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

A study finds that companies best positioned to benefit from ambitious goals rarely pursue them. The study: "The Paradox of Stretch Goals: Organizations in Pursuit of the Seemingly Impossible," by Sim B.

Yes, Hollywood Stars can live up (or down) to their stereotypes. But they can also be invaluable in promoting a good cause.

Sheena Lindahl and Michael Simmons met their third day of college and started dating on their fourth. Both are business-oriented by nature; Lindahl juggled five jobs to pay for New York University and Simmons ran a Web development shop in high school. "My friend and I made $40,000 our senior year of high school, working 10 hours per week," says Simmons.

I'm pleased, although not surprised, by the incredible wave of reactions to and comments about my post, "Great People Are Overrated." (I'm also not surprised by the vitriol and personal nature of some of the barbs aimed at me. That seems to go with the territory whenever you question an article of faith among the web startup crowd.) My guess is that the post touched a nerve because it touched on one of the great dividing lines in our business culture today. As members of an economy, a society, and a collection of companies, all of us are engaged in a conversation (sometimes explicit, mainly implicit) about what makes the world go 'round -- individual brilliance or group genius, self-possessed superstars or well-rounded teams.

Discovery Communications' newest web venture , Curiosity.com , launched today. If you've got a question, tap it into Curiosity's search box. If one of Discovery's numerous properties has answered it in the past, you'll get those results

That grouper on your plate may not be grouper at all--unless it has an electronic tag saying otherwise.

If you have achieved at least $1 million in revenue in each of the past 2 fiscal years, you may want to check out this competition. Here, the sky is the limit! While many solopreneurs build multi-million dollar businesses, not every solopreneur sets out with the intention of remaining solo for the duration of their years in business.

Forget lying in a memoir, we should be talking about what it means that Mortenson's Central Asia Institutes in Pakistan and Afghanistan are failing. The 60 Minutes expose of much-lauded author and social entrepreneur Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea; Stones into Schools) is rocketing around the web

If every company institutionally implemented innovation practices, we might all be just as successful as Pixar, Apple, or 3M.

A sort of Match.com for philanthropy pairs up industry executives who want to give back with non-profits who need their skills. People who reach a certain level of success often decide they want to give back.

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.

Last month, Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop sent an e-mail to his staff, the contents of which would change the course of the company. In a candid, pointed missive, the Canadian executive said, "our platform is burning." Nokia's Symbian operating system had fallen far behind in the age of smartphones, which threatened Nokia's 200 million worldwide customers