Jack D. Deal's Free and Inquiring Mind Applied; Change before you have to...831-457-8806

Business quote on marketing and owner responsiblity....

 "The biggest problem with business marketing today is the owner's have to take direct responsibility."  --JD Deal   

Business quote of the day from Peter Drucker...

"The effective executive always asks 'Is this still worth doing?' " --Peter Drucker

What about stocks?

"There's nowhere to hide in the stock market anymore." --Jim Herrick, Baird and Company

Blogging for Business Success

Instead of louder and more obnoxious methods of getting in your prospects' faces, find ways to have them come to you; happy, pre-sold and wallet in hand.

Consider how people find products and services online. They turn to Google, they search for what they are hunting for, they do their research, make a decision, and either make a call or put in their credit card number.

Create content that answers your prospects' questions, challenges, wants and needs using the words and language of your customers, and you are well placed to attract people looking for exactly what you have to offer. Blogs are famously effective in producing excellent search engine rankings. -- Chris Garnett

Business ad copy jan 27 2009

Has your industry changed? Is your business changing? Do you need to make changes? Deal Business Consulting, Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, CA 95060. Local search and research blogs at http://www.jddeal.com/blog/marketing_questions and business photos at http://www.freeandinquiringmind.typepad.com Also follow my social media business entries on http://www.twitter.com/jackddeal and business videos at http://www.youtube.com/jackddeal. Reply to this ad or call 831-457-8806.

Business Improvement, Business Plans and Business Development (santa cruz sample ad Craigslist Nov 16 2009)

Business Improvement, Business Plans and Business Development (santa cruz)

---

Reply to: your anonymous craigslist address will appear here ^[?]
Date: 2008-11-16, 5:15AM PST

Are you having trouble getting down to business? Business Improvement, Business Plans and Business Development by phone and email. Confidential. Free estimate. Deal Business Consulting, Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831-457-8806. Research blogs at htt://www.jddeal.com/blog/business and business photos at http://www.freeandinquiringmind.typepad.com

• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Sample classy letter on shutting down your business or company

After careful consideration, we have decided to shutdown the BlogRush
service.  If you have the widget code on your blog you will need to
remove it.

When BlogRush launched in late-2007 it spread like wildfire all over
the Web.  Thousands of bloggers were talking about it and the service
exploded to become one of the fastest growing free services in the history
of the Web.  During the first year of the service it successfully
served 3.4 Billion blog post headlines and the BlogRush widget could be
found on blogs all over the world; even up until the moment we closed down
the service.

BlogRush didn't grow without its fair share of problems -- from
security issues to abusive users trying to 'game' the system to much lower
click-rates than expected.  We also had some problems with trying to
fairly control the quality of the network, and in the process made many
mistakes in deciding what blogs should stay or go.  All of these issues,
ultimately, limited the service's full potential.

Our team worked very hard to try and build a service that would truly
help bloggers of all sizes get free traffic to their blogs.  This was
our primary focus.  Not once did we ever try to monetize the service with
ads or anything else.  BlogRush never made a single penny in revenue.
  We wanted to be able to help our users FIRST and then worry about
monetizing the service later.  Unfortunately, the service didn't work out
like we had hoped.  (It happens.)

I want to say "Thank You" to all of the great bloggers that at least
gave BlogRush a test to see if it would work for them.  We sincerely
appreciate you giving the service a try.

We have received several offers & inquiries about acquiring BlogRush,
but we are choosing not to go that route.  While many might think this
is crazy, we truly feel it's the 'right' thing to do for our users.
  Believe it or not, it's not always about the money.  In fact, BlogRush
will have lost a small fortune when it's all said and done, and it was by
choice.  There were many things we could have done to monetize the
service but we wanted to make sure it was going to benefit our users first.

Last but not least I want to say that I hope the failure of this
service doesn't in any way discourage other entrepreneurs from coming up with
crazy ideas at 4AM (like I did with this one) and from "going for it"
to just try and see if something will work.  Without trying there can
be no success.  And as we all know, ideas are worthless without action.
  The Web wouldn't be what it is today without entrepreneurs trying all
sorts of crazy ideas.

On behalf of the entire BlogRush team, we wish the best of luck to
everyone with their own blogs, ideas, and crazy ventures.

Sincerely,

John Reese

Notes on Why No Strategy is Bad Strategy

	jackddeal having a bad strategy can be worse than having no strategy... less than 5 seconds ago from web
	jackddeal it is surprising how many companies actually have no strategy... less than 5 seconds ago from web
	jackddeal there is no such thing as no strategy; having no strategy as a default strategy is in reality, having a strategy... less than 5 seconds ago from web
	jackddeal a superior strategy, and it's successful execution, probably account for 90% of business success... less than 5 seconds ago from web
	jackddeal strategy is the key factor in business success... less than 5 seconds ago from web
	jackddeal strategies, leveraged by technologies, have become the key driving force in most vertical and horizontal markets... less than 5 seconds ago from web
	jackddeal flexibility is another key; as conditions change, so should strategies... less than 5 seconds ago from web
	jackddeal the best way to develop a strategy is to find out the result you want and work backwords... less than 5 seconds ago from web
	jackddeal the best way to succeed is to develop and follow the best strategies... less than 5 seconds ago from web

Notes on the The Death of Small Rented Offices and Stores

The Death of Small Rented Offices and Stores

Cost per square foot has gone up

Taxes have gone up

Triple Net, maintenance, parking fees, misc. fees up

Commuting cost to and from work, up.   

Meals at work, up. 

Childcare, up. 

Business attire, up.   

Utilities, up. 

Furnishings and décor, up.

Janitorial and cleaning, up.

Employees and office help, up.    

If retail, must sell higher ticket items.  Cannot be a discount store at $10/square foot.  Not enough shelf space.  Too small for service businesses like restaurant or beauty salon. Can't squeeze enough margin…

Cash flow-wise  the numbers don't match; hence the old expression 'working to pay rent'.   

Increasingly many small businesses and professionals are realizing it is not necessary for them to have a physical presence and place where they must meet customers and clients. 

These smaller businesses that once were located at a specific location can now locate themselves at a specific location online.   

In downtown

San Jose

I saw a business sign that was a website address.   

More acceptable to not have a physical office and less acceptable having a poor web presence.   For many, it is worse to have a bad google footprint than not to have an office.

Small office makes one look small.   Big web presence makes one look big.  Where is the better ROI?   

Online search technologies are allowing consumers to find what they want online.   Smaller businesses increasingly are not competing just locally but regionally and globally as well. 

Loss of productivity while commuting to and from work hurts small business more. 

The psychological toll of maintaining a physical store or office does drain one's energies.   

Not unusual to see half empty small office buildings and half empty strip malls.   The question is will small business pressures prevent the rebound of small rental offices and stores. 

Business Analysis for Medium and Small Sized Companies

Date: 2008-05-05, 8:33AM PDT


Not sure why your company or business is not performing as you expected? Are you content where you are with "lowered expectations"? What are your competitors doing that you are not? A good business analysis includes management, human resources, operations, sales, marketing and technology. Find out what you need to know and not just what you want to hear from an objective outsider that is not your employee, friend or family. Google the article "The Business Analysis: Why Your Company's Future May Depend on It" for more specifics. Get your results within five business days at a cost of $350-550. Contact Jack D. Deal at 831-457-8806 [email protected] for more info.

Location: Santa Cruz

• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Management Consulting for Medium and Small Sized Companies

Reply to: [email protected]
Date: 2008-05-05, 9:12AM PDT

Got a business problem and can't figure it out? Are your competitors always a step ahead of you? Is your company strategy worn, tired and ineffective? Are you beginning to wonder about your business model? Is your Sales and Marketing Plan old news? What are you missing out on? Find out what you need to know and not just what you want to hear from an objective outsider that is not your employee, friend or family. Contact Jack D. Deal at 831-457-8806 [email protected] for more info.

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 668598790

Customer Loyalty or Where Did All the Customers Go?

We keep reading that there is no more loyalty -- customer or otherwise. The worker complains the employer will no longer guarantee job security. The employer claims he trains employees so well they start their own businesses and become the competition. The manufacturer claims the consumer buys only on price. The consumer says they would buy brand but the value is not there.

There is a dynamic missing in each of the above statements. The dynamic only goes in one direction.

To build a relationship - especially a strong one involving loyalty - is a two way street. If your business has few loyal customers or clients then you will have few repeat buyers. Most businesses either make it or break it with repeat customers.

That pizza company calling you for a phone survey is not interested so much in the ten bucks you spent last week as the $7000 you will spend in the next 25 years.
So it makes sense that if your business has few loyal customers you need to figure out a way to not only get them but keep them. Simple.

The way to do that is to totally focus on the customer; not just in the sales and marketing meetings. But in everything you do. Inside out. When you look outside first to your market and customer base and then change the way your business operates to meet those market demands you are reengineering processes. 

With this refocus employees must be hired who understand the importance of customer loyalty. To keep them motivated incentive plans should reward employees for retaining regular customers as well as gaining new ones.

Tools and Training allow skilled employees to resolve customer complaints very quickly. Most consumers understand that no business can always be perfect. By handling problems quickly and effectively your customers understand very clearly your commitment to them.

Attitude must be honed with other skills. Positive, upbeat employees are liked then trusted then bought from. You cannot expect depressed employees to keep customers happy.

Measure and survey what your customers do, say and pay for. If your product/service is higher priced follow up regularly to insure satisfaction. The very act of following up strengthens long term relationships.

Establish personal relationships with your customers. This distinguishes you from the competition and makes it harder for your customer to 'jump ship'. Allow employees to be real people -- let their personalities come through to establish a bond.

Canned 'smiling service' is actually perceived as insincere and contrived. Research has shown we actually use different facial muscles in a genuine smile than in a faked one. Strive to be genuine.

Exceed those customer expectations and they will remember you each and every time they need your product or service. Remember that if you cannot distinguish yourself they will buy on price alone.

Updated problem solving and decision making skills are a must. Employees must not be afraid to make a tough decision. Customers have a sense that if an employee is truly trusted by the company to resolve a concern then the company will make it right if that decision turns out to be a mistake.

The customer is a fickle animal. We may not be impressed when the cashier calls us by our last name after running the credit card through the machine. We may even get to the point where we can expect that. What surprises us is that which goes beyond our sense of expectation.

When someone in a business context does something for us we do not expect we just stand there with our jaws dropped. We have been transformed by an experience which transcends the business simplicity of supply and demand. We have been zapped by a thunderbolt and may never be the same.

Your business or employer may be very good at customer focus. If so you may develop the most valuable of all business assets 'the loyal customer'. If you don't have that loyal customer feeling then maybe you are focusing too much on self-introspection.

Your business may in time discover that you really aren't all that bad from an internal view. But customers are external. And maybe the time is right for shifting the focus where it really needs to be.

Maybe you need to 'reengineer' or reorganize. Or maybe just tweak your strategy here and there. But whatever you do focus on your customer to gain their loyalty.

New Hybrid Web Based Business Models are Scrapping Traditional Marketing Strategies

The new entrepreneur is not content with just buying a job; her business and personal goal is not to work hard and make a living in the 'traditional' sense.  She understands that it's better to become an employee of someone else than to run a mediocre, stressful and problematic business.   Besides, mediocre business is no fun. 

Mediocre is just not interesting and not acceptable; much pain, little gain.  With little or no potential, why even bother?  Thus the appeal and potential of the new hybrid business models which are based on results and not just working harder. 

These new business models can be called hybrids because they evolve and combine more than just one business idea or concept. The success of companies in the future will depend on their ability to utilize and adapt multiple ideas and concepts at once to create value. 

The bad news is the hybrids are more complex and the strategies more tedious to implement; the good news is a world of new marketing opportunities opens up.      

In terms of the model infrastructure, technology is the key driver.   The capability to creatively combine technologies for new applications in the marketplace is creating a new series of 'hybrid' business tools for the entrepreneur.  This open way of thinking helps owners and managers apply new methods to old processes and gain competitive advantage, even on a local level.   Public Relations is being replaced by internal marketing. 

