"No one ever excused his way to success." – Dave Del Dotto It’s no secret that I’m a proponent of strategic planning. If you’ve read any of my articles over the years, you know that I believe every business – especially closely held businesses – should implement a strategic plan to align the organization around key [...]
"All good businesses are personal. The best businesses are very personal." – Mark Cuban Last month’s article on the darker sides of managing a family business generated a lot of response. Numerous owners of family businesses gave me feedback about the accuracy of my experiences. Given that 80-90% of businesses in the United States are family owned, [...]
"Despite having to contend with internal family tensions on top of the usual work stresses family businesses still outperform non-family businesses. At the end of the day it’s not what they succeed at but the way they succeed that makes the difference." – Jane Hilburt-Davis Thus consultants to family firms, who work with the owners [...]
"In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want." – Alice MacDougall Are you among the business leaders who believe the economy is starting to pick up? Or do you foresee another year or two of tough going for your business? Regardless of where you stand on the subject, chances [...]
"Leadership is creating a future for your organization." – Gordon Sullivan One of the most common problems I see among closely held businesses (actually most businesses) is a lack of clarity: By clarity, I mean the following: 1. Vision: Vision defines what your organization will look like and be doing in three years or so. [...]
"Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility." – Peter Drucker The problems we encounter in closely held businesses often stem from the fact that most of the business owners are experts in a professional discipline but are not trained and experienced businesspeople. They might be engineers, physicians, electricians, attorneys, accountants or [...]
"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." – Donald Porter – V.P., British Airways I recently had an exceptional customer service experience. I had to take my car into my local dealer for repairs and the job was not done quite right. The technician [...]
"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." – Paul J. Meyer The economic news has been so bad for so long, it’s hard to believe that any business is doing well these days. And yet, there are companies that have not only [...]
When you confront a problem you begin to solve it. ~ Rudy Giuliani I’ve noticed during my years as a business consultant that many organizations have become masters at ignoring the elephant in the room. These companies have one or more employees who perform poorly – and in many cases they’ve been under performing for [...]
"Accountability breeds response-ability." – Stephen R. Covey The importance of strategic planning is a frequent topic of these articles because it’s essential to business success. Especially in challenging economic times such as the past year, the businesses that are driven by a strong strategic plan are the businesses that not only survive, but thrive. I’ve [...]