Membership

INVEST IN YOUR EMPLOYEES AND GET A GREAT ROI

There are some organizations that put employee training and development on the back burner. They do not see an immediate benefit and view investing in their employees as more optional than essential. They do not see the expense as worth their while. They would be making a costly mistake. Investing in your employees will actually give you a great ROI. But getting the most from investing in your employees needs careful consideration. Think about what outcomes you would want to get from training your employees. What would change in the business or in the behavior or performance of employees as […]

Delegation through Responsibility. Authority, Accountability

An organization stands on three pillars of strength. Responsibility, Authority, Accountability. Unless you are literally a one-man army, you have to rely on others down the line to deliver results. The best organizational heads know the benefits of delegation. They pick the right person for the job and then resist the temptation to micro-manage. Yes, the CEO can possibly do the task better (that’s what made him or her the CEO in the first place) but it’s important to let the other person do the job. Your job as CEO is to encourage and provide support. Once the person you have delegated the task to knows […]

WHY HIRING A CONFERENCE OR MEETING ROOM MAKES GOOD BUSINESS SENSE

Many offices utilize precious office space for meeting and conference rooms only to discover that they don’t require them as much as they thought. Like guest rooms in a home, they are under-utilized but still need to be maintained and cared for. If you identify with this scenario, you may need to make a hard decision: rent a meeting or conference room instead of setting one up in your office taking up space that could otherwise be used for additional offices or your expansion plans. Hiring a conference or meeting room as and when you require it, makes good business sense. Businesses today require well-equipped […]

WHAT BUSINESS CAN LEARN FROM FOOTBALL FRENZY.

The World Cup in Brazil has taken football frenzy to a new high. So what better time to consider what business people can