Articles
Annoyed Customers Are A Great Asset
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. -Bill Gates It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. -Charles Darwin It is not uncommon for companies to overlook their most valuable assets. Recently I discussed how employees can prove to be a great resource for identifying issues within an organization and how great leaders utilize their employees in order to foster positive change. In this article, I will discuss another commonly overlooked asset – your disgruntled customers. Anyone who has ever had to deal with the [...]
What is Exit and Succession Planning
My good friend and fellow Certified Business Exit Consultant Kevin Kennedy has a great way to describe exit and succession planning: "Succession Planning is replacing yourself." "Exit Planning is replacing your income." Think about it! You, as a business owner can do one, both or neither. Please consider the consequences of having no exit and/or succession plan! Not pretty!
A Team Cannot Consist of Only One Man or Woman
A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle. - Japanese proverb The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I.' And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say 'I.' They don't think 'I.' They think 'we'; they think 'team.' They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit.... This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. -Peter Drucker All great leaders have visions and ideas that can be cultivated [...]
How Steven Jobs Can Stimulate our Thinking about Succession Planning
“Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight” – Henry R. Luce Steve Jobs death is certainly an incredible loss at many levels. However, there are important questions and lessons for founders and leaders of closely held businesses. Most companies have been founded by a dynamic and willful individual whose resolve to develop and sell their product or service is unwavering; with the success coming usually at great personal sacrifice. Given the relatively low percentage of companies that successfully transition from one leader to [...]
Choose Your Business Advisor Wisely
To accept good advice is but to increase one's own ability. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it. ~ Wilson Mizner A client of mine recently told me that his long-term accountant was someone he only saw once a year to review taxes. The CPA never really showed much interest in the overall health of the business or the strategies or tactics of the business. He simply did the tax work at the end of the year. This was a relationship of well over 10 years and, although the client had hoped the [...]
Are You Engaging the Creativity of Your People?
We recently discussed ways in which your organization could tap into its creative resources. I mentioned a few resources and strategic plans that could be put into action to achieve the creative results that any Fortune 500 company would be proud to obtain. Today, we're going to talk a little more about getting creativity from your company and how to put that creativity to work for you. Identify Your Company's Top Resources and Put Them To Work I've said it time and time again – a company will not thrive unless it is able to recognize what its most valuable assets [...]