Defining the causes of lost business value is not what many large consulting firms do. Many benchmarks of corporate practice start by looking at successful companies. But a recent Booz & Company survey took the opposite tack. They decided to study the biggest losers: companies that, in one way or another, had seen their fortunes [...]
Read More Business_Intelligence, leadership, organization, strategyWhen someone asks: How’s business? Do you really know what to say? If you’re like many business owners, you may roll along with the dim feeling that your business is holding its own. But in the back of your mind is the nagging feeling that honestly, you don’t know for sure if you’re falling behind [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, organization, Small_BusinessOK. It’s the end of the week. I’d like you to take a look at your schedule this week, business owners. How much of your time is taken up with activities that don’t create new products or services, drive more sales or find new customers? If the answer is a lot, it’s probably time to [...]
Read More organization, Small_Business, staffing, strategyRunning a small business can be a lonely life. Working long hours to keep the doors open, it can be easy to feel as though you’re the only struggling entrepreneur. But you’re not — and help is available. The irony is that many small-business owners don’t ask for assistance even when there are valuable and [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, organization, ResourcesLet’s take a brief test for a second. Ask yourself this question, especially if you’re an entrepreneur and have employees and/or 1099 “partners”. Here’s the test: Can you say the following: ”I just love my staff! I want them to never leave. I take them to plays and out to dinner and pay them higher than [...]
Read More Employees, Entrepreneurship, optimism, organization, staffingSome people study the market, find an opportunity, and start a business. Others find a product they like, buy a gross of it, and declare themselves in business. But really, they’re not. An entrepreneur who simply follows their muse and sells whatever they find fascinating doesn’t have a business, in my view. What they have is a [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, organization, Small_Business, StartupIf you’re looking to develop or improve a successful intranet for your start-up or business, you might want to take a look at the common themes identified among the winners of this year’s Intranet Design Contest put on by the Nielsen Norman Group. Not familiar with this international competition? NNG is a Fremont, Calif.-based website usability research firm. [...]
Read More Benefits, futurist, organization, TechnologyWhen I worked in the corporate world (think global corporation with 30,000 employees and a Board of Directors complete with an audit committee), this was the time of year when everyone in the enterprise received their final financial targets for the following fiscal quarter, as well as numbers for all of the next fiscal year. Bonus and incentive plans [...]
Read More communication, organization, strategyYou can find plenty of arguments for and against outsourcing the management of your company’s social media initiatives. From ghosting your company’s blog entries, Facebook status updates and tweets to monitoring and mining platforms for inappropriate content and customer insight, some companies just find it easier to pass these responsibilities to a third-party provider. Whether you outsource or manage [...]
Read More entrepreneruship, Entrepreneurship, organization, outsourcingLet’s face it; the biggest obstacle to starting a new business isn’t the economy or your bank’s strict lending requirements. Most likely what’s stopping you from getting a new enterprise off the ground is you. Categorize it however you want — procrastination, self-doubt, fear of the unknown, or literally not knowing where to begin — [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, organization