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In the January-February 2011 Harvard Business Review, the article, Reinvent your Business Before It’s Too Late, claims that “things often look rosiest just before a company heads into decline.” When we think of the standard bell curve of a business cycle, we understand that revenue and profit is often maximized as the company edges closer [...]
A few days ago I posted the first five most common reasons given for NOT doing a strategic plan. To read part 1 click here. Here are five more. Do any of these sound familiar? #6 We are just trying to survive. Survival is often not possible without a vision of what you trying to achieve. It is often [...]
The last two years I have heard many CEO’s state, “I am just trying to be sure my company survives.” Sound familiar? Now, I am starting to hear, “sales are coming back”. Companies hope to regain the ground they lost the last two years. Later, with their feet back under them, they will think about growth. [...]
In small businesses across America, teams of executives are discussing what to do now that the economy is back. Some are wondering why they aren’t seeing sales rebound. Others are hiring like crazy. What accounts for the difference? The industry you are in? How good your product is? The attitude you have? The difference may [...]
For most of us, we don’ t want to re-create the last few years. We want to learn from them. In fact, we want to grow our businesses at accelerated rates, in part, to make up for some lost time. Yet, we have all heard, “only fools keep doing the same things and expecting a different [...]
Time and again, I hear from clients and business owners, “planning is not possible in this environment’, “well, we did a SWOT’, “We set our objectives–we use Rockerfeller Habits”, “we haven’t met plan so we stopped doing one’”, “we don’t know how to do a plan, really”, “we did our budget”. Need I go on? [...]
When I ask this question of clients, I usually get one of two answers: “my largest competitor” OR “the economy”. WRONG. So, what should be the biggest fear? What you don’t know! Why? Most big shifts, the kind that put companies out of business or are transformative for an industry, are usually in blind spots. [...]
Do you remember when you were taught the four “P”‘s of product, place, price and promotion? They were at the heart of successful business marketing plans. Today, there is a “P” that trumps that them all—people. If you read this blog regularly, you are aware that we interview one high profile CEO each month to [...]
The answer: it depends. Here’s why. Reality: the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they appear or may be thought to be. Perception: What is perceived is the result of past experience, and interpretation of sensory information. Most of us accept our most closely held beliefs, our thoughts about things, as [...]
In a few weeks, I will be interviewing Dan Cathy, President and COO of Chick-fil-A. In their corporate communications, they talk about their “raving fans”. They have even registered the phrase. I was asking a friend of mine who is in marketing at Southwest Airlines whether they have a “raving fans” marketing plan, and she [...]
