Lead, Don’t Hunker Down
This is a time of opportunity, but it is not for the faint of heart. Is your organization competing in the market or is it competing internally? This last year three different organizations I was working with all had growth, …
Gut Check on Ethics
I belong to a professional business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, which was founded in 1904 in part to promote and advance ethics in business.
Over the years I served in leadership, and subsequently we have continued to wrestle with ethics …
When going gets tough
When going gets tough, get proactive and strategize. The inclination to immediately cut spending as a reaction to an economic decline is the business version of “fight or flight,” and can cause big problems. Instead, companies should focus on cutting …
No Dissing On the Bus
One season, we ran a tour with two bands on a tour bus, living on the road together for a month at a time over 9 months. It is typical for folks to chide one another, and it can get …
Socially Speaking, How is Your Word of Mouth?
I recently spoke at the Brentwood Chamber Tech Strategies group about Social Networking. It’s interesting to talk to business owners and leaders about this phenom and their reluctance to embrace it. One attendee contacted me and asked that I speak …
Vision of Small Business
Vision of Small Business Over the Next Decade – The Intuit Future of Small Business Series is an ongoing research study sponsored by Intuit and led by the Institute for the Future and Emergent Research. The research
Marketing – The Irony and Conundrum
Marketers have allowed themselves to get boxed into being the “promotional Flyer department.” The “touchy-feely” go-to group when it needs to look good. An article from Marketing Week describes how difficult it can be the get CEOs and CFOs to …
iPhones and Airlines
Some companies have a clear idea of what they want to produce and who they are producing it for. In other words, they’ve created their own culture.
Apple is one of these companies. Their designs have been revolutionary (take the …
Branding ~ Invest in One of Your Best Assets
Your brand should be the focal point of your marketing effort. Many times the sales and operations efforts will swamp the branding and eventually dilute the best. Starbucks saw this first hand in its efforts to improve efficiency when it …