Seth Kahan

Value is the Holy Grail

The Holy Grail is a sacred object in religion and literature. It derives its power direct from the divine. In some traditions it is said to be the cup Christ drank from during the last supper. However you interpret it, it is clear that it represents a lost connection to the divine. It is a […]

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Do the Impossible

I once attended a conference that included about 300 participants. Our emcee took us into the lobby and had us stand in a huge arc holding hands. She asked us to send a hand-squeeze from one end of the arc to the other. That is, the person on the far left was to squeeze the

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Innovation & Value Creation

If business is a web of interrelated activities, value is at the center. Value is what customers pay for, members show up for, and investors write checks for. Value drives the enterprise. When it’s present, all the other pieces of the puzzle form a clear picture. When it’s missing, everything falls apart. Traditionally value has

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Changing the Game

Rasmus Nyerup was designing a museum and at the same time admitting ignorance. It was not just his lack of knowledge he was lamenting, but everyone’s. The year was just 1806. He was the director of an organization that would become the National Museum of Denmark. He wrote in his book, Review of the Country’s

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Innovation is Intentional

Innovation is the ongoing, intentional exploitation of circumstance to generate more and greater value. Innovation is intentional. What I am talking about here is not an accident. It is sought after. Sure there are the great stories of how mistakes turned into great profits, like when Will Kellogg took some stale wheat in 1894 and

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The New Frontier

Frederick Jackson Turner addressed the American Historical Association at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893 at the age of 31 with a paper that changed forever the way the world thinks of Americans while at the same time bringing the French word frontier into English parlance. Since that time he has been rebutted and debated,

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Creating the Opportunity for Intentional Growth

Innovation is a nice-to-have when things are going well. But in a turbulent environment it is a necessity. Strong leaders focus always on the three core activities of business, with unrelenting clarity of purpose. This becomes imperative when times are most challenging. The three activities are: 1.    Operations – no matter what happens, the doors

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