Digital Disruption

Kulula is a low-cost South-African airline that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s name says it all. Kulula is a Zulu word that means: Some great lessons for the majority of boring, unfriendly and darn-right nasty airlines across North America … Kulula airline attendants make an effort to make the in-flight “safety lecture” and announcements [...]

When people ask me to describe myself I often say that I am a reformed trader who has become a builder. That may sound somewhat trite but for me it explains a fundamental paradigm shift / change that I’ve made in my life: In my trading days, I bought and sold things (stocks, bonds, derivatives, [...]

Having spent two days examining as much of the evidence as I could, there are two points that deserve to be mentioned. Israel acted well within the confines of international law and maritime practice in enforcing a legitimate blockade of the Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, in halting the flotilla, the Israeli forces [...]

[via Alan Winer, Chair, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto] From every corner of the world, Israel is facing condemnation for yesterday’s raid on the ship Mavi Marmara, part of the flotilla carrying goods to Gaza. Unfortunately, nine of those on board died in a confrontation with Israel’s Defense Forces and several members of the IDF [...]

I just read Nancy Duarte’s analysis of Bill Gates’ TED presentation. The classic comparison of presentation styles between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates has been written about a lot before. What a contrast to the many comments of how boring Bill Gates’ presentations normally are. This week at TED, Bill came through with flying colors. [...]

As we approach the end of the year, we all think about New Year’s resolutions. Instead of making a whole bunch of new resolutions, I thought I’d share a 12 point checklist on leadership that I just discovered in an old journal of mine.  I made this list for myself back in 2003 and think [...]

One year ago, I wrote a blog post entitled, “A Personal Crossroads : Choosing Light or Darkness: We have been seduced by the “American Dream” for the past 20+ years, borrowed money we couldn’t afford, bought things we didn’t need and speculated wantonly in the pursuit of more and more. Avarice and stupidity at their [...]

We’ve all witnessed the crash-and-burn of Tiger Woods over the past few weeks. At first his corporate sponsors stood behind him but then in the past few days both Gillette and Accenture have officially dumped him. Nike is still standing by him but that is understandable given that they are more than just sponsors — [...]

Starting on Friday night, December 11, I’ll spend 8 nights lighting candles for Chanukah. Every year, I’m reminded of why these days matter. Because by a miracle, oil enough for one day burned long enough to last eight days. As with our faith, and as with many things in life, a little proved to go [...]

There has been a lot of positive sentiment recently around the trend of releasing government data to the public. Some prime examples are Washington DC’s Apps for Democracy contest and Toronto’s OpenTO initiative. The noble intentions are to spark innovation, transparency and discovery. However, here’s a scary tale from the New York Times Magazine’s Ninth [...]