The clearest advantage of a hybrid model is low cost expansion of the targeted market.   No longer relegated to just local sales and marketing, the new hybrid models look to a mix of local, regional and world markets.   Success is now defined as the matrix of the right mix and match across markets for profitability and growth.  The new hybrid models all look to new and expanding revenue streams; it's all about strategy and process. 

These hybrid models are not only proactive but also results driven.   If a marketing campaign is not working, the new model says either fix or replace it.   

Since traditional media are bringing in a reduced return on investment (ROI), more internal, guerrilla and Internet based marketing is used.   The new entrepreneurs do not contract out all marketing because they create most of the marketing themselves.   

These hybrid business models are designed to grow and expand.  By leveraging technology the new entrepreneurs make sure they get the data and information they need when they need it. 

And since they just are not content with 10% gross margins, these hybrid models have built in feedback and ongoing research looking for ways to expand and grow with minimal capital and debt.  Many of these companies can plan expansion with little capital outlay.   The quest is constantly one of tapping into opportunities and for new and expanding revenue streams.   

This growth may also require diversifying into new products/services or expanding into new locations but not necessarily major franchising, maybe three or four locations.   Slow and steady is the course and these new models are a bit averse to rapid and unwarranted risk. 

Since working capital is often used, expansion is OK if it is a sure thing or as sure a thing as one can anticipate in business.   Each small expansion is a calculated winner. 

Almost all these of these new models have mix and match products and services to fit specific customer/client's needs, a customization the customer cannot get elsewhere.   As this creativity drives customer value an increasingly clear distinction is made from the competition.   

If the perception is relayed successfully to the target market and the price versus cost analysis is positive, then the conditions are conducive for a successful sale and transaction.   

But the new hybrids also bring new challenges. 

Not all employees are appropriate for these new models so the new entrepreneurs look for employees that 'fit'; they understand a good employee is a productive employee and not just a time and space physical presence.   

The key is to provide opportunity and the chance to learn and develop especially by developing those skills needed in the new hybrid business models; for example, working with computers and dealing professionally with prospects and customers at the same time.   

The bad news is the new hybrid models are multidimensional and are also driven by a time factor meaning they can be unwieldy and at times very frustrating.   The good news is a good hybrid business model can offer a powerful series of strategic advantages enabling today's entrepreneur to develop new products, services and combinations to deliver increasing value across an expanding marketplace. 

What's not to like about that?

Business Development and the Measured Steps to Success

Most businesses start with an idea that involves doing something for a profit.  When one does something for a profit, technically one is in business.   

Someone figures how to do something better, quicker, cheaper, faster.  The basics or underlying dynamics of how this business idea works is called the business model.  A more explicit and detailed description of the model is called a business plan. 

The first step is the model and it is the most crucial.  If the business model cannot generate profitability, it won't work.  If the assumptions of the model are wrong, it won't work.  If the model is incomplete, it won't work.  If the model needs financing and has no way to get it, it won't work.  And so on. 

So getting this first step right is imperative.   Get it wrong and the business goes in the wrong direction and probably all is for naught.

On the other hand, if all goes well and business plan looks viable, the new venture is off.   Most businesses start small with the owners working and maybe adding an employee when needed.  As a problem is encountered, it is solved and the quest continues. 

Layer upon layer of solutions and process are thrown together and at some point it becomes obvious it is a mish mash and there has to be a better way without reinventing the wheel.   And there is.

It's called best practices and it means the best way of doing something.  It's what successful businesses know and do making them more efficient and effective in delivering value.  Those businesses that do things less efficiently and effectively deliver less value, are less competitive and eventually go out of business.  They don't get to play the game.

Best practices is sometimes also known as infrastructure and it simply is all the support systems and processes needed to carry out the company mission and business plan.   These can include communications, technology, software, accounting, human resources, sales and marketing, strategy, etc.   

Businesses that do their homework well and join together their business model with good infrastructure and best practices create the potential to grow.  It's as if getting the business model and the infrastructure right is a ticket to play in the big game. Whether you agree or not, those are the facts.

But also note that nothing is guaranteed.  Nor implied.  Simply being in a position to grow does not mean growth and success.   But at least at this point one gets a ticket to play the game. 

Conversely, if a business does not get the model and infrastructure right it cannot grow and generate significant assets.  If profitable, it will only be marginally so. 

This company does not get to play the game.  If your company is stuck in the business model or infrastructure black hole and can't get out it's probably best to consider downsizing and reducing costs.   Stay with quality and there will be some margin.   Not much growth potential, but hopefully some margin.  Or look for a job.

But if you and your model are savvy enough to get to this point you will then want to develop your growth strategy.    

The emphasis on growth almost always focuses on marketing and human resources.   

In the marketing strategy there has to be a feedback loop to let management know what customers and clients are thinking. This feedback loop creates the basis for innovation and delivering more value.   

In human resources the issue is productivity and how to reward it.

Relax.  All of this is really not so complicated. 

What is deceptive is how much perseverance it requires to execute a business plan.  The sheer volume of problems and obstacles makes it more of an endurance test than an obstacle test. 

But not to worry.  Breaking each problem down into components and working on each component is a very quick way to get results.  Piece by piece.

It is especially important to manage your cash flow in this growth mode.  Watch the receivables.  Many is the company whose growth was out of sight but poor cash flow did them in. If you are on a path to fast growth, be sure your projections include end of month cash balances.

It is also helpful to run through some scenario plans.  What is the best case and worst case scenario for your strategy?   Usually the end result is somewhere in the middle.  Usually.   Often by looking at scenarios you gain insight so it is well worth the effort.

Managing this growth you have created is the next stage.  It can be fun, exciting, profitable, frustrating, impossible and fruitless; and sometimes all at once. Managing growth is a series of juggling acts that attempt to keep many balls up in the air at once. 

As unappealing as it sometimes seems growth is where it's at in business.   Growth is good.  Growth is fun.

How long until your company can reach the growth stage?

Some newer tech and Internet companies can mature to a growth stage in several years.   Older, traditional service businesses may take a decade or more in the trenches before hitting a solid growth stage. 

But even with growth in the end there is always the end.  The owner that anticipates how she would like to step out of the business is the one that is not surprised in the end at what happens.   By not focusing on your outcome from the beginning you simply take your chances.  There is no middle ground. 

As the competition thins, strategy is where the real competitors duke it out.  Those companies that align their model, infrastructure and strategy in place hit the market sweet spot.  Their growth can be exponential.  It is not only possible but probable since they have done the basics well.   They have the foundation.  If their business model is solid they are off to the races.  It becomes a matter of executing the business plan.

At any rate, there you have it.   It doesn't always work this way but it usually does. Each business is unique and circumstances may vary.   This is the way the percentages break out.  Like or not, those are the odds.   

First find out where you are.  Then what do you want, and then how do you get from here to there? 

The Business Meeting Revisited: Waste of Time or Key Strategic Tool?

Few words bring such strong negative reactions as 'business meeting'.   As companies analyze their meeting times against results they often throw up their hands in disgust and conclude that meetings are a waste of time and of no use.   

Not so fast.  While it is true that not having a meeting may be better than having a bad meeting, it does not follow that the business meeting itself is to blame. 

No matter how good the idea, if those that execute the plan fail then the project itself fails.

'It's a bother, it's a pain, so little gets done, same old stuff,  nothing ever happens, it's always a bore, it lasts too long, and all we do is sit and listen to one or two people drone on about the company's woes.'   Whine, whine, whine.  Case closed. 

And that's the most difficult part; overcoming apathy and boredom from employees and managers that are jaded after continued exposure to bad meetings.  It makes starting a meeting difficult and gaining momentum from that meeting even more difficult.    

The best place to start is to determine what results you would like to have from the meeting.   This will guide you in determining the agenda. 

The agenda should be written with a time allotted to each item.   Meetings should rarely go over an hour especially if they start on time.  Start exactly on time and you will ensure promptness at the next meeting.

After each agenda item put the person responsible for reporting or moderating that agenda item so that someone 'owns' that agenda item.  If you are first starting business meetings make it a goal to spread the agenda items out to different meeting participants.

The first agenda item should be something light and not nuts and bolts financial.  I like to bring up items such as image and attitude here.   The last agenda item should be the next meeting's time and place.

Don't overload the agenda with too many items or too many heavy stress items if that is avoidable.   If the business meeting becomes too negative it can dampen whatever enthusiasm it generates.

Some agenda items can be 'rolled' over into the next agenda.   Try to vary your agenda items for each meeting to keep the agenda fresh.   That also means you should be discussing relevant and current topics.

Plan your agenda to end on an upbeat note.   You really want the last impression of the meeting to be a positive one.   If the meeting ends on a sour note it will leave a sour taste.

If participation is important try to get each person present in the meeting to say something.   This may be difficult at large meetings but in smaller groups it creates the impression of being a part of the meeting.  Meeting participation can be a goal itself.

Some people tend to speak more than others so don’t let one or two people do all the talking.  Especially you. 

It is best to have a moderator or leader.   This person is responsible for opening and closing the meeting as well as making certain the agenda moves along in a timely manner. 

It is possible to rotate moderators from meeting to meeting.   This depends on the meeting participants, their capabilities and their willingness to participate.   

Do not expect too much change too fast.  It has been my experience that it might take several months of weekly meetings to reach desired results. And it is best not to create unrealistic expectations up front as they may sabotage your efforts.

It's OK to disagree and disagreements often make for excellent meetings.   As the moderator, it is your job to maintain calm and control.   If everyone is yawning a good disagreement might even wake them up. 

After each meeting do a self-evaluation on how the meeting went.   What could have done better?  What went right?   What did not go as expected? 

And stay persistent.  It is very hard to change either individual or group behavior and that's what meetings are mostly about.   Some call it behavior modification but perhaps changing the range of behaviors is more appropriate.  Some call it training or education. And sometimes it's art and sometimes it's science but seldom is it predictable.  

Often it doesn't always work as planned.  If you have a bad meeting shrug it off and see how you can improve the next one.   Also try to stay in the right frame of mind and perspective so you don't get frustrated too quickly.    

There is no right or wrong way to have a meeting; just ways that make meetings more effective.   The best strategy to make your meeting effective is to open it up, do what it takes to get participation and work through a relevant and prioritized agenda.

Go with your gut and don't be afraid of taking small risks to keep momentum.  Even if you flop folks will see you are sincere and good things will happen. 

The results just might surprise you.

