Avoiding the Race to Zero
We have all read the stories about the company that was experiencing incredible sales and profits only to become irrelevant at some point in time. Whatever happened to Zenith, Quasar, RCA? What is Polaroid doing these days now that it has filed for bankruptcy – twice? These are all big name brands that won the [...]
The Direction of Your Customer Service Improvements
I was working with a client recently that was in the early stages of improving their customer service process. They felt the need to improve the process because a couple of their competitors were making a big noise in the market about their customer service teams and their customer service programs. The situation was becoming [...]
Know, Do, Repeat
Know, do, repeat. Looks like the words on the back of a shampoo bottle — wash, rinse, repeat. Sustainable revenue growth can be, and often is, much more simple than many make it to be. When businesses know what they do very well, know how to do it regularly, and know how to make it repeatable [...]
My Obsession with Creativity and Innovation
Several years ago I sat in on presentation about innovation and creativity. The presenter talked about the importance of creativity in the strategic process. The most memorable aspect of that presentation was how she leveraged the power of humor as a starting point in the creative strategy process. According to this presenter, humor is a [...]
Congruent Leadership
Nothing frustrates me more that leaders who have this unique ability to establish two sets of rules, behaviors, and values in an organization. The leaders I most respect are those who have demonstrated the capability to “walk the talk” and clearly live in concert with the values they encourage their team and their organization to [...]
Leadership Lost and Found
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” ~ John F. Kennedy
Leadership is a pretty popular topic in today’s business climate. As organizations continue to work through their economic and growth challenges, the pressure and expectations put on leaders, executives and managers to generate immediate results increases. From there, everything rolls downhill and the real [...]
Intentional Common Sense
In a recent planning conversation with a new client, I was reviewing the CEO’s knowledge of his customers, their decision making behaviors and what drives customer loyalty to his business. After a series of very information specific questions, the CEO looked at me and realized I was asking him questions that we both new he [...]
The Management Commitment
I enjoyed a great interactive conversation with an old client who is in the process of managing his first team. His biggest concerns were how he can make a difference in an expedient manner. The nature of his questions were based on the objective of accelerating his career. I politely and directly informed him that [...]
