How do you set prices? Do you put a markup on your direct costs? Do you estimate the tangible product benefit for your customers and price for a fair return? Or does your accountant keep an Ouija board under their desk? Successful companies focus on perceived value; which is defined as the premium a buyer […]
Category Archives: Sustainability
My observation is that business leaders look upon business and strategic planning with the fondness of a root canal or tetanus shot. Nobody would suggest that planning is a bad thing to do, but many are hesitant to commit time and resource to the activity. Business plans only make sense if the leadership intends to […]
Every business leader wants to see their business grow. All too often, the business owner that launched the business relies on their intuition to sustain it. While Operations professionals study process and collect data, rarely does that practice extend to the front office. Growing skills to build relationships, implement measures, and collect relevant data are […]
The topic of sustainability has been a source of stress since the beginning of humanity. Around 600 B.C, Aesop wrote the fable of The Grasshopper and The Ant. The Grasshopper was the opportunist who lived for the day and enjoyed the summer sun while the Ant industriously stored food for the winter. The Greeks understood […]
Intention is everything when creating strategic and business plans. Too many executives use annual plans as a “snapshot” or “State of the Enterprise” presentation rather than a dynamic instrument of change. AH Maslow is credited with developing the Cycle of Change which identifies three transformations to achieving change. They are: awareness that change is necessary, […]
Despite all the bad news that pours in over the air waves, I continue to find evidence that our economy is strengthening. The most striking evidence is the number of business owners that are looking to increase the size of their workforce. It’s also striking that the desire to hire is almost immediately followed by […]
During interesting times I find it best to take a break from the news to rebalance my perspective on what is truly significant. Headlines tout that states are up to their eyeballs in debt and continuing “tax and spend” policies while countries teeter on the brink of default. Thankfully, these events have an indirect impact on […]
Like most business people, I have too often looked at our political process with bewilderment and passivity. So last week, I decided to change that and attended a number of events in Hartford intended to illuminate businesses’ position in the Connecticut budget debate. One of the advantages of a small state like Connecticut, is that the government is […]
Whenever I work with a group regarding strategic planning, I find the words vision and mission often need definition. Perhaps some of the confusion comes from faith-based organizations using the word mission to mean what a commercial organization often calls vision. Simply put, vision is a description of how your organization expects to improve the […]
A survey by The Economist of over 1100 Millennial employees and 150 managers revealed that 91% of Millennials felt they would spend less than three years in a job before moving on. Noted author, David Burstein, wrote that it is possible that the Millennial generation will have had 14 jobs by the time they are […]