Quotes #19: Goman, Langer, Hayes, Eng, McClinchey, Grousbeck, Bechtolsheim, Elahian, Conforto, Goodman, Stack, Blackwell

No one ever says that their goal in life is to do a mediocre job at a company they hate.  --Carol Goman

If all you think about his how you're likely to fail at a challenge, you probably will.  But if you ask yourself, 'What are the 10 ways I could succeed at this?' your chances of success are much greater.  Just noticing new things keeps you alive.   --Ellen Langer

Many of the middle and higher-level management jobs affected  during company reorganizations are now  being filled internally, opening up positions at the lowest levels of companies.  --Gregory Hayes

When workers are forced to choose between job and family, the job invariably takes a second place.  --Sherri Eng

The Renaissance man of ancient times could do many things,and he didn't live his whole life doing one thing.  He changed as times changed.  Our future will bring many changes, and we'll have to adapt and adjust to keep our heads above water.  One day we'll be computer programmers, the next day we will  be something else.  It could be that your future shining star employee is disguised as an engineer or an auto mechanic or even an out of work actor.  --John McGlinchey

An entrepreneur is constitutionally unemployable.    They're unlikely to know how to do anything except run something.  They don't want to go to work for someone, and they don't want to sit idle.  --Irv Grousbeck

You're really doing it for the psychological experience.  It's the kind of thing where you look back on your life, you hope you made a difference.  --Andy Bechtolsheim

There's a force out there  that wants us to evolve.  To achieve that, you have to put technology into the right space rather than fighting.  --Kamran Elahian

It's time to fire a customer when they cost you more than you gain from them.  --Dennis Conforto

So the real question is, how can I create a life that I will look back on as an incredible shining adventure, and how can the business be a vehicle to help me  accomplish that?   --Lanny Goodman

Call it human capital or intellectual capital or whatever term you choose.  Our people are the best reason to do business with us.  --Jack Stack

A prudent man forseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.   --Proverbs 22:3

Buying behavior is not just about people and income but also about how dissatisfied they are with present alternatives.  --Roger Blackwell

Quotes #22: Confucius, Shavers, Williams, Fleishman, Feinberg, Phillips, Dunlap, Schriner, Marino, Cauldron, Wainwright

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.  --Confucius

Sometimes there is a thin line between creative tension and erratics behavior.  Since human beings are immensely complex and adapable, no one can be completely predictable.  --Cheryl Shavers

I look at the lessons adversity can teach.  If I'm failing at something, I'm learning something.  So I focus on how I can take that lesson and apply it so that I don't make the same mistake again.  --Katie Williams

Do you know what real poverty is?   It is never having a big thought or a generous impulse.  --Jerome Fleishman

Being smart can get you pretty far in life, but above average brains can lull you into a false sense of security.  Odd as it may seem, intelligent people are constantly at risk of self-destruction caused  by their own brilliance.  -- Mortimer  Feinberg

American workers can be confident they'll find some job, but they can't be sure how long they'll keep it.  --Michael Phillips

We had a fine work ethic in this country.  It was murdered in the 1980's and 1990's by thousand of layoffs  caused by greedy corporate  raiders piling up debt on companies to make  a quick killing.  Why should anyone give their best effort on the job?  No one cares about the worker anymore.  Growing up in the 1960's, we were taught that giving your best would always ensure employment.   That's baloney.  It's all a matter of random choice whether or not your job continues.  This is why there is no work ethic in this country.   --Anonymous

The worst decision is not making a choice.  It is worse than making the wrong choice.  --Al Dunlap

Tremendous differences in culture, attitudes and customs in different regions of the U.S. make it imperative to indentify the expectations of the community you are considering and what that might mean for your business.  --Jim Schriner

Eventually I got to speak with a live person that sounded like a tape.  --Sal Marino

If you wake up at midnight with a problem, you can email your therapist without waking him or  her up...you might even get a reply by the next morning.   --Shari Cauldron

If  your organization is not changing faster than the world outside is changing,  then the end of your organization is rapidly approaching.  --Don Wainwright

Quotes #21: Shavers, Churchill, Simon, Kelley, Petzinger, Dunlap, Devine, Rickey

Allowing employees to disagree, then resolve differences usually strengthens their relationships in the  long run.  --Cheryl Shavers

The further back you look, the further ahead you can see.  --Winston Churchill

Reflect that 200 years ago, the ancestors of 19 of every 20 people you see today were living at or just above the subsistence level somewhere in the world: grubbers in the soil or perhaps village smiths or  shoemakers.  More people and increased income cause problems of increased scarcity in the short run.  Heightened scarcity causes prices to rise.  The higher prices present opportunity, and prompt investors and entrepreneurs to search for solutions.  Many fail, at cost to themselves.   But in a free society, solutions are eventually found.  And in the long run, the new developments leave us better off than if the problems had not arisen.  That is, prices end up lower than before the scarcity occurred.  The concept of evolution argues that -- in the absence of huge change in the physical world from climate change or planetary collision -- humanity will continue to go forward.  --Julian Simon

Innovation will come from people who have crossed boundaries.  --Diane Kelley

When scarce resources create conflicting demands, the interests of the customer provide the largest space on which to seek common ground.  --Thomas Petzinger

Fewer and fewer people are lifetime employees.  The smart person takes on a series of challenging experiences at different companies and builds a portfolio of skills.   --Al Dunlap

The Internet has somehow turned us all into colossal egomaniacs who believe that each one of us has a supreme and total right to have each whim answered.  --Edward Devine

I believe we are responsible for our own luck.  Luck's not going to feed the bulldog, and I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the federal government -- or for that matter, anyone else -- to solve the talent shortage problems of private enterprise.  --Bob Evans

Luck is the residue of design.  --Branch Rickey

Even in a thriving company, it often takes the eyes of an outsider to spot the obvious and bring business back to the correct path for the long journey ahead.  --Al  Dunlap

You're setting yourself up to fail if you do a fancy business plan for investors before you can do one for yourself.  It doesn't matter how smart  you are.   There will be major flaws in your first business plan.  You need to give yourself time to catch them.   --Norm Brodsky

Quotes #20: Segin, Alonso, Marquis, West, Kurlan, Austin, Winston, Ferrara, Plotnikoff

Every fast growing business, no matter how successful, struggles with cash flow problems.  And every cash flow problem can quickly grow into a life threatening situation, overshadowing any other considerations.  It's a simple yet relentless drill: You need to get more money coming in than is flowing out the door.  To maintain that balance, you do what you have to do.  --Jeffrey Seglin

Employees are willing to take lower paying jobs if what they see in the corporate culture what they are looking for -- a culture that can provide training and advancement.  -- Vincent Alonso

If you make people think they are thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.   --Don Marquis

We may have reached the point where further increases in earnings will have to come from more revenue -- not from more cost cutting.  --Jack West

The criteria to pass a psychological test is basically whether the person is emotionally stable.  This does not mean they're going to make the best salesperson.  --Dave Kurlan

If it's growth you are after, you have to do more than suck up to free agent phenoms who swoosh in, do their spectacular thing and zoom out.  You have to commit  to creating a diverse and capable crew that gets a genuine kick out of what you're there to accomplish.   --Nancy Austin

Intellectual capital will go where it is wanted, and will stay where it is well treated.  It cannot be driven: it can only be attracted.  --Walter Winston

The most powerful motivator is pure, genuine recognition.  This type of recognition is far more powerful than rewarding employees  with money.  --Jon Ferrara

The brain is a though processor providing a unified associative structure encompassing all your digital content.  -- Natrificial Software

There is nothing that can look at my email and tell me what I really need  to know: What's this guy's story?  And what is my history with this person?  It's just the nature of the wired world that email relationships are often terse.  It's a given that there will be detailed, very focused communications for a brief period of time, followed by an abrupt and prolonged silence.  The problem arises when its time to reestablish that relationship.  --David Plotnikoff

Change is a gradual process and change in the workplace, while inevitable, is judiciously political.  Real change only happens from the inside out and is inherently individual.  There is not better way to make changes than to try as best you can on any given day to embody a little bit of change in yourself.  The change requires reflection and a strong personal compass.   --Cheryl Shavers

The only thing I would rather own than Windows is English, or Chinese or Spanish, so I could charge you $249 for the license to speak.  --Scott McNealy

Most companies find that getting new grads up to speed is much quicker and cheaper than retaining old grads.  --Bob Godwin

Quotes #18: Meyer, Dodge, Yablon, Emerson, Williams, Bersoff, Geist, Deal, Langer, Gillen, Newton, Lonier

Reframing the problem from a boss-employee situation to a work-group issue can be surprisingly effective. --Christopher Meyer

All your human resources classes are about motivating employees, goal setting and things like that.  But how do you recognize a bad decision, kill it, bite your tongue and move on?  You've got to be able to make decisions quickly, find out, and get out of them quickly.  They teach you a lot about how to be a success but not what to do when something goes wrong --when you fail,  which you are going to do.  --Art Dodge

Contrary to what some people claim, the tax laws have a lot of respect for logic.  They use it so sparingly.  --Jeffery Yablon

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.  --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fluid intelligence, or the ability to know how to do something, is growing while crystallized intelligence, the  possession of information, is decreasing.  --Wendy Williams

I don't believe people are bad.  But certain situations play on their weaknesses and lead them to do bad things.  I think that is the whole nature of temptation.  --David Bersoff

You can't fix what you don't know.  --Sam Geist

Apathy is habit forming.  --Jack D. Deal

We should be teaching how to think flexibly, to be mindful of all the different possiblities of every situation and not close off from information that could help.  Ellen Langer

People who are happy with their jobs aren't nearly as passionate about their situation as those who are frustrated.  --Al Gillen

You need one charismatic leader with fire in his belly.  The team counts, but the leader is key.  --Harry Newton

This simple question can eliminate any hesitation about delegation.  Ask yourself: "Can anyone else do this task besides me?"   If the answer is yes, delegate it.  Save your time and energy for the activities that only you can do. --Terri Lonier

Quotes #17: Stack,Duran-Dufy, Plug, Easterlin, Godbey, Standley, Meyer

At 15% growth, we can develop people fast enough to take advantage of opportunities, and we can develop opportunities fast enough to take care of people.  --Jack Stack

Losses that are generated by avoidable errors can be corrected.  The objective is not to correct them, but to avoid the situations in which they occur.  It takes more resources to redo or correct a transaction than it does to get it right the first time.  --Susan Duran-Dufy

Passion is the one thing you must have to achieve a reliable forecast.  With it, you can hit almost any reasonable target you set.  Without it, your forecast is just an empty prediction that neither you nor anyone else can count on, and that is almost certain to create problems for you down the road.  --Jack Stack

You can offer intellectual content to the job.  A chance for people to grow their intellectual capital.  To work as part of something innovative and nimble.  --Bryan Plug

People with a sense of humor are three times as likely to report top levels of energy as those who don't have a sense of humor.  People with a sense of humor are half as likely to get anxious or frustrated in the face of a problem and are twice as likely to be able to pull themselves out of a bad mood.  --Peter McLaughlin Co.

Even though each generation has more income than its predecessor, each generation wants more than its predecessor.  Let's say you are starting a business and you're struggling.  You think, when it's a bigger business, I'm going to sit back and enjoy it.  But when you get to that stage, you find out that all the other entrepreneurs at that level are working just as hard, living in much bigger houses and taking expensive vacations.  And the result is, you don't feel rich or successful at all.  People always think they are going to get happier as they progress through their careers, but the evidence doesn't bear that out.  --Richard Easterlin

Americans plan so much because they are mistrustful.  You need to trust the future if you want spontaniety.  --Geoffrey Godbey

The big dinosaurs had terrifying power but small brains.  With skin and skulls so thick,they had little need for cunning.  They were slow and stupid, they were probably unaware of the change in footing until they had walked too far into the tar and were sucked into oblivion.  --Jerry Standley

Knowledge workers are much more sensitive to the kudos of their peers than those they receive from management.  --Christopher Meyer

Quotes #16: Langer, Vos Savant, Scott, Matloff, Frehe, Shavers, Safire

The way you cultivate mindfulness is to realize that information about the world around is endlessly interesting, and it looks different from different perspectives.  But many people operate mindlessly, pursuing routines rather than looking for new details around them.  The results can be disastrous.  --Ellen Langer

We've always known that women are the kinder, gentler sex.  This isn't news.  Men may not be tender, but thank goodness for them!  They have built just about everything on the planet from time immemorial, and they undoubtedly have created the modern world.  But it has been the women who have made it civilized.  --Marilyn Vos Savant

As soon as one vendor pays me, I'm probably going to tell customers that all competitive products are junk. --Greg Scott

The industry claims there is a shortage of workers when what they really mean is that there is a shortage of cheap workers, in the form of new college graduates and imported foreign nationals.  It isn't lost on tech workers, meanwhile, that they're in a fundamentally ruthless business and a me-first, entrepreneurial culture.  If loyalty is now a quaint notion, don't blame the workers.  --Norman Matloff

Why should anyone put up with a boss that launches into a tirade, slams the door, yells and screams when things don't go his or her way?  People who behave in this way should not be managers, and no job is important enough to put up with this kind of abuse.  It seems to me that this kind of bad behavior will only get worse if people just take it without complaint.  Maybe that's why there is so much road rage out there.  --Gisela Frehe

Most workers cling to the notion their jobs will offer enough challenge to be interesting, enough comraderie to be nourishing, enough hours to get the work done and enough money to pay the bills.  But how many workers are more alive at the end of the day or during their time off than when they are at work?  Sadly, what some of these workers soon discover is what they do for a living is not necessarily what and who they are.  With midlife comes the realization that there is a larger arena to explore.  Unrealistic goals virtually guarantee failure.  --Cheryl Shavers

