Author Archives: Jay Robb

What Made jack welch Jack Welch: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders By Stephen H. Baum, Crown Business, $32 I used to joke that my kids could do anything they wanted when they grew up so long as they became doctors. But then my wife started to shoot me the look. "Why put that kindContinue reading “Life lessons build better leaders”

Remember when you were learning how to swim (I had to go to an unheated city-run pool at 8:30 in the morning during the coldest July on record). You stood at the edge of the pool and froze. You thought and thought and thought about jumping in but got yourself all worked out and wentContinue reading “Be brave and JUMP!”

Seem to have spent a good chunk of the summer sitting in on job interviews. A few helpful hints for job hunters: Know a lot about the organization you’ve applied to. Google ’em. If you can’t make the effort do your homework for an interview, just how little initiative will you take in your job?Continue reading “Job interviews from the other side”

Anyone who blind cc’d someone on an e-mail would have to dress up as a hotdog wiener and personally apologize to all those who were blindsided. Anyone who looked through and walked past the cleaning staff without saying hello would have to spend the rest of the day cleaning bathroooms. Anyone who kept checking andContinue reading “If I was CEO for a day…”

The It Factor: Be The One People Like, Listen To And Remember By Mark Wiskup AMACOM, $17.95 Off you march to your meeting to pitch your perfect project. Everyone got your memo last week and you’ve spent 146 hours working on your PowerPoint presentation. Your whole life has led up to this moment. You’re expectingContinue reading “Book review: The It Factor”

The CD section at the nearby Future Shop just shrank again. Now there’s more room for DVD boxed sets of 1980s TV shows that someone must be buying. And you have to think it’s only a matter of time before DVDs go the way of CDs as everyone downloads. On the same day I stoppedContinue reading “Going…going…gone?”

Went to Hamilton’s Museum of Steam and Technology on the weekend. Free admission so the price was right. Anyone with young kids knows all about Thomas the Tank Engine. We’ve spent far too many hours reading and watching Thomas and his Really Useful Friends get into crazy misadventures on the Island of Sodor. At theContinue reading “A golden opportunity goes off the rails…”

Just got a flyer from Big Ed’s Family Restaurant here in Hamilton. For $20.99, you can get yourself a 3 pound Big Ed’s Big Burger with 6 slices of cheese, fries, lettuce, tomato, pickle and cheese (add bacon for $1.50). Words don’t do this justice and can’t compare with the photo on the flyer. AndContinue reading “Why you should always look at your direct mail…”

Gave a presentation at a conference yesterday at the UWO’s Spencer Leadership Centre (almost makes you think about buying earning an executive MBA). London’s my hometown so I drove in and out of my old west and east end neighbourhoods. Lots has changed. Some of it for the better. Some not so much. And someContinue reading “Prodigal sons and daughters”

Drove to Long Point Provincial Park on the weekend for a family roadtrip. Warm and sunny when we left home. Rainy, cold and windy when we hit the beach. Felt like mid-April. While the grown-ups grumbled about hypothermia, the kids had a blast. Dug holes in the sand to bury their feet. Chased after seagulls.Continue reading “Grow down. Not up.”