Recent Articles
Monthly Tips for the Top Executive
Competing Against Offshoring
Recently, we evaluated a project where an Indian offshore engineering firm successfully won a local contract against several small US engineering firms. The interesting thing about this project was that the customer was a small local startup firm and not a multinational corporation. The Indian company also had a sales office in Colorado. .....more
Go Take a Vacation
As entrepreneurs and business executives, the mere thought of taking a vacation away from our responsibilities can stress many of us out. What between preparing to leave, worrying while away and facing unknown disasters upon our return, is really it worth going? Of course it is, but just as much for business reasons as for personal reasons. Time away breaks up your routine and can offer you a fresh chance to practice more control over both your professional and your personal life. .....more
Hitting the Ceiling
The inability to delegate, to “let go,” to trust that others can do a job well, puts a ceiling on the size of many small businesses. These firms grow rapidly, driven by the supercharged overachieving founder. They are profitable because control is tight and well within the span of the founder. .....more
How to Get Control of Your Organization
Over the years, we have enjoyed meeting with CEO Forum members to share what we have learned about building healthy, “high performance” organizations. Quite often, we have learned a great deal from their experience. During one Forum session, members were asked to list their biggest issues in running their respective organizations. The overriding theme from the responses was a feeling of “lack of control.” The Forum members were frustrated with many aspects of their enterprises such as weak leaders, ineffective sales, poor service, and inappropriate systems. For many, the business they had started as a dream was rapidly becoming a nightmare. .....more
How to Make Mistakes
Promoting risk taking and eliminating fear of failure. It would be a mistake to try to avoid all mistakes. Indeed, it would be a colossal blunder to attempt doing things right the first time, every time. In todays light speed economy, ("new" economy and "old" economy) if you don't fall on your face both regularly and painfully, you are likely to end up dead instead. The only people not making mistakes are ones playing their game without risk and without novelty - and I might add - without progress. If your company cannot accommodate, even reward, failure - in the long run, you cannot succeed. .....more
Ideas About Ideas
We’ve all heard the scary stats… how many small businesses fail within the first five years… how few survive in the five years thereafter. Why is it so? Obviously there are many reasons, but today I’d like to focus on the ability for a business and its owner’s to be able to deal with change. Change is the only constant… if you fail to plan you plan to fail… we’ve all heard the clichés – but what are we doing about it in our small businesses? A small businesses’ ability to brainstorm and implement ideas, in my opinion, will be a prime factor in its ability to survive in a constantly changing market over the next five years. To follow are some ideas… on ideas! .....more
Lease Negotiations: The Six Biggest Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Who is your best friend when it comes to lease negotiations? Well, it’s not the friendly landlord. Did you know that last month alone an estimated 70% of the tenants that signed leases in our town of San Ramon, California did so without any representation? And the balance was represented by companies that have close ties with landlords. Would you hire a double agent to protect one of your firm’s biggest dollar commitments? .....more
No Need to Starve for Top Talent: Lessons on How to Eat Cake
It’s no wonder companies have trouble finding and keeping top talent when even the business experts didn’t know until recently that compensation isn’t the biggest motivating factor after all. Not that compensation is irrelevant; it needs to be competitive. But it’s only one of many things people consider when deciding whether to accept employment with your company, or whether to stay. .....more
Sales Tips for Small Business Startups
You have a dream and you are transforming it into reality by starting a business. You have a great product or service and a small but mighty staff. You worked day, night, and weekends to get the business up and running. Now what? As a sales consultant and small business owner, I’m often asked to suggest what the small business startup should focus on most. My answer? Focus on becoming profitable as quickly as possible and sustaining that position, not to mention your sanity, through consistent business development practices. Here are three sales tips I wish I’d known years and years ago. Good luck and super selling! .....more
Seinfeld on Marketing
A show about nothing... All this time we thought Seinfeld was a show about “nothing.” Little did we know that peppered in its nine seasons were hidden, real-world marketing lessons taught by the masters themselves. But, unlike the Soup Nazi’s secret soup recipes, these marketing lessons are to be shared freely with everyone. So why did I write this eBook? Anyone who knows me well knows that I watch way too much Seinfeld. So much so that many times during a conversation with someone I’ll remark, “Hey, that reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Kramer are…” Basically, it’s a curse. We’ll that’s all about to change with this eBook. I have decided to use my Seinfeld powers for the good of marketing-kind. Maybe this will help to quiet the voices in my head (doubtful, but one can hope). Even if you have never watched an episode of Seinfeld in your life (shame on you!), you can still participate. I’ll give you the background of each episode so that you can play along at home. …on with the show. .....more
The Upside of a Downturn
A slowing economy has tangible burdens, as employers become cautious in hiring (or even lay off workers). more subtle and insidious is the way even a gentle slowdown in consumption can trigger a well known vicious cycle: lower corporate revenues lead to job insecurity, which causes consumers to tighten spending, which hurts revenues, which causes more corporate belt-tightening, and so forth until something (government spending, easier credit, unforeseen demand) halts the cycle. This cycle offers a break in the fevered efforts to attract and acquire the most talented employees, a chronic problem that has beset booming economies for the past decade. To take advantage of a temporary lull in the chronic shortage of top talent, managers in HR and executives leading companies must adopt the longer-term practice we call the Engagement Cycle. .....more
When Brands and Technology Collide - Understanding the Fusion Factor
When we think of examples of great creativity at work in business, whether it be a hot new product, new service model, or new type of business altogether, we often sit back and wonder, how did they do it? .....more