Optimists are the ultimate realists.  The reason that optimism makes the difference is that human beings and all our creations are perfectible.  "Perfectibility" does not say "wait until it's perfect".  It says "Give it a try and if it doesn't work right, fix it on the way."  --William Safire

Quotes #15: Fleming, Hutter, Feather, Ricci, McCormack, Hunt, Hunter, Half, Lewis

Occaisonal squabbles among siblings are normal.  I don't trust families that tell me their children always get along.  Some siblings hate each other and will do anything, including destroying the business, to hurt each other.  --Quentin Fleming

No matter the time or place, good manners are cost effective.  They not only increase the quality of life but they also contribute to optimum employee morale and a professional image.  An atmosphere in which people treat each other with consideration is obviously one in which a customer enjoys doing business.  In addition, a company with a well-mannered reputation attracts and keeps good people.  --Gloria Hutter

The happiest people are those that are too busy to notice whether they are or not.  --William Feather

I've asked a few self-proclaimed etiquette experts about the cherry tomato dilemma.  Answers ranged from  "just don't eat the darn thing" to "if you eat it, pop the whole darn thing in your mouth.  If you cut it, you might inadvertently squirt your neighbor."  It may sound like a silly thing to talk about, but manners do count.  Sometimes it is the smallest details that influence the way others see you.  --Jeanne Ricci

Never underestimate the importance of money.   It's how the business people keep score.  --Mark McCormack

Top corporate executives consider poor table manners an immediate turnoff.  Sixty percent of them said that they select only employees with social polish and confidence to represent their company publicly.  --Gloria Hutter

Occupation is the necessary basis of all enjoyment.  --Leigh Hunt

Please include some small talk -- it helps to break the ice.  Most people are flattered when asked to talk about themselves.  Small talk does not require original or profound conversation.  An exchange of niceties is all that is expected.  Be sure to listen.  --Gloria Hunter

How you react when the joke's on you can reveal your character.  --Robert Half

It is possible to create an organization in which everyone focuses on the job instead of following a personal agenda.  As a company leader you can create an environment in which helping the company succeed is the best route to personal success.  --Bob Lewis

The great thing about e-mail is you don't  have to  wait for the mailman.  --Anonymous

Quotes #12: Hillilard, Fumento, Twain, Mckenna, Rushkoff, Futrelle, Aristotle

In business as in life, your chances of being run over are doubled if you stay in the middle of the road.  --Anonymous

A vacant mind invites dangerous inmates, as a deserted mansion tempts wandering outcasts to enter and take up their abode in its desolate apartments.  --Hilliard

Our stunning growth of girth is part of a culture of self-indulgence: we want it  now; and we aren't willing to pay for the adverse consequences.   --Michael Fumento

Let us be thankful for the fools.   But for them the rest of us would not succeed.   --Mark Twain

I need no license or export permission to broadcast any type of  information across global, political, organizational or psychological boundaries.  As a result, social change is occurring faster, and organizations are trying desperately to catch up.  --Regis McKenna

All these wires are like this giant plant system, this extension of human consciousness and just the way genes spread from person to person through sexual contact, memes --ideas spread back and forth through media contact.  Like a Rodney King tape is this virus that spread around and changes the way we think... --Douglas Rushkoff

Go ahead.  Smoke in the office.  --Alpha Processors

Forget the baffling complexities of artificial intelligence -- why couldn't  robots replace the surly kids down at Burger King?  Forget the economic incentives behind planned obsolescence --why couldn't the engineering department at Fruit of the Loom develop everlasting undies?  --David Futrelle

We can't afford to dismiss history so easily.   For we live in it -- and despite the best efforts  of generations of futurist ideologues, it shows no signs of becoming more orderly anytime soon.   We have to live with uncertainty,  that's the cost of being alive.   --David Futrelle

He who stops being better stops being good.   --Aristotle

The low bidder is one who wonders what he left out.  --Anonymous

Quotes #14: Virostko, Wreden, Sullivan, Whitehead, Stultz, Stoltz, Scott, Fernandez, Van Huss, Furedi, Deal, Cook

Sadly, it seems that spending a few minutes of personal time during the workday violates an unwritten law of business etiquette.  Yet we tacitly accept the fact that a large amount of our personal time gets spent on work related activities: time traveling to and fro from work for example.  The question of time spent on a task is not easily resolved in an age when life places so many demands on a person's extremely unlimited time.  But if we begin calculating life's moments as money lost or gained, we have learned nothing from the lessons of the Industrial Revolution's sweatshops.  --Lyon Virostko

People will always ask for reports to support their views.  You have to make sure that what you do benefits the organization, not just the individual.  --Nick Wreden

It pays to stay alive, no matter what it takes.  The longer you last in business, the longer you can expect to last.  And if you last long enough, you have a shot at some real growth and wealth creation.  All you have to do is innovate and execute.  Innovate and execute.   --Nick Sullivan

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.  --Alfred North Whitehead

Recently someone pointed out that cleaning anything makes something else dirty, and yet anything can get dirty without something getting clean.  --Lewis Stulz

Quitters simply give up in the face of adversity.  They abandon their mountain and stop pursuing their real  purpose.  If you're gearing up for the short term burst, you're fooling yourself.  You'll be disappointed and confused.  --Paul Stoltz

Credibility is all about perception -- not necessarily what is real, but what the other party believes is real.  --Greg Scott

The Internet is like Darwinism on steroids.  You evolve or get eliminated.  --Raul Fernandez

Voice mail should be used only to obtain messages from clients when no one is available to answer the phone.  Using voice mail to screen calls and avoid human contact is no way to do business.  Customers want attention.  They want  people to care about them.  --Susie Van Huss

The belief that what matters is what you do, not how much you suffer.  --Frank Furedi

Humans are slow to change.  It took 500,000 years after the invention of tools to control fire.  --Jack D. Deal

The pig is the fastest growing farm animal.  The largest pig on record weighed 2500 pounds. --Charles Cook of Cook's Racing Pigs

Never swat a fly that just landed on a mirror.  --Jack D. Deal

Quotes #13: Lancaster,Sahlman, Paul, Whacker, Sandberg, Buzan, Prahalad, Tuck, Tyson, Schavers

Employers have an interest in keeping their employees in the dark.   --Hal Lancaster

We who study management look particularly for populations in which change is rampant or people are trying to adjust to a more demanding context.  That describes Silicon Valley...  --William Sahlman

We think better on our feet than in our seats.  Move your body throughout the day: sit, stand, squat, walk.  Don't be a desk potato at work and a 'couch potato' at home.   Challenge your body and your mind. -- Rajendra Paul

Want to show off?  Walk into a room and say you're a happy person.   Better yet, announce that you've been happily married for 25 years.   Satisfaction and domestic contentment are the status symbols of the future.   -- Watts Wacker

I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.  --Carl Sandberg

The fact that individuals share so few common associations for a given word, image or idea means that we are all magically and eerily different from each other.  In other words, every human being is far more individual and unique than has hitherto been surmised.  You who are now reading this sentence contain, in  your brain, trillions of associations shared by one else, past, present or future.  --Tony Buzan

We don't want people who are satisfied with the way things are.  We want people who are curious, impatient, and who are constantly trying to buck the trend of perceived wisdom.  --C.K. Prahalad

It appears that six or seven is the largest number of relationships that one person can deal with continuously.  We need the hierarchy, with its well-defined roles and patterns of behavior, to allow large numbers of people to work together without overload.   --Edward Tuck

The pursuit of money makes sense if it's one of many things -- health, family, offering service to the community, etc., -- in one's life.  There's no need to repress money and thinking about money.  On the other hand, money is one of the reasons people are dislocated from the things that matter in life.  --Eric Tyson

It's troubling how the average American doesn't realize how close they are to an emotional collapse.  You can't pursue the fast life forever.  --Eric Tyson

For many who are hitting their 40's and 50's starting a business has special appeal.   The chance to control and to own something can be intoxicating.  These men and women have climbed the corporate ladder and found that they did not like  what they saw when they got there, or discovered that that they were only halfway to the top and were not going to go any farther.  Whatever the reason they all have asked themselves, "Is this how I want to spend the next 20 years of my working life?"  --Cheryl Shavers

Quotes #11: Ortega, Einstein, Falcon, Wright, Dornan, Shull, Deal, Root, Hepworth, Weinberg, Peters

Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.  --Gilbert Ortega 

The significant problems we face today can't be solved at the same level of thinking as when we created them.  --Albert Einstein

Ride, eat, sleep, repeat.  Life is good.  --Falcon Designs

Training teaches you how to do something specific and involves the details of a particular problem.  Education imparts knowledge that allows you to think, understand, anticipate and interpret.  With education, you can operate within the context of a problem, not just the details.  Knowledge of fundamental and underlying principles and methods is more important than technology.  --Chuck Wright

Focus.  Don't try to be all things to all people.  Pick out what you want to be the best at and do that.  You'll  bring a lot of other opportunities to yourself by the fact that you're very good at something.   --David Dornan

The less you know about a job, the easier it appears.   --Shull's Corollary

The journey is its own reward.  --Jack D. Deal

Familiarity breeds lack of attention.  --Anonymous

It is the human spirit that makes the difference between successful and failing firms, not a procedure or a process.  When people begin to realize that, the places they go and the meetings they have will change forever.   Until then, they will just be events.  --Bob Root

When your customer has a problem, each contact costs you a level of satisfaction.  When customers ping pong while trying to resolve a problem, each back and forth reduces customer satisfaction by up to 10%.  --Hepworth and Company

86% of the message a customer gets over the phone is from tone of voice.  Poor service is the number one reason why American companies lose business.  --International Customer Service Association

You can't do everything, but don't ignore the tasks you don't like.  Delegate them to a partner, associate, or subordinate, but remember to build in some checkpoints for final review.  As the owner, you're still ultimately responsible for everything your company does --or doesn't -- do.  --Sandy Weinberg

What do you do when you are one big, dopey company with no new ideas?  Merge with another, big dopey company with no ideas.   Then you have one really big,  really dopey company with no new ideas.  --Tom Peters

Quotes #10: Heinlein, Pofeldt, Weisinger, Jerome, Reiss, Deal, Stolz, Cotzakos, Austin

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.   --Robert Heinlein

He noticed a stream of men about his age trickling in.  He wondered how their schedules permitted them to arrive so late.  Then it occurred to him: they were retired, and they had no where else to go.  He didn't want to live that life of lost purpose.  --Elaine Pofeldt

The paradox of planning is that it often makes life more stressful, not less.  We plan to make it more likely we'll have the experience we seek but it often gives us more rigid expectations, and the experience often can't live up to them.  --Ellen Weisinger

There is only one problem with saving your dream for someday -- someday will always remain in the future.  --Anonymous

It is so pleasant to come across people who are more stupid than ourselves.  We love them at once for being  so.   --Jerome Jerome

In business, people take different roads to achieve success.  Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.   --Anonymous

I'm certain Jesus loves you, but in your case he's seeing other people.  --Fred Reiss

Those who do not know how to fight worry die young.  --Anonymous

Some folks could use a leave of absence from life.  --Jack D. Deal

No matter what the problem is you need to do three things: find out what really happened, contain the damage and see if you can reap some advantage.  --Mark Stoltz

Serving the Aztec system of tribute and trade, relay runners covering 200 miles in a single day delivered fresh fish from the coast to Moctezuma's table.  --National Geographic

You  have to be willing to learn all over again, to reinvent yourself.  You have to be stupid.  --Christos Cotsakos

Contrary to common management beliefs, not every problem is amenable to coolheaded reason.  When incisive analysis fails to forge a workable plan or grow a company, businesspeople have to travel outside the map lines.  --Nancy Austin

Quotes #9: Robbins, Herman, Alice, Shaw, Wolfe, Lennon, Emerson, Tyger, Csikzdent, Petronius, Gschwandtner, Schiffman

Leaders are useless if their followers are incompetent or uninterested.  --Harvey Robbins

Most of today's top execs are obsolete.  --Roger Herman

If you don't know where you are going, then any path will take you there.   --Alice in Wonderland

People who just get on in this life  and people who get up and look for circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them.  So if it is to be, it's up to me.  --George Bernard Shaw

