IordacheIordache T&D

Kodak’s Faith and Lessons

I have just learned this morning about Kodak heading straight foreword to bankruptcy.

In the late 19th century, George Eastman (the father of Kodak) envisioned to “make the camera as convenient as a pencil”. And his company practically did it through a series of innovations over about a century. They made the first portable dry [...]

Why Sandwich Feedback Sucks?

“What was the last sandwich you had? Was it with ham? Or maybe cheese? Possibly fish? Or… salami… egg… tomatoes???”

“It was actually with a lot of… bread!”

Give me a break… all sandwiches are with bread! We do not remember the bread; it is seldom memorable! We always remember what is inside. Bread [...]

2011, fast facts

Life

I had the best summer in more than 10 years. From April till August I was doing something outdoorsy every single weekend. Really rewarding for my nature.

Tw0 weeks long skiing holidays in Zillertal, by far the longest winter skiing holidays in my life.

Went, together with my wife, (and showed daughter) on our [...]

Tough Questions 2: What Is the Value of the Intervention for Your Organization?

The second difficult question is: What is the value of the intervention for your organization?

So far, my potential clients rarely were able to come up spontaneously with a number or, at least, some way to getting there. The next question comes naturally: if we do not know the value of the intervention, how would [...]

The Value of Not Keeping Your Mouth Shut

I was cycling in the dark the other night through a large crossroad in Bucharest. There were two policemen there as well trying to speed up the traffic. As I was passing by one said to me: “Your vest, where is your vest?” And I went on. He did not stop me and did [...]

The fallacy of entert(r)aining

Some days ago I was talking to one of my former employees working for a pharma multinational about some training topics. At some point he mentioned that best training he had was one on motivation with a leading local supplier. He was excited about being well entertained throughout the sessions.

I asked out of my [...]

Tough Questions 1: What Precisely Do You Want to See Your People Doing

I will start a series of posts about some of the questions (prospective) clients find difficult to answer when discussing about developing capabilities of their own people.

Some emblematic encounters on developing people capabilities happen around these circumstances:

People have not been trained for a longer period so it’s time to do something about it. [...]

My Most Effective Training Experience

A couple of days ago I was just trying to remember what my best training experience was. I started attending different training programs since 1993. Initially I was trained in working in NGO sector and starting 1997 I joined several business training programs. Following, I would refer to non academic programs.

I am particularly attached [...]

“How Normal Is to Wish that All My Sales Persons Have a Spark in their Eyes?”

This is the question I was asked nowadays by an HR person whom I respect a lot after he had some interaction with some of his sales persons.

And my answer was: it is perfectly normal. Teams consisting of people who long lost (if ever had) the glue in their look at work may deliver [...]

Moskowitz, Gladwell, Spaghetti Sauce and Pharmaceutical Promotion

I was long saying that, after the lately so much blamed pharmaceutical sales model (for its growing ineffectiveness in western markets), the next sales model would rather be… NO MODEL.

If we are to consider that at the base of pharmaceutical sales stays product and [...]