Category Archives: Methods

“What does it take to be (a good) CEO?” Answer: People

Posted on January 1, 2018 by flybrand1976

All of the successes were from bringing in good people, helping them frame problems and getting them the tools they needed to be successful. The failures? They were mine – mostly due to not properly resourcing a problem with the … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Disruption, Filtration, Innovation, Invention, Marketing, Materials Science, Methods, Textile, Theory, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Biology vs the Over-Simplification of Economics

Posted on January 1, 2018 by flybrand1976

A changing US tax code and shifting geopolitical activity puts more focus on the opinions of economists. Bloomberg economist and Michigan economics PhD, Noah Smith (his blog is Noahpinion) highlighted many of the issues in modern economic analysis in a … Continue reading →

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IoT Review: Yale Z-Wave Home Lock

Posted on October 2, 2016 by flybrand1976

We recently purchased a Yale Z-Wave touchpad home lock that integrates with our home security system.  The online features through our security provider are fantastic.  We can add specific passwords for individuals, have them expire over time, set access hours … Continue reading →

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Growth by Document

Posted on September 7, 2016 by flybrand1976

The current business has experienced pleasant success despite a challenging market.  We grew our ASP from $40,000 by nearly 20x, increased our industrial installation base by similar numbers and have figured out how to grow in a long sales cycle market. … Continue reading →

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Recruiting and HR: Facets of a Job

Posted on September 6, 2016 by flybrand1976

We’ve had good success in recruiting and building a talented team.  As part of that our job descriptions became much clearer in some ways, and less clear in others.  We’ve also observed that our best candidates and most successful hires … Continue reading →

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Believe the Team that is Doing It

Posted on September 6, 2016 by flybrand1976

Better batteries will definitely impact the automotive market, but there are a wide range of opinions as to how.  The US Department of Energy estimated that nearly 1.2 million such vehicles were part of the American automotive fleet as of … Continue reading →

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“I hate your plan. (But I won’t suggest alternatives.)”

Posted on August 22, 2016 by flybrand1976

Names can create power.  Finding an existing accepted name is even more helpful.  I encountered a management challenge that has been hard to name. After circling the problem for a few weeks, I opened up Pirie’s, How to Win Every … Continue reading →

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Travel Guide: Clothing for Long Flights and Travel

Posted on January 23, 2016 by flybrand1976

Balancing comfort and style while regularly logging over 100,000 miles a year in flights (or even doing a few trans-oceanic flights a year) isn’t easy.  I’m good at identifying comfort – fortunately my wife, daughter and mother-in-law can help with the … Continue reading →

Posted in Methods, Textile | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tech Forecasting and Predictions 2015 (4 of 7)

Posted on December 24, 2015 by flybrand1976

After listening to six years of tech prediction shows  – it seemed only fair to add my own predictions based on industrial and slower moving technologies.  I’m attempting to follow the rules as laid out by DTNS and the observations made … Continue reading →

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DTNS 2397: Tech Forecasting for 2015 (1 of 7)

Posted on December 20, 2015 by flybrand1976

In the value-for-value world of DTNS, Patreon and Tom Merrit – I might not be the best contributor.  Trying to think of ways to give back, I listened to the 2015 forecast show, DTNS 2397, that was published on December … Continue reading →

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