If you observe a really happy man, you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert.  He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that had rolled under the radiator; striving for it as a goal itself.  He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of each day.  --Beran Wolfe

If you know how, you'll always have a job.  If you know why,  you'll be the boss.  --Anonymous

Modesty is the art of drawing attention to whatever it is you are being humble about.  --Anonymous

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making plans.  --John Lennon

Certainly people who live entirely for the moment haven't got it right.  But those who spend their lives planning their lives don't either.  You end up finding that you have squandered opportunities for really living in order to prepare yourself for living in the future.  --Chaz Csikzdent

Make the most of yourself for that is all there is of you.  --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Learning is either a continuous thing or it is nothing.  --Frank Tyger

I don't know of anyone who ever learned anything while their lips were moving.  --Anonymous

The mind longs for what it has missed.  Petronius

People don't argue with their own conclusions.  --Anonymous

Start with a clean slate.  Brush away any mental cobwebs before you meet with your next customer.  When you start mentally with a clean slate, you can become a solution provider, but when your thoughts revolve around you, you become an obstacle to the sale.  --Gerhard Gschwandtner

Put a small mirror on your desk and look into it when you're making telephone calls.  Smile and you will sound better.  --Stephan Schiffman

The Business Analysis: Why Your Company's Future May Depend on It

Once a year you should do a thorough analysis or review of your company to make sure you are staying on track. As a general outline you can follow these 10 categories:

1)Management and Administration: your strategy, supervision, delegation, accountability, accounting, human resources, payroll and benefits, risk, legal, cost controls, decision making, growth, data and records, responsibilities

2) Operations/Production: your processes, standards, labor, tools, equipment, parts, facilities, materials, vendors, independent contractors

3) Sales and Marketing: how to find prospects that become your customers; sales presentation and marketing materials

4) Technology and Applications: how can technology be utilized to optimize your key company functions; hardware, software, industry specific applications

5) Company Culture: how your company is perceived by your employees, customers, vendors and the local and cyber communities; what is management willing and capable of doing. How are training, learning and education perceived? How is your image and morale?

6) Priorities and Budgets: what is most important, when is it needed and how much does it cost; cash flow management

7) Short and Long Term Goals: short term is within a year; long term is next 1-10 years.  Where do you plan to be?

8) Execution: what do you need, how will you carry out your plan and how you will monitor your progress toward your goals

9) Ongoing Development: what reviews and new developments are necessary to maintain growth and improve?

10) Overview and Summary: the big picture or how your business model matches your goals; what are your short and long term strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.

 

The list above does not include everything but it does cover the basics.   Remember that every business is unique so the challenge is to find out what applies to your business.

Here are a few more pointers before you begin:

A) Most businesses find it impossible to be objective about themselves so they look for an outsider.  The analyst is neither an employee, friend nor relative.  This prevents one's self interest from influencing the final report.

B) Request that your outside analyst tell you what you need to know and not what you would prefer to know.  Don't waste your time and money if you don't really want to know.  Also ask why bother if you won't change anything once you do know.

C) Make sure your analyst interviews your key people and submits a written, detailed report.  If they don't interview your people, how will they know?  If you hide things from the analyst you will get back a skewed perspective which will be reflected in the final report.

 

D) When reviewing the report, ask questions until you clearly understand each point.  If you do not understand something then the report will be of less value for you and your company.  A good analyst will answer your questions and not ridicule you.  A really good analyst will chastise you for not doing what you really should be doing.

 

What is the net result?  Unfortunately some businesses actually go through the process of a business analysis and then ignore the observations and suggestions. This of course makes no sense.

What does make sense is to take the results of your business analysis and modify your current business plan to make it more effective. This is what a business analysis is all about; this is what is in it for your company.

From the analysis you can focus on those activities which will have the biggest impact and results such as increasing sales or reducing costs.  Also look for improvements that are free, cost little and can be done quickly.

The biggest obstacle to improvement and growth is overcoming that initial inertia; if you remember your physics, "an object at rest tends to stay at rest."  The business analysis provides the ideal platform from which you can get going if you stay consistent with your plan and focus, focus, focus.

And that can also make things a lot more fun, too!

Business Intelligence or Spying on Your Competition

Spying.   The word conjures up images of hidden cameras, microphones and James Bond.  In business this  sort of thing does happen.   Employees sell trade secrets, spies dig through dumpster and hackers break into computer networks.  But for most businesses, all that is Hollywood. 

What isn't Hollywood is all businesses should know their market position.  To know this one has to have information about the competition, something many competitors will not give out freely.  But no need to call Mr. Bond just yet.

Most of the information you need is available but you just need a way to access it.   You also have to know clearly what information is of interest.  Once you know what is needed you can develop a plan. 

Search the Internet first and look at what is public knowledge.   You may find all or part of what you need online.   

Next, if you are on speaking terms with your competitors, you might just ask them what you need to know.   Take them to lunch.  If you are a nice and pleasant person you may instill confidence and make staff relaxed.   

You might try the telephone.  The phone is a great way to find specific information quickly.  Additionally, many employees will freely tell you whatever you want to know.   Learn from this and make sure your people don't dish out confidential information.   Make sure you know what your people are saying. 

Build your intelligence over time.   You will be amazed at what you can learn in several months.   You will also be amazed at how quickly information can become obsolete. 

If you are looking at a competitor's strategy, it is relatively easy to take the pieces and come up with a strategic  plan.   Keys to service are pricing and service quality. 

Keep anything that is printed for future reference.

Look for process; how they answer the phone, how do their people approach a prospect, what kind of computer technologies do they have in place. 

And finally, practice, practice and practice.  Business intelligence does not have to be a cloak and dagger affair.  Most information is  readily available for the taking.

What you don't know can potentially beat you.  Forewarned is forearmed. 

Jack D. Deal

Quotes #6: Deal, Petzinger, Anonymous, Hartman, Bronson, Heidegger, Vinge, Lizard

Never hire an employee that was referred by a pawn shop.  --Jack D. Deal

We are not saved by good works but for good works.  --Kansas church sign

The exquisite paradoxes of entrepreneurialism -- building while battling, creating while conniving.  --Thomas Petzinger

If we Americans are not in the process of becoming, not on the cutting edge, we  somehow see ourselves as having failed.   --Anonymous

At my local supermarket I see friends and neighbors and clerks who recognize me.   So what if I could save time by ordering bananas online?  I happily go to the supermarket every day because it's a break from staring at a computer screen.   Wake up and smell the chicken wings!  --Greg Hartmann

She removed the names of the department contact people from the company web site, which was operating as a dinner menu for the  headhunters -- here's who we've got, take your pick.  --Po Bronson

Questioning builds a way.   --Martin Heidegger

Your kid may be an honors student but you are still an idiot.  --Bumper Sticker

People -- although some may wish otherwise -- don't have an algorithmic purpose.  A sane person is a huge assemblage of conflicting/cooperating subprocesses rumbling along in some kind of dynamic equilibrium.  -- Vernor Vinge

You work 20 years or more, gain respect and prestige in your profession, and then this new media comes along and all of that is for naught, because your voice is worth no more or less than that of a lawyer, or a student or a database developer.  --Lizard

Even though we cannot see it -- smell is definitely a part of image.   --Jack D. Deal

72oz steak free if you eat it in one hour.  --Sign outside a Missouri restaurant

If we weren't supposed to animals, why are they made of meat?  --Bumper sticker

Quotes #5: Franklin, Ghitelman, Vos Savant, Deloitte, Reich, Galileo, Anonymous, Byrne, Mehling, Meyer, Barkely, Arquette, Ross

When the well's dry, we all know the value of water.   --Ben Franklin

Negotiating is about creating value, not dividing wealth.  --David Ghitelman

Much of the time going through life is like going through the airport steering a loaded luggage cart with one bad wheel.  Sometimes you feel ridiculous, sometimes you actually look ridiculous, and sometimes all  you can do is try to push it in generally the right direction.  --Marilyn Vos Savant

How hard to you have to work to pretend you are happy?   --Deloitte & Touche

The old economy centered on big manufacturers surrounded by small, local service businesses -- giant  automakers and mom-and-pop dealerships and repair shops.  In the emerging economy, it's just the reverse.  At the core will be big knowledge brokers drawing on global pools of information and insight.  They'll be surrounded by small firms producing highly specialized goods, components and services -- which can be assembled or packaged practically anywhere.   --Robert Reich

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth that humble reasoning of a single individual.   --Galileo

If your business isn't moving fast enough consider the turtle.  It can't move at all if it doesn't stick its neck out.  --Anonymous

Many good job candidates may look elsewhere if your hiring process consumes too much of their day, especially if they are currently employed.  This message also tells them the business cannot make day-to-day decisions easily, and if they are offered a position the many levels of bureaucracy may hinder their success should they accept the position.  --Byrne and Castellano

The big difference between marketing to small businesses and big corporations is that you don't have to deal with layers of buffers and sometimes collective decision-making you encounter in corporate America.  --Herman Mehling

People who think eating at their desk makes them more productive are kidding themselves because a break generates energy.  --Jeffrey Mayer

You don't usually change people and very rarely organizations but you can move from organization to organization and within an organization to tremendous effect, if you just see where you are headed.  --Nella Barkely

Keep it loose and easy.  Hire people who are self-managing, motivated and don't require someone constantly looking over their shoulder.  Hold a meeting once a week with the entire staff and hand out assignments and deadlines and let them work.  Allow them to come and go as they please -- don't watch the clock.  Tell people they are responsible for making up any time they miss, and loosely monitor it.   If people call in and say they will miss work,  don't make it necessary for them to give a reason for not coming in.  If you find people trying to abuse the system, have a meeting and tell them that if the abuse continues you will end the program.  You'd be surprised how much peer pressure can keep people on the straight and narrow.   --Brett Arquette

An apt work to describe the impact of today's consultants is 'clout' and the major reason for that is accountability.   No one wants to stop at strategy.  The new consulting model is to develop a plan, implement ilt and stick around to ensure it works.   --Christine Ross

Quotes #4: Carlin, Van Dyke, Deal, Sanderson, Pitney Bowes, Hoover, Wax, Nordstrom, Miller

A family style restaurant: you know what that means.    There's an argument going on at every table.  --George Carlin

Leads don't generate sales, customers do.  Instead of concentrating on who you can call, shift your focus to who's likely to buy.  Check your criteria for qualifying prospects and make sure the people you call have the money, the need and the authority to buy.  Aim for quality more than quantity in your prospects.  --Selling Ideas

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else, but what you are will be yours forever.  --Henry Van Dyke

Sometimes it takes a man severely disabled by a stroke to truly appreciate a morning walk.  --Jack D. Deal

Yes, I hang up on telemarketers.  But I do it as nicely as possible.   --Lana Sanderson

We're interested in originality, not origin.   --Pitney Bowes

People who will lie for you, will lie to you.  --Anonymous

Once upon a time my opponents honored me as possessing the fabulous intellectual and economic power by which I created a worldwide depression all by myself.  --Herbert Hoover

Building your sales success -- like building cars -- calls for critically looking at the stages of the process, asking the tough questions and challenging any 'feelgood' assumptions you have been harboring.  Measure, improve, measure some more, improve some more.  Your kids do it in school every week.  It needs to be done on our auto assembly line.  And in your business.  Then ---Vrooom  -- things can really take off.   -- --Ken Wax

Use your good judgement in all situations.   There will be no other rules.  -- Nordstrom

The simplest method to help prospects see the benefits of your product or service is to use the following 'transition phrases' in your presentation: allowing you to, providing you with, enabling you to and therefore you will be able to.  --Adrian Miller

Quotes #3: Stein, Mintz, Wellington, Thoits, Graham, Deal, Xerox, Yang, Tremayne, Anonymous

Individual freedom has proved to be a powerful, beneficent force.  We are better off because scientists have been free to pursue knowledge, because each individual has been free to try to increase the prosperity of his family and because victims of discrimination have been free to protest and struggle.  --Herbert Stein

It often comes down to a 'He said. She said.'  Employers just don't use the same type of procedures a court of law does, and you can't.  It's a difficult situation employers find themselves in.  --Howard Mintz

Invariably they tell their employers they are leaving to go home.   But very few actually do so.  Women do not want to burn their bridges.  They start their own businesses.  Or they look for jobs where they can have a better balance, or where the opportunities for advancement are better.  And they find them.  --Sheila  Wellington

If you have a rigid, tension-filled job in which you think you lack control, the level of anxiety and depression could increase.  In that case, abandoning the job might be a mental health benefit.  --Peggy Thoits

Short-term thinking limits a company's reach, undermines its stability and frustrates efficiency, while longer-term strategies produce the opposite results.  If the goal is to assure growth and perpetuation, then a longer-term approach achieves the best results.  --John Graham

They have a few goofy items like chile fudge but the core competency is in the salsa edibles.  The question goes begging -- is there enough of a specialty market for chile lovers?  Maybe.  Certainly the holidays should be good for business.  You can give them to your friends that love chiles and to your enemies that don't.    --Jack D. Deal

Less hunting.  More gathering.  --WINFO Online

You do your best work when you're having fun.   --Xerox

"Just teach or tell us something we don't know."  P.Y. Yang to corporate spy Victor Lee.

If you aren't happy with what you've got now, what makes you think you will be happy with more?  --Anonymous

No one agrees with other people's opinions; they merely agree with their own opinions expressed by somebody else.  --Sydney Tremayne

Business Writing and Communication: You Are What You Write!

     One of the true laments from management is that employees cannot express themselves with the written word.   Owners and stockholders have the same complaints about management.  Today in the age of the paperless office the importance of the written word is increasing especially as direct voice contact becomes more and more problematic.   

     Many businesses lack the ability to generate internally a well -written letter or marketing piece.   Not having this ability puts these businesses at a competitive disadvantage.   Good business writing is not just a nice frill -- it has become a necessity. 

         Everything that is written by your business is a reflection of your business.  Misspellings, poor grammar, awkward syntax and weak logic project a negative image.   It is better to not write anything than to write it poorly...

     How does your company rate?   Take a look at some of the points below and see how your company measures up...

• Use spell and grammar checks.  We often cannot see our own mistakes.
• If things are really grim you might consider going back to school to learn how to write.   
• Promote clear, concise language in written and verbal communication.   You don't have to go to militaryspeak but neither is this the time to wax poetic...
• Read.  The more you read, the better you write.
• Practice.  Write letters and e-mail.  Make sure the meaning you intend is the meaning expressed.

     Review all of your written materials to see if they need to be improved or rewritten.  Be your own editor first and then have some "outside eyes" look at it.   Take all criticism constructively.   

     If you are hiring for a position that requires writing skills, ask the applicant to write several paragraphs about what attributes they will bring to the company.  What they write about is not as important as how they write.  For managers this is more important since written reports are part of a manager's job description.

      Look in the mirror when you come up with excuses for poor writing.  Excuses such as lack of formal education do not count in the marketplace.  Some with little or no education have excellent writing skills while many university graduates cannot write a simple sentence correctly.   

     You are what you write.   

Jack D.  Deal

    

    

Business Development and the Business Cycle

     Businesses are born, grow, mature and die.  Birth and growth get all the attention but the early stages are only part of the picture.  This is analogous to looking at only infancy and adolescence in your own life.  What follows are some generalizations about how businesses develop...

    The start-up phase is arguably the most critical; if new ventures flounder they normally don't  make it.   Usually this is a result of poor strategy and execution and this is why so many new businesses fail.

     Once the business is established and supporting itself there is often a period of steady growth.  This is due to newness, pricing, energy level, etc.  If the strategy is correct this growth is natural and surprisingly easy.  Many owners and managers get lulled into the impression they are so good it will always be easy...

     A critical point is reached when this natural growth stalls.   Many companies literally suddenly growing and continue business with their current markets.  At this point ownership and management become very articulate at explaining why things cannot be improved.   A comfort level is reached and a slow downward decline begins...

     At some point this decline begins to be felt in ways such as cash flow problems and employee discontent.  The dynamics that have brought the company to this point have changed.   Owners that let their businesses decline are in essence buying back their own equity.  The status quo simply erodes equity.  At this point ownership has two options: sell or exit the company or redesign it to become competitive.   

     Sometimes hard decisions must be made.   One of those is what to do with employees that have been loyal but no longer are appropriate.   Management must take decisive action to reach a tipping point...

     A reorganization or 'retooling' may bring growth and competitiveness back to the company.    This will continue until another crisis point is reached.    The ultimate measure of success is how the company deals with these opportunities and threats...

     If you are the owner, it's your equity...

Jack D. Deal

    

Mad Madalyn's Management Mania: Exploitation, Office Manager, Embezzlement, Murder, Gold Coins, New Zealand

     

We often look to cause and effect for the answer to the question 'why?'  This is one that I've thought on for a number of years and can't quite seem to resolve…

An old friend was raised in a conservative, fundamentalist family.  As a rebellion to his upbringing, he studied philosophy and psychology and eventually came into contact with Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the famous atheist that challenged prayer in schools in the famous Supreme Court Case in 1963.  The good folk of

Austin

,

Texas

referred to her as Mad Madalyn.   She was always in the local newspapers doing something outrageous...

My friend made several trips to

Austin

and the

American

Atheist

Center

.  O'Hair eventually offered him a job as office manager for the Center.  He understood that working for a 'cause' organization would require long hours with meager pay but he believed in the cause and moved to

Austin

.

He lived simply so the minimum wage pay was enough for him to get by.  His 40 hour week soon ballooned to 60, 80 and 100 hours.   O'Hair kept giving him more work.    Even without benefits and half the minimum wage he gladly put in his long hours.  He would go home to sleep and fix most of his 'meals' at work.  He became sleep deprived and malnourished but it was all in the name of the 'cause'.  He told me that others before him had done the same.  It was expected by Mad Madalyn...

Incredibly this continued for years as he took on more and more responsibility.  When his landlord raised his rent, he asked Mad Madalyn for a raise citing his long list of responsibilities and long hours as a justification.   Madalyn escorted him to the door and told him not to come back.   My friend could easily be replaced as there were many others willing to 'work for the cause.'   And maybe even for less money...

She replaced him and the cycle continued.  Eventually, she hired a manager that had a criminal background but was willing to work cheaply for the cause.  He worked for the cause but mostly for himself and managed to embezzle $50,000 in the process.

But not to worry...there were always more willing to work for the cause.   She just found another office manager and the cycle continued.

But one day she just disappeared.   Employees could not find her and a list of creditors showed the Center was in deep financial trouble.   Most people on the inside thought she had left the

U.S.

with her son and granddaughter and gone to

New Zealand

, a plan she had spoken of before.   And so she remained incognito with only an occasional article questioning what beach resort she had retired to.

And then piece by piece, it began to unravel.

The police began to pursue an ex office manager and the trail began to warm.  After a number of months and speculation, the case broke.   The office manager and some of his criminal cronies had kidnapped the O'Hairs and held them for ransom, eventually getting $500,000 in gold coins that had come from the 'cause.'   After they had gotten the coins, which were stored in a storage locker, they killed the O'Hairs, chopped them up and buried them in a shallow grave on a south

Texas

ranch.

At one point I conducted a four hour taped interview with O'Hair.   She came across as intelligent, insightful, and committed to ridding the world of the evils of religion.   She made no apology for the way she treated her employees.

If there is a moral to the story it's that short term employee exploitation can bring short term results but watch out for long term exploitation...ha.

If Mad Madalyn were alive today, would she admit her management style was flawed? 

Or would she say, 'hey, you, you're not going to church on Sunday...why can't you work?'

Quotes #2: Roosevelt, Breemer, Whalin, Blades, Covey, Austin, Harari, Krohe and Byrne

The best executive is one who has enough sense to pick good people to do what he wants done and enough self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.  --Theodore Roosevelt

When motivating employees, the first thing one has to do is create top incentive.  If it doesn't have at least a $50 perceived value, then it will have no value in motivating anyone.  --Brit Breemer

Give responsibility for the results.  Managers frequently assign a task to someone without giving up responsibility for the results.  This allows the manager to criticize the results.  Teach your people how to do the job, assign the task giving clear instructions and then leave the employee to do the job.  --George Whalin

Recruit those who will fit in with your group and culture.  If they look like they were weaned on a pickle in the interview, what will they look like after they are hired?  --William Blades

The majority of employees leave because they were not enjoying themselves, they felt that management did not care about them and gthe organization's vision and goals were not shared.   It isn't just about money for labor.   --William Blades

Most executives hire on the basis of urgent need.  They read resumes and  interview candidates with eyes and ears of hope.  They don't find out the pattern of that person's motivations.  And when they don't, they pay a high price for it down the road.  --Stephen Covey

People usually fall into one of three categories when it comes to change.  They either thrive on it, hate it or aren't sure how to react.  --Nancy Austin

Start with the person's early life, and ask him or her, "What is it you did very well and that you loved doing?"   Also ask, " What made you feel good about yourself?"  You will begin to see the patterns that persist over time.  --Stehen Covey

When a consumer complains, consider getting down on your hands and knees to offer profuse gratitude because that person has just provided you with priceless advice -- free of charge.  --Oren Harari

Setting  performance standards stupidly high so that they cannot be met legimately is one common way that company policy practically demands unethical conduct.  James Krohe

Perhaps we have created work environments to encourage our employees to work against each other rather than together, and that each is fearful that his or her days are numbered should a 'heavy hitter' join the company.  --Anne Byrne

Quotes #1: Roosevelt, Chambers, McDonald, Brodsky, Anonymous, Ranadive, Barbara, The Three Stooges, Flores, Wacker, Papows, Wilensky, Matthews

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory or defeat.  -- Theodore Roosevelt

I think the leader is the lead dog on the dogsled.  Not the guy on the back with the whip. -- John Chambers

Whether you're facing new opportunities or unexpected problems, the trick is to get the right people to address them, do something that has never been done before, and do it quicker than anyone else.  -- Dr. Tom McDonald

We tend to make bad rules not when we're attacking problems but when we are avoiding them.  We fall into the trap of looking for shortcuts and easy answers.  So one bad customer drives off without paying his bill, and we put restrictions  on all our good customers.  Or one employee uses poor judgment in issuing credit, and we tie the hands of all  those whose judgment is perfectly sound.  --N.  Brodsky

The business that considers itself immune to the necessity for advertising sooner or later finds itself  immune to business.   -- Anonymous

The event driven company constantly reorganizes itself around fresh opportunities.  The only way to identify and exploit these opportunities is through and even driven information architecture that instantaneously gathers and distributes news to users in all parts and levels.  --Vivek Ranadive

Bankers like to see someone come in who's prepared, knows how much money she needs, what she needs it for and how she'll  pay it back. --Sonia Barbara

Every time you think you weaken the nation.   --Moe talking to Curly of the Three Stooges

A human society operates through the expression of requests and promises.  --Fernando Flores

I love to tell people the Unabomber is living proof that going to Harvard is no longer a guarantee.  --Watts Wacker

I learned in the Marines that the price for being competitively wrong is, you're dead.  -- Jeff Papows

We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the works of  Shakespeare; now,  thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.  --Robert Wilensky

If you don't stay aggressive, your competition will not only take your accounts, but also your employees.  --Jack Matthews

A simple job for simple people.  Curly of the Three Stooges

Compensation: Do You Have the Right Plan? Formulas, Package, Incentives, Performance Indicators, Base Salary, Improve Company Loyalty

        Like the rat in the cage we are driven by rewards.  When compensation becomes stagnant so does productivity.   If like rats we are paid by the time we spend in the cage then the expected level of productivity is simple compliance.   By focusing on minimum standards employees tend to get there and stay there.   Is that where you want to be?  What does your company need?  What should you look for when reviewing your compensation plan?   Below are some important points to consider:

• If you need to make changes, be wary of copying formulas.   The best plan is the one that works best for your unique circumstances.   
• Don't forget to look outside your industry when looking for the right compensation plan. 
• Sometimes combinations of plans work the best.   
• Don't forget to include non-compensation benefits in your overall package. 
• Look first at what your 'drivers' or key performance indicators are and make certain to base your compensation plan on those factors. 
• Tell your employees you are developing a compensation plan with incentives and you would like their input.   That way, once the plan is in place, there should be no complaints.   
• Talk about the new plan in your business, group and team meetings.   You could start by using small gifts or cash rewards for top performance which helps employees get accustomed to the idea.
• Use spreadsheets to work out the ranges of possible plans.   
• Be wary of straight commission as it can often create internal friction.
• Once you have a plan you can test backwards to see how it would work.   
• Depending on your plan, you can do a trial run and see how employees react.
• Make certain that poor performance is not rewarded.   Establish a minimum performance level and make it the low end of your compensation scale. 
• Under ideal circumstances top performers should get at least  two or three times more than minimal  performers. 
• "Skew" the better rewards toward top performance.   
• Avoid straight hourly or straight salary plans as they provide little incentive.   
• Make sure your plan is easily trackable by both you and your employees. 
• It is better to have a low base wage/salary with a large incentive component.  If the base is too high there is little incentive to perform at higher levels. 
• Expect minimal employees to whine, complain and quit after the plan is in place.
• Expect to see more qualified and motivated  employees wanting to join your company. 
• Expect your better employees to become more loyal.

     A well designed compensation plan can give your company a strong competitive advantage.   Your competitors may find it impossible to compete directly with you for the best employees. 

Jack D. Deal

      

Managing Personal Problems in the Workplace

     We humans are complex beasts.   We live, love, hate, befriend, stress, grieve, excite, depress, yearn and everything in between.   Whether we like it or not, agree or disagree, we are given what we are given.   To make matters worse, we are a potpourri; a hodgepodge buffet of everything so that the best and worst can even occur in the same psyche.   We are in short; an incredibly complex web of neurons and a real mess.   

     Will Rogers said he never met a man he didn't like.   He could have said the reverse.  Paradox, ambiguity, confusion, turmoil, uncertainty, motivation, pride, ego and strong sense of community just stir the pot.  We try our best to generalize, stereotype, and simplify but we human beasts defy attempts to 'get figured out'.  The same system that allows us to create and accomplish extraordinary feats also allows us to fail and anguish in misery and yet still call it a learning experience or cognitive excercise. 

     And of course we bring our mixed bag of social evolution and personal circumstance to the workplace.   When we walk into the office or punch in we are still the same person even though we may flip the 'work switch' or 'put on the office face.'   

     When pain and stress enter our lives it spills over into the workplace.   The result can be a sour attitude, reduced productivity, lack of cooperation, lack of focus, etc.   Under ideal circumstances we should come to work, be happy we are employed, focus on our tasks and responsibilities and make the business agenda our agenda.   At least during work hours.   

     The demands of the workplace and the demands on our personal lives are putting greater pressures on us and forcing us to look at how we cope and try to maintain a balance.   And throughout it all the manager has to manage and 'keep the ship afloat.'   So you might question are there not some tricks and strategies the good manager  uses that the bad manager does not?   Here are a few concepts:

1)  Managers know personal problems can make a productive worker useless.  The astute manager does not take serious personal problems lightly.   

2) Many employees have potential that will never be realized because of personal problems.   Some people choose lifestyles that create a steady stream of problems.  Some even will find relief, meaning and comfort in going to work.   These employees bring little value to the company and the best approach is to avoid hiring such character types.   And consider firing the ones you do have.  It's just not fair to your good people.   

3) When an employee has a major personal problem it may be impossible for them to focus on work.   Consider giving them time off to handle the problem.   Lovers and teenagers are frequently found in this category.   This is not so much knowing how to be a sensitive manager as a productive one. 

4) Get to know your people and request they get to know theirs.   If an employee is showing a big shift in affect or behavior, ask if there is a problem.   Slight shifts in behavior are normal and we all have them.   But major shifts are not and can signify a more fundamental problem.   Try to show genuine interest, which as a manager is part of your job description.   Avoid gossip and respect confidentiality.   

5) Avoid playing the hero.  Most employees can work out their own personal problems on their own.  That is not to say an expression of concern is not appreciated...

6) Work on your own managerial people skills so you become a better observer. 

7) Make it clear that business comes first.   Without the means to support a family things go sour quickly.  As members of the team you owe it to your colleagues to carry your load...

8) Understand that an employee's personal problems are not  your concern.   Your concern happens when these problems affect the workplace.

9) Give the employee time to work through their problems but set a limit.  Some personal problems can never be resolved and the manager should then consider the employee's appropriateness for the position. 

10) Support your employee's efforts to solve or resolve their problems.   If your company does not offer counseling benefits you could consider allowing the employee time off to go.   

11) Think of your people as profit centers and not costs.   

     And finally, take care of yourself.   As manager, who will hold your hand when you need help? 

Jack D. Deal

Can Innovation be Engineered? Creativity, Measurable, Free Flow, Counterproductive, Restraints, Optimized Brain

    Increasingly in today's business environment the need to innovate has become a key for success.   Innovation does not have to be the big patents or major product breakthroughs.   Innovation can be figuring out how to do something better and more effectively, no matter how small or trivial the innovation may seem.   What made Einstein, Edison and Leonardo da Vinci such prolific creators?

     The problem with creativity is that it often is not tangible or measurable.   The scientific experts tell us they don't know what it is but business people say it is becoming increasingly important in the workplace.  Some countries and cultures have a different propensity toward innovation with some countries having little or no marketplace innovation.   

     Like morale and image, creativity becomes more accepted if it is kept in company conversations and meeting agendas.    Since innovation is not a commodity, the rules for managing commodities do not apply here.   That is why some of the biggest companies are the worst innovators.  Reward creativity as soon as you see it.   

     Innovation centers around the free flow of ideas and questions.   Any management  system that creates obstacles for this flow is being counterproductive.   The question to ask is "what can we do to become more creative and innovative?"   

     Creativity and innovation cannot be turned on and off like a faucet.   One strategy is to let the creative juices flow when they flow naturally; when they are not turn to other tasks to  get them out of the way. 

      When looking at  your company's business model; try to define the constraints, limits and focus of  your creative efforts.   There are no limits but there are constraints...it is important your people know these. 

     Track your company's ideas and innovations on spreadsheets.   This will let your people know you are serious about gaining a creative advantage. 

     If your people aren't interested in ideas and being creative, find new people that are.  Hopefully you will hire these people before you go out of business. 

     It  does appear that the free mind is also the creative mind.   Harsh external conditions may in fact cause the creator to focus more on their own creativity.   

     Inquiring implies effort on the part of the learner.  This takes the focus away from the self and shifts it to society and the world at large.   People that are interested and busy pursuing those interests don't have a lot of time to sit and worry...

     There appears to be some link between genes and interests but at this point there is not much known in this area.   When an individual is able to follow their interests the genes and energy match up and it appears that creativity is also enhanced as well.   That does not mean that by simply following one's interest one can induce creativity.   It simply means that the set and setting is optimized and with the brain working at a furious pace ideas can be generated.   

Jack D. Deal

    

    

We All Learn by Falling Down; Athlete, Perceived Pain, Risk, Compliance, Silly Over Caution

     My editor and I were sitting on a bench on the edge of a park discussing my awkward grammar when we noticed a young boy walking with his father.  At the edge of the swings and slide area was a wooden border about one foot high.   The little boy was balancing on this wooden mini-fence when he fell -- taking a tumble such as only an inexperienced and innocent two year old can fall.   He landed on the asphalt sidewalk and was startled as much as shaken. 

     Like a downed athlete he tried to gather himself as his father picked him up.   The boy's surprise turned to fear when he saw the scrapes on his knee and elbow.  Tears came to his eyes but he did not cry.  His father made certain he was not injured and set him back down.

     For several minutes the young boy stood there. Finally his father told him it was time to go and started walking away.   The boy turned to the wooden border and stepped back up.  As he finished walking down the section he jumped triumphantly off with the flair of an athlete who had just scored.  His face beamed with accomplishment.

     I thought about this incident for several days.  There were several points that kept  going through my head.   

     The first was the surprise the boy had when he fell.  The pain, although intense, was not necessarily more than the surprise.  The second was the father did not pick up his son and say the sorts of things like "it's all right" or "the hurt makes it better."  It clearly wasn't all right and the hurt did not make things better.  Once the father realized his son had no real injury, he allowed his son to learn from the experience.   The son was allowed to deal with the reality himself and on his own terms.  There is an old saying that goes "that which does not kill, strengthens..."  Maybe it's something like that. 

     Then the boy climbed back up and continued the quest.  The challenge and fun far outweighed perceived pain and risk even though he had been shaken and scared.   The joy he expressed when jumping off showed that not only had it been fun but he had overcome a significant challenge and was proud of that accomplishment. 

     I still think about this incident and especially when I'm in the workplace.  A good manager lets his people take certain risks and fail.  When they fail, the good manager does not chastise or degrade.  The good manager allows her people to learn from their mistakes and failure and to try again.  Because the boy found the fortitude to try again he not only succeeded but gained the experience of facing an obstacle and overcoming it. 

     Many parents and managers will not allow this simple process to take place.  By denying their children and employees opportunities to make mistakes they unwittingly force compliance and even silly over caution.    Good managers and good parents allow their employees and children to learn to help themselves. 

     The results in the workplace are clear.   Those employees that are engaged enough to try new ideas are almost always better employees.   Those employees that learn and improve are more productive. 

     And and the same can probably be said for children...

Jack D. Deal

    

Business Success and the Free and Inquiring Mind; Dreams, Migraines, Opportunities, Intellectual Stimulation, Success, Risk

     So what attitudes bring the best business results?   It's more than just having a positive attitude...the bankruptcy courts are full of those that knew they could never fail.   We all know people that have inquiring minds and those that have closed minds.   Below are some ways we can contrast ways of thinking and gain some insight as to how that effects the bottom line:

• Free and inquiring minds chase rainbows and build dreams.   The closed mind only remembers the past and somehow hopes it will return. 
• Inquiring minds take more risks and subsequently fail more often.   They also succeed more often.   
• A  closed mind has fewer headaches in the short term but more migraines in the long term. 
• The inquiring mind gets more decision making practice and consequently develops better decision making skills.   Successful businesses consistently make good decisions. 
• The closed mind is not only more sluggish but also tends to restrict options and miss opportunities.  Today those companies that don't take advantage of opportunities will eventually fail.   
• The free and inquiring mind is better adapted to facing new circumstances.   The closed mind  is more likely to ignore the new until it becomes painful and overwhelming.   In today's markets those that ignore the new rapidly become the obsolete.
• Inquiring minds tend to hire inquiring  minds; close minds often hire those that are less capable and pose less of a threat.   
• Inquiring minds hit upon more breakthrough strategies.   Closed minds tend to trade on what they always have traded on...
• Inquiring minds become more adept at facing realities while closed minds try to make realities fit their perceptions.   
• Inquiring minds seek challenge and the satisfaction of meeting a challenge.   Closed minds avoid the difficult and are constantly seeking a comfort zone.
• Inquiring minds thrive on intellectual stimulation while closed minds go with the tried and true they already know.
• Inquiring minds look for potential and improvements.   Closed minds look to habit and precedent.   
• Inquiring minds view failure as the path to success.   Closed minds avoid failure since all failure is perceived as risk.

     So often it is a thin perceptual line between success and failure.   One has to wonder if all those businesses that go under had simply made a few perceptual adjustments, their outcomes would have been different.   

Jack D. Deal

    

The Independent Vs. Dependent Employee: Twilight Zone, Paycheck, Work History, Exploitations, Workflow, Contrasts, Job Description

pendent vs. Independent Employee
Conceptual extremes help us build a framework for better understanding. The two extremes in this article are human extremes -- opposites that we all have seen and experienced.

