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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, …

Leadership and more

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 …

Leadership and more

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

Leadership and more

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 …

Online and more

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 …

and much much more

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 Conundrum
Top of Mind

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 …

Top of Mind

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 …

Top of Mind

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 …