“What gets measured gets managed”. A quote attributed to Peter Drucker. Managing a business requires a broad set of skills and attention to all parts of the business. Many CEO’s are good at making or selling “things” (goods and service offerings) but some don’t spend enough time monitoring the overall health of their business. Keeping…
Tag Archive: cultures
“but we are different”
I met with a company that was having severe operating problems. They were experiencing increasing order backlogs; excess component inventories; high expedite cost of out-of-stock components; and very poor communication between internal departments. When I explored their processes and asked a few questions about why they did not do things differently in a particular area,…
Four Failures from Uncertain Times
The economy may be slowly recovering but those I talk with are still very uncertain about the future. That uncertainty can produce failures that can have devastating results for your organization. If we cannot see the trees because we are focused on the forest, the results can be an unwanted surprise. I see four areas…
Word Of Mouth Marketing-What?
Obtaining and retaining loyal customers is about developing relationships. Companies spend $millions annually on advertising, hoping to influence the buying habits of their prospective customers. Advertising does not build relationships, it only hopes to influence the moment and convert those few seconds into a buying decision for a product. Word of Mouth (WOM) is the…
Grow Your Company with PR
In 2005 I consulted for a start-up that was owned by an entrepreneur who had a public relations back ground. I learned the value of good Public Relations (PR) and since then I have always consider it the next best form of advertising. I believe the best form of advertising is word of mouth. PR…
The 12 Steps of effective businesspeople
Do your work before you play. Always do more than others expect of you. Never quit trying to become better at something. Be willing to do the things you don’t like to do in order to achieve what you want. Be willing to accept failure and disappointment as a part of learning. Recognize that there…
Where are the VC’s?
A question I hear often is “how do I find a VC to invest in my company?” First, there are many different institutional equity investors, both private and public. Venture Capital companies are best known by start ups and early stage companies, because VC’s are most likely to be found investing in these riskier ventures. …
The “5″ P’s of Marketing
There are many misconceptions as to what is marketing and what it can do for an organization. Marketing is best described as a process intended to increase the perceived value and to stimulate demand for a product. A product, in our case, will mean both a physical product and a service, which is then translated…
“You Get What You Pay For”-Rewarding Incorrectly Will Hurt You!
Most organizations will say they reward “results”, yet that is not necessarily true. Organizations establish a formal or informal process to incentivize their workforce to achieve a desired level of performance. Depending on the size and culture of the enterprise, this compensation plan may include all employees, just management or something in between. All such…
Shifting From Accountability to Entitlement-Whose fault is it?
I recently read an article about the shift within corporate America from a workforce that expects to be held accountable, to a workforce that looks for entitlement. Why should we even be concerned with this shift? We should be concerned since a growing level of entitlement within our population is having an impact on the…