Of course the real world is not so kind as to give us neatly bound packages of understanding. There are too many gray areas, too many twilight zones and just plain holes in our limited capabilities. Trying to put something like the human mind in a framework is not only futile but also agonizingly frustrating. Employees are people and people are complex beings. As we look across various types of behaviors and attitudes it is important we try to begin to make some sense. Dependence and Independence are admittedly labels. Despite all the asterisks, here are some observations on dependent and independent employees:

• The dependent employee feels entitled to a paycheck. The independent employee feels he earns a paycheck by bringing value to the company.
• Dependent employees are happy with the status quo while independents are on the prowl for improvement and opportunity.
• Dependent employees downplay their lost opportunities of the past; independents have taken advantage of opportunities many times.
• Dependent employees come to work because they have to; independent employees are interested, driven and optimistic.
• Dependent employees see us vs. them; independent employees see us and us.
• Dependent employees are defensive; independent employees are interested in increased responsibilities.
• Dependent employees feel they are constantly being exploited; independent employees know value.
• The dependent employee is mired in the status quo; the independent employee is challenged and has suggestions and ideas.
• The dependent employee views his work history as a series of exploitations and bad luck; the independent employee sees his planned career as the realization of personal ambition.
• The dependent employee has years of experience; the independent employee has years of self-improvement.
• The dependent employee's goals are vacation and retirement; the independent employee's goal is success.
• The dependent employee allows personal problems to interfere with work performance; the independent employee takes care of his personal life so he can focus when working.
• The dependent employee disrupts workflow when upset or unhappy; the independent employee states the problem to management and offers to help resolve it.
• Dependent employees shun anything outside their job description; independent employees make good sound decisions that are in the company's best interest.

Perhaps the contrasts are a bit exaggerated. Yet the point still is very clear -- those employees that are mean-spirited and selfish bring the company little value. A clear thinking, motivated independent employee will constantly have the company's best interest at heart. These two extremes are worlds apart and bring very different business results!

Jack D. Deal

When Those We Trust Disappoint; Pro Bono, Dummies, Decent People, Business Dynamics

Recently I needed some work done by a colleague of mine. I had done a lot of pro bono or free work for him and now I needed him to do some work for me. When the job was completed he presented me with a full retail bill. The work he did was what he had promised -- but nothing more. He had returned my favors by making me pay full price. After paying I began to wonder -- was I missing something here? About a week later another colleague asked me to do some pro bono work. As I had some extra time, I did it. Several days later he called me saying he wanted to refer one of his clients to me. His client was a computer programming company that had management issues and he did not feel competent to do the work since he was a systems integrator. He also stated he wanted a percentage of my fee as compensation. After our conversation I began to wonder -- was I missing something here? These two individuals are not dummies. They both are intelligent and educated. They both run moderately successful businesses. And maybe that's the key -- moderately successful. They must treat their customers, employees and vendors just like they treated me -- squeezing down to the last nickel. Perhaps they viewed me as super successful since I tend to not get worked up over relatively small amounts of money. I also noticed that these two individuals had something in common: they worry all the time. They worry if they're busy or if they're slow. They worry if the vendors are charging too much or too little. They worry if it's tax time or if it's not. They worry that each nickel in assets they own is threatened. They worry if they aren't worried! This oddity struck me and it kept my focus when I met them next. With each they were clenching their teeth, telling me how busy yet how bad things were, worried that they were not being as successful as they really should be. The smiles were forced and the voice strained. Then it all began to make sense. They did not see that by taking advantage of me I might not be as willing to help them the next time they had their hand out. Not only that, if they were to get in a real bind -- which they will -- they may not be able to count on my ability to tell them what they should do. Or help them at all! These two are not evil or even bad. They are actually decent people that have somehow lost control of that which made them decent. They have traded their basic understanding of business dynamics for a transitory figure that temporarily pops up under the net profit column. Their philosophy has become simple if not simplistic -- 'If it does not bring swift and significant gain it really does not matter.' And for business people that is sad. We who do not have the security of getting a hand out must rely on the strength of the relationships we can forge in the dog-eat-dog world of uncensored competition. We love the hunt but we know we can so easily be hunted as well. Perhaps it is just such a fear that makes my two colleagues oblivious to decency. So now I take deep breath when I think of these two. I hope they find some degree of happiness in the midst of all their anxiety. If the ulcers don't get them then the coronaries will. I am proud to say that despite it all I really bear no ongoing resentment. Fortunately they need me a lot more than I need them. Thankfully the cost-benefit imbalance was not that significant and in a real sense I certainly did get my money's worth. These are two individuals that I might have been convinced to help out in a larger context. Learning bad lessons can certainly be cost effective in the long run by avoiding the bigger mistakes. And I truly hope they are happy. Hopefully the tag of 'moderately successful' will not be too painful. As hard as they work and as much as they worry they deserve all the happiness and success they can get!

Jack D. Deal

The Male Manager and Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS)

As a male it is not easy writing about PMS. There are many females, especially those local to the Bay Area, that would say 'don't even try!' There are some that would say things like 'men have their own PMS and menopause'. And so on. But just because a topic is a difficult one does not mean that it should be avoided. And over the years I have seen PMS become a workplace issue. My thoughts and observations come strictly from a business perspective and not from a personal bias. For the record, my mother, my sister and my wife are all women. If my comments are viewed as simplistic please consider that my comments are by a male for male managers. I have not personally encountered problems with female managers addressing a PMS issue with female employees although I am certain that it has occurred. Female managers, as well as female employees, are much more open to addressing PMS as a workplace issue.

It has been my experience that PMS is different for each woman -- some women feel there is no such thing, some are incapacitated and others have a 'good month and then a bad month'. PMS involves a 'cycle of life' and this cycle can be very different from woman to woman. Even the medical community is not in agreement about PMS. Is PMS a monthly form of disability? Should employers recognize PMS and plan their schedules and workflow around it? Is PMS something that is private and something that is 'no business' of the employer? I have heard many different opinions. Unfortunately for male managers, no one has developed a workable 'PMS strategy' in the workplace.

PMS in the workplace comes in three basic forms with negative implications: absenteeism, reduced productivity and disruptions. Male managers often do not consider that PMS may be an issue. When I am speaking with a male manager, and the discussion involves a female employee's absenteeism, loss of production or disruptions, one of the questions I ask is 'how often do these problems occur?' This is a question I ask about all employees -- male or female. The male manager will think, pull out statistics, scratch his head and say 'about once a month around this time.' And not even consider that PMS may be involved.

When I bring up this possibility the male manager's typical response is avoidance -- it can't be, we can't talk about it, we don't want to know about it, etc. The problem with avoidance is that it provides no rationale for absenteeism, low production or disruptions. If a female employee does have a PMS problem and management will not acknowledge that problem then the employee can be assessed as being lazy, not interested or a troublemaker. This is not fair to the female employee.

How a male manager addresses PMS is the real question. One thing is clear -- avoidance is not the solution. From the workplace perspective the avoidance of PMS is a male problem. Females tend to speak about PMS much more openly -- even to males. Males often 'don't want to talk about that.'

What is a male manager to do? As with most management issues the answer is conditional and situational. There is no formula. However, I have seen some methods to resolve the avoidance problem.

Depending on the situation, a female employee or female manager can be of great help. Having a female speak about PMS to another female employee is not so much a 'woman thing' as it is a 'man thing'. Care has to be taken here about confidentiality and other ethical management issues. When a male manager acknowledges the problem but feels helpless the first thing I ask is -- is there another female that can help?

Once the problem is acknowledged the solution is much easier. Managers can reassign workload, give time off, give compensatory time off, etc. This can also be done when teams manage themselves. Again, the real negatives occur when the problem cannot be acknowledged.

There are no easy answers. Like most difficult problems awareness is the first step -- simply creating awareness can bring improved results. For businesses trying to become more 'human organizations' it is important to consider human needs. PMS is part of the life cycle -- not just a 'female' problem. For the male manager, it is important to realize female employees deserve the consideration!

Jack D. Deal

Break Even Point

Jack D. Deal

The break-even point is defined as the point where sales or revenues equal expenses. There is no profit made or loss incurred at the break-even point. This figure is important for anyone that manages a business since the break-even point is the lower limit of profit when setting prices and determining margins. Obviously the break-even point becomes very important when calculating a strategy for net profit.

The break-even margin is a ratio that shows the gross-margin factor for a break-even condition. The formula is total expenses divided by net revenues multiplied by 100 to get a percentage. This ratio is helpful when setting prices, with competitive bidding and when negotiating contracts with vendors and accounts.

The dynamics of the break-even point and the break-even margin show managers the impact of their decisions. In purchasing, costs can be lowered by bulk purchasing, negotiating price/ terms or finding new suppliers. Revenues can be improved by increasing value to the customer or offering non-price concessions. It must be remembered that increasing profits by simply increasing margins is a risky strategy. Unless the consumer perceives higher value, increased prices may negatively impact sales.  . The customer ultimately decides benefit, value and sales.

When looking at break-evens it is also helpful to look at fixed and variable costs. Fixed overhead is steady and can be factored in quite accurately. Variable costs are not as simple to calculate but in many industries variable costs follow certain percentages or ratios so they are easier to project.

It is also helpful to look at break-evens on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. Many construction companies base their bids on when they hit their yearly break-even. Once that point is reached they can make their bidding more competitive to stay busy and profitable.

I have found if very useful to let personnel know the break-even figures. This gives them a very clear picture of expenses and what it actually takes to run the business. Sharing break-even figures also reduces the perception that ownership is getting rich off of the employee's.

If you do not know your break-even point ask your accountant to show you. Some bookkeepers are able to add the break-even point to their reports. If you think finding out the obvious is not worth the effort, just consider how many businesses have failed because they did not know their break-even point.

Jack D. Deal

---

Micromanagers and Their Fading Bottom Line

Jack D. Deal

I recently received this e-mail: "I work for City Government and the City Council has been throwing the word "Micromanage" around in the Council meetings. Since there is an election coming up, they all seem to have their own idea of what the word "Micromanage" means (of which some are way off base). What is micromanaging and what is not?"

Micromanaging has become a hot buzzword. I use it, my clients use it, and now government is beginning to use it. As stated in the above the term can be misused. Perhaps it is time to better define the concept.

Micromanaging is usually synonymous with the "old way of doing things." "Dinosaur" managers use the micromanagement approach. The term essentially means to supervise every small step in the workflow process -- hence the 'micro.' This method worked fairly well in the 'old' production days when assembly line workers were uneducated and unskilled. These workers normally did one routine step and that was it. They made few or no decisions. They had a minimum production quota. Their breaks were monitored, their lunches were monitored and of course the time clock was the tracker. Time was viewed as what was 'bought' by the company. Close supervision or micromanaging ensured that production levels were met. Management literally had to tell employees what to do and watch them to make sure they did it.

This system worked well when workflow was simple. As the business world became more complex, micromanaging became less effective. Time was not what the company bought and the worker sold. Productivity became the key. As processes became more complex, workers were required to gain greater skills. Skilled workers became more in demand and could go elsewhere if they were not treated properly. Skilled workers eventually found micromanagers offensive and crude.

After 2000 it seems companies became more results oriented.  In an increasingly compeitive business environment they had to.    As time became even less of a factor in the results equation, motivation and innovation began to be understood as real forces in production results. Workers became employees and then associates or team members. Employees began to be viewed as assets and not just expenses. Employers began to understand that employees could provide the greatest competitive advantage as well as the number one management headache. In short, employees could make or break the company.

Managers began to understand that good management meant maximizing employee productivity. This could no longer be accomplished by micromanaging. Managers began to understand that knowing their people and helping them do their best was the best way to reach superior production levels. Instead of being an obstacle, managers began to understand it was their job to remove obstacles. Time constraints have been one of the last obstacles to fall.

Today's managers understand they must constantly assess and improve their workplace processes and mechanisms. They understand that accountability is much more than putting in time and punching the clock. They no longer insist on telling their employees how to do something because often the employee knows more about what they are doing than the manager. Also they have learned that employees can not only solve workplace problems but also can create and innovate. The employee that creates and innovates does not appreciate being treated like the assembly line worker of the past. Skilled employees feel micromanagers do not appreciate their contributions.

Micromanaging was a process that worked reasonably well when the work was simple. The bottom line was there. As work became more complex micromanaging lost its effectiveness. In today's workplace, micromanaging is responsible for many bad bottom lines, poor performances and bankruptcies.

Jack D. Deal