Key Message

A perfect pitch requres communicating the most important information about products or services to clients. A description may include various words like "best", "delicious", "interesting", "charming" and many others.
In effect, instead of being offered to make a conclusion themselves, the target is told about characteristics which he or she do not necessary discern in the offering.
It would be more genuine to replace those words with something like "I love my job". Let the client to think themselves about the product and at the same time show your passion and dedication.

The Power of Marketing

Yesterday I came to a Mcdonald's restaurant for the third time in my life... and did not get a meal. It was not a restaurant, it was like a swarm where everything moved fast except the lines. Seven cash desks were open, 5-7 people stayed in each queue. Or total 40 people in quite a small building. Moreover, there were no free space in the restaurant hall.

Despite I am a rare guest at McDonalds, I often have dinner in similar restaurants (in terms of price and quality). I am accustomed to enjoy free space and prompt service there.

An invisible hand must have existed which is capable of packing McDonald's restaurants with many-many customers. And that invisible hand must have strong power - the power of marketing.

When Dreams Become Reality

You think or dream about your future... In management it is called to have a vision - to understand how the future will look like. Then suddenly you realize that "the future" has come when you were offered what you dreamed about. It’s not easy to accept the offer. I.e. you hesitate for a while, think for a second because it requires saying "Bye-bye" to the past. You think about it for a moment... or a second, not more. Then you decide to move forward...
That’s a wonderful experience.

20|20 Foresight

I've read many books, but only some of them had a profound impact on my thinking and perception. The most recent of these books is "20|20 Foresight: Crafting Strategy in an Uncertain World". Its logic is applicable to stock market, business and even personal life :-)

The book is written by a McKinsey guy who spent a lot of time advising companies on there decisions amidst uncertainty. He explains that uncertainty may be different. If the future outcome is not fully known, it doesn't mean that we know nothing. We could separate the unknown from unknowable, thus identifying information that helps to address threats and capture opportunites. For example, we could identify several MECE outcomes or a (non-MECE) range of outcomes. It's really helpful to correctly understand whether only several outcomes will occur and then prepare for those outcomes, or a range is known only so there is no point to focus on one particular state of the world in the future.

This first step allows to develop a strategy that maximizes the value function of the company given that range of future outcomes. Depending on a specific situation, the most effective strategy would include shaping or adapting, diversifying or focusing, acting immediately or postponing decisive actions. But identifying the exact type of uncertainty remains the first step. It's preferrable to making gut decisions.

Feeling Great

Really inspired by work for the first time over past 1.5 years and that's why the life is wonderful. So happy to be able to concentrate my thinking and efforts on projects with observable results and measurable outcome. So glad to see that I do the right thing.

As soon as you stop wanting something you just get it. I don't "want" much more now, I just have all the resources to succeed. Isn't it perfect?!

Reason for Optimism

Today I was impressed by a multitude of new books in bookstore "YE". New novels, new translated manuscripts, new textbooks... Book covers are getting better as well as the book content. I believe that better books are capable of improving the world or at least those who read them. Thus, some positive changes must happen in this country.

PS. I have realized that I can buy more books than I can read.

Money is SUSPICIOUS,...

...because people think you're not supposed to have it, even if you do have it. 
Andy Warhol

It's A Funny Thing About Coming Home...

You realize what's changed is you.

Everything You Can Imagine Is Real

Pablo Picasso said that everything you can imagine is real. Mark Pincus proves this, at least partly, by charging real dollars for virtual things - people are ready spend hard currency on additional benefits in online games. His company Zynga is valued at $10 billion. The story: Ol' Mark Pincus Had a Farm.

No Rules

The rules you follow are not as important as the ones you should be breaking.

Tomorrow Is Too Far Away

“Ukraine needs to implement a number of reforms” is a popular statement being made by foreigners and locals. Proposed changes are expected to improve public finances, deregulate business and update the social security system. But time goes by and the progress in reforms remains very moderate. Why?

I believe the key reason is that Ukrainians do not think about the future.

It is a mental issue. During the early Soviet years in 1920-1950ss, millions of people were arrested and put into labor camps. Living conditions were awful there, and the only goal of people was to survive the current day which was very often inconsistent with ethics, honesty, integrity as well as other virtues… (The life in a Soviet labor camp is described well in a novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Nobel prize winner in literature in 1970). As a result, labor camps directly affected the mentality (and mental health) of many people.  Then, the new “culture” was spread over the country as prisoners were released or relocated to build new cities and factories.

Although decades have passed, the mental models of survival-the-only-day still dominate. Some people became rich, but they still think the more they have today the better. Reputation has little value because its short-run benefits are low. Telling lies is justified because it at least pospones dealing with reality.

Reforms are about the future, but few Ukrainians are accustomed to think that far.