One of my favorite photographers, Chase Jarvis, filmed a few videos for Russell Investments. I really quite like them and am posting one for you to see here. They talk about real-life risk management – Risks that go beyond property risks such as skateboarding and having kids. These are things we can all relate to. The implications to our business lives become readily apparent as we think about the topic.

Hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.

Each holiday season, we select what we consider to be the year’s most influential business book to share with our clients and partners. This year, we chose Free – The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson as our firm’s 2009 Book of The Year.
 
We have simple criteria when picking our book of the year: 1) it must be published in the given calendar year, and 2) it needs to be both meaningful and enjoyable to read. While the selection formula is straight forward, the process of selecting our book is never easy. There are always varied opinions and good options from which to choose. We have chosen Free because the main idea of the book resonated with our firm’s culture and philosophy. It is the intriguing idea that you can make more money by giving services and products away for free.
 
As a professional service provider, we constantly give away our intellectual property for free. Gone are the days when you can simply say you’re an expert and expect to receive someone’s business. You must now fully demonstrate your value proposition and do it in a way that is both meaningful and economically neutral. The fascinating paradox explored in this book is that the more you give away, the more you receive in return. And the game-changing part of this “free,” is that it is not a twentieth-century marketing gimmick with strings attached. Twenty-first-century “free” really is free.
 
It’s a time-honored holiday tradition that giving is more important than receiving. Can this same principle of giving things away be applied to the business world? Can an economic model that is built around the concept of “free” be sustainable, not to mention a way to build even greater profits for your business? The reason this book struck such a chord with us is that we see this principle proven all the time in our business dealings. Serving others and giving value away does increase returns and there is a multiplier effect.
 
If you get a chance, we’d appreciate your comments on the titles we’ve selected as our books of the year.

2005 The World Is Flat
2006 Small Giants – Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big
2007 Wikinomics – How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
2008 Outliers – The Story of Success
2009 Free – The Future of A Radical Price

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes in the New Year!
 
Diversified Insurance Group

I read an interesting article last week about Twitter from Time Magazine. It is still a little hard for me to see the significance of Twitter and what it can do for a business, but this piece from Time magazine did a good job in showing how Twitter can be influential in some very interesting ways.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter, though I am only somewhat active. As Twitter (and I) evolves, I may become much more active. Time will tell.