HBR: How to Get Your Employees to Speak Up

Getting candid opinions from your direct reports can be difficult. After all, no one wants to upset the boss. But hearing messages from down the ranks — including input from your company’s customers, feedback on your performance, and information from other departments or units — is critical to your organization’s success. How can you encourage your team members to have honest conversations with you — and to speak up when it’s important?

Read on at the Harvard Business Review to see what MSD founder/principal Megha Desai has to say.

An Appetite for Social Responsibility

It takes more than just good food and great service to get people to eat at your restaurant nowadays. Philanthropy, not surprisingly, has also become a key ingredient. In an effort to appeal to millennial sensibilities, more and more restaurants are now also making a strong effort to give back to the community through cause marketing. Cause marketing refers to a type of marketing involving the cooperative efforts of a for profit business and a non-profit organization for mutual benefit. The success of cause marketing in attracting more millennials is undeniable. As Marla Topliff, president of Rosati’s Pizza puts it, “It’s become popular to look for a way to do good”, and indeed it has. A recent report by Nielsen finds that millennials really care...

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7 Lessons for Nonprofit Organizations From the Startup World

Philanthropy is a surprisingly complex world. There is just as much competition, red tape and politics as in finance or the startup world.

Other complexities exist between the old guard of philanthropy and the new, disruptive groups of young people in social good. Both groups are fighting to achieve their goals and get their share of voice and funds. There are many theories and approaches to philanthropy and how these organizations can and should be run, which can be both empowering and frustrating for those trying to impact social change.

It is important for entrepreneurs and start-ups to learn from philanthropists and continue with philanthropic efforts but it’s also important for these social good organizations to understand how to operate like a startup for their own benefit and progress. So what can these worlds learn from one another?

Read on at Entrepreneur to find out.

The Internet Wins Again

It’s an undeniable fact that the Internet has completely revolutionized the way that the newest generation of consumers receives and processes information. Through online hubs, marketers are able to provide Millennials, the predominant force on the web, with a clear line of communication. Businesses are given the space to produce a steady stream of new content to interest Millennials with short attention spans as well as grant their audiences an outlet to make their own suggestions about the developments they would like to see...

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5 Easy Ways to Make Philanthropy Part of Your Company Culture

As an entrepreneur, it can be very hard to find time in your schedule to give back.

You’re struggling at a work-life balance, or figuring out the next step to propel you to success. When are you supposed to volunteer?

Read on at Entrepreneur to see how MSD founder Megha Desai, herself an entrepreneur and a philanthropist, combines the two.

Controversy vs. Neutrality

“Your ability to create raving fans is proportional to your willingness to piss off somebody else.” This is the basis of sales expert Perry Marshall’s philosophy on marketing.

This might not sound like the ideal approach to building up a new business, considering that the primary goal is to draw people in, not push them away. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to launch any campaign that will make audiences universally happy. Otherwise, our world would be single-minded, boring, and thereby stagnant in its progress. We’re left with only two options: be neutral or be controversial...

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