Next Generation Consulting Library

Blog Posts: Want to be the best in your field? Analyze everything, and Ask Better Questions. Here’s how.

2013-05-13T16:54:49Z

If you want to achieve anything extraordinary, you need to question everything. If you want better insight, you need to ask good questions. How do you ask good questions?

Blog Posts: What Does a Futurist Do? How Can A Futurist Help Me?

2013-05-12T11:29:35Z

Blog Posts: Who wears the cape in your stories?

2013-04-18T20:42:05Z

Blog Posts: I am to Blame for the Achievment Gap

2013-03-05T12:58:33Z

I am to blame for America’s achievement gap.

Here’s how I know.

In the 1990s I was a volunteer at Iowa’s Business Horizons, a weeklong business camp for high school juniors and seniors. I had all the problems you would expect from a novice trying to corral hormones-in-tennis-shoes into being interested in business … for an entire week … in the heat of the summer.

It was a disaster….

Blog Posts: Richard Florida, Henry Ford, and Minimum Wage

2013-02-06T19:26:07Z

This morning, Richard Florida appeared on NPR and suggested that service workers need higher wages:

“[...]sooner or later we’re going to have to develop strategies in our country to boost the wages and salaries of the more than the 60 million workers who deliver our services, who prepare our food, take care of our homes, wait on us in stores. We’re going to have to make their wages higher if everyone’s going to prosper.”

A month ago, I blogged about America’s shrinking middle class and did a little calculation. If Henry Ford were alive today and launched the 2013 equivalent of his 1914 $5-a-day scheme, front-line workers would be earning $14.32. That’s 45-94% higher than our current minimum wage.

Richard came up short in suggesting an increase in the national minimum wage, which is a shame. It’s a policy improvement that is overdue.

Blog Posts: Don’t Let Idiots Squash Your Great Ideas

2013-01-03T09:22:37Z

Ever have a really great idea, and the first person you told poo-pooed it? Shame on them. Shame on you, too. Here’s what to do next time, to protect your enthusiasm.

Blog Posts: Career Advice for America’s Next Generation

2013-01-02T20:47:00Z

In this Q&A between AICPA and Rebecca Ryan, you’ll learn some of the unusual science behind achieving goals and developing your career.

Blog Posts: America’s Next Gen Leaders: Pragmatic, Data-Driven

2013-01-02T17:26:17Z

Generation Xers are skeptical and results-driven. As they become America’s next leaders, don’t give them a pitch. Show them your data.

Blog Posts: Four Things on Charlie’s List for 2013

2013-01-01T15:33:51Z

A look behind the scenes at an email Charlie sent to Rebecca…

Blog Posts: Henry Ford, the Middle Class, and Unaffordability

2012-12-27T12:44:35Z

In 1914, Henry Ford shocked the world by increasing (male) worker’s pay to $5 a day, the equivalent of $14.32 today. Ford wasn’t being a philanthropist. He was acting in his own self interest. By helping his workers achieve middle class status, Ford was building a base of customers for the cars rolling off his assembly line.