Ah, the ideal desire of most business owners - abundant profits and enjoyable work! Yes, it is quite possible, and I will discuss how.<< MORE >>

We know that we can increase business performance substantially if we pay attention to the knowledge residing within our business. Now, how can we link our business performance to the knowledge exchange that is occurring outside our business – through tools such as YouTube, Blogs, Pod casts, Wikis, video conferencing, social bookmarking, community file sharing, and enterprise social networking sites such as Ecto Connect? Furthermore, how do we integrate this knowledge exchange into our business culture?<< MORE >>

Economists, financial analysts, and politicians are increasing their rhetoric about an economic recession; yet few are discussing what we as business owners can do to increase our profitability and grow our business in a period of slowed economic activity. As a business consultant it does me little good to place myself in a theatre and shout "Fire." There is enough of that to go around. For my clients, my business mentoring role is to encourage proactive and positive leadership by enabling business owners to increase their competitive advantage and add further value to their customers needs by participating in the economic recovery. I will describe 5 strategies business owners can use to increase their growth and their profitability, and encourage business owners to use these strategies to also improve the attitude and outlook of those whom they service. The 5 strategies are – visioning, goal setting, marketing message, marketing strategy, and employee development. << MORE >>

More often than not business owners talk about business plans in elusive terms, leaving one to wonder if they will ever write one at all. How often have you heard – “I wrote one then put it on the shelf,” “Our plan is out of date – it’s useless,” “It’s too long – no one will read it,” or my favorite – “I’ll pay a consultant to write one!” Too often the focus has been on writing your plan. I am suggesting a better focus – implementing your plan. Implement it by asking 5 key questions. So, let’s review the 5 key questions, apply them to your business, and discuss next steps. << MORE >>

How often have you gone way back in your career to find an example of success in order to explain the obvious to business owners about effective employee motivation strategies. Employee motivation, performance, productivity, alignment, and communication are huge topics in change management and business consulting circles. And the solutions are relatively straight-forward and simple. Here are seven that I have used effectively in my career as a chief executive and manager.<< MORE >>

As a business advisor and business consultant, clients often ask me to review their employee selection processes. In each instance I will employ the same review process, only varying it depending on the number and variety of different employees and positions – the steps are – employees complete a position analysis questionnaire, employee interviews, supervisor and manager interviews, developing an assessment profile for each position, and, assessing existing employees and employee applicants to this profile.<< MORE >>

You can become the Most Valuable Player in your business when you work to develop and implement a bottom up mission, vision, and purpose strategic process. As many business advisors and business consultants will tell you; you will start to see profit increases to your bottom line within 6 months, and, over the course of 18 months to 3 years, see some serious performance and profitability increases.<< MORE >>

Many companies claim to have a company strategy – but how does a really good strategy increase your corporate profits? And what is the difference between a really good strategy and a “killer” strategy? Many business consultants won’t tell you this, but - it is quite simple. << MORE >>

In my last post we talked about how selecting a person for his long-term contributions to a company’s long-term strategy was most effective in nurturing personal and corporate growth.  And, as promised, I indicated I would address how you can develop a process that helps to create workforce alignment. 
 
There really are 5 ways to do this.  Identify and communicate your company’s strategy; develop and communicate a solid mission, vision and purpose; develop a benchmarked assessment profile that identifies the attributes of employees who will fit your strategy and MVP, identify training and development needs for your employees, and ensure ...<< MORE >>

When I ran large public organizations, I never thought about hiring someone using a person/future fit to make sure these employees stayed for a long time, much less understanding what the term meant.  When I reflect on my focus, however, I think I did just that.  I was always interested to see if a candidate understood and shared the company’s long-term strategy for success, and was willing to grow in his position to assume greater responsibilities over time.  ...

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