve them to profitably grow our business. I created scorecards for our company with our executives and their teams so everyone understands our goals, what success looks like and how each person is accountable to helping the company achieve its goals.

If possible, think back to a time you or a loved one had to be in a hospital for a significant amount of time. What do you remember from the experience? Many people report an eerie feeling about their stays in hospitals.

People may advise you to listen to your gut instincts: now research suggests that your gut may have more impact on your thoughts than you ever realized. Scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Genome Institute of Singapore led by Sven Pettersson recently reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that normal gut flora, the bacteria that inhabit our intestines, have a significant impact on brain development and subsequent adult behavior. We human beings may think of ourselves as a highly evolved species of conscious individuals, but we are all far less human than most of us appreciate.

Is the founding of Twitter the stuff of "The Social Network 2"? You probably know the story by now

To-do lists are like fashion. One season sky-high stilettos are in, but three months later it's all about ballerina flats.

Inc.

Finally! Some more substantial evidence that Google is readying a music service! For years , rumors have been trickling in that the search giant plans to create a cloud-based subscription music service that would store all your songs in a "digital locker." But until now, the rumors have amounted to little more than, well, rumors. Now we've learned two more reasons why prospects of a Google music service are looking increasingly more likely. First, Google confirmed it had acquired mobile music startup PushLife for $25 million