9 Business Rules of Thumb To Manage By
The book, Rules of Thumb, by Tom Parker, is a fascinating read because it's a fine collection of heuristic sayings: a measuring device for common sense principles of life.
I thought nine rules were especially interesting due to their potential for influencing business decisions. They reminded me of how we make 'back-of-the-envelope calculations' which are better than a guess but less than an accurate than a proven fact.
Here are 9 business rules of thumb to ponder:
#9 Business Decisions - 80% of all bad decisions are snap decisions. Good managers make the best decisions after sleeping on it.
#8 Organizational Management - A corporation should limit its executive staff to one hundred people or less, even though it may have thousands of employees.
#7 Advertisements - A good ad should have no more than seven words and two things to look at.
#6 Time Management - A job with a new client with take 25% longer than the same job with an established client.
#5 Product Marketing - Any new product should have at least three easily recognizable advantages over the competition.
#4 Advertising - To attract women, show babies and women. To attract men, show men.
#3 Public Speaking - You should expect your actual speech to take one-third more time than it took you during practice.
#2 Press - Don't tell a reporter anything you don't want printed. Not that they can't be trusted, but what you tell reporters off the record can lead them to another source who may not be so discreet.
#1 Elevator Pitch - The idea for a new venture is likely to be strategically unsound if it can't be put into one coherent sentence.
About Jon
Being Heardable, the Heardable Blog, is curated by Heardable co-founder and digital marketing veteran, Jon Samsel. Jon is based in Los Angeles, and Singapore.