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

Predicting the future is a seemingly futile exercise. This doesn't mean we should not try to stay ahead of the game. However, I have found throughout my career at PepsiCo that rapid adaption to changes as they occur is more beneficial in business than clairvoyance.

Early in his new book, Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer (Crown Business, 2011), Duncan Watts tells a story about the late sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld, who once described an intriguing research result: Soldiers from a rural background were happier during World War II than their urban comrades. Lazarsfeld imagined that on reflection people would find the result so self-evident that it didn't merit an elaborate study, because everyone knew that rural men were more used to grueling labor and harsh living standards. But there was a twist, the study he described showed the opposite pattern; it was urban conscripts who had adjusted better to wartime conditions

American Express is joining the ranks of old-school credit card companies that have realized they need to embrace the future of digital transactions. Its new Serve platform enables novel digital payments that threaten PayPal and pave the way for NFC

Preparing for international travel is unlike planning a business trip within one's own country.

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today

You’ve just accomplished something significant and you feel pretty good about it.

Next time you're shopping online , be prepared for a chat. As live chat technology evolves, e-commerce sites are finding that virtual clerks are becoming crucial to customer support and sales systems. Earlier this year, Bold Software, a live chat and click-to-call service based in Wichita, Kansas, polled 200 of their customers—mostly online merchants who use the software to interact with customers browsing their sites—to see just how effective live chats really were.

Next time you're shopping online , be prepared for a chat. As live chat technology evolves, e-commerce sites are finding that virtual clerks are becoming crucial to customer support and sales systems. Earlier this year, Bold Software, a live chat and click-to-call service based in Wichita, Kansas, polled 200 of their customers—mostly online merchants who use the software to interact with customers browsing their sites—to see just how effective live chats really were

In my last blog post , I made the case for hiring candidates with experience for positions that require problem-solving, people management and leadership skills. And after reading a few thoughtful comments that challenged my argument, I stand by my thoughts. Truth is, those are tough lessons to learn even with experience

In my last blog post , I made the case for hiring candidates with experience for positions that require problem-solving, people management and leadership skills. And after reading a few thoughtful comments that challenged my argument, I stand by my thoughts. Truth is, those are tough lessons to learn even with experience

If you're reading this blog, chances are you are a small business owner or self-employed professional (at least that's our target audience - others welcome, of course). But are you a local business? What makes you "local"?

Recently, I was interviewed about entrepreneurship by Business Insider.

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today

The home of the future will be bedecked with smart sensors that send their data to the cloud so you can manage the house from afar--yes, this is a story we've heard before. But now Microsoft has joined a plan to build a smart city jammed with exactly these smart homes in Portugal. Living PlanIT , which calls itself "one of the world's leading smart city and urban development technology providers" has been working on a plan for a smart city in northern Portugal for quite a while--currently a 2013 unveiling looks likely

Picture an old-fashioned covered wagon . Now, imagine your job is to pull that wagon. The wagon carries all of the concerns and goals of your business; understandably, this is a pretty heavy wagon, so you consider finding someone to help you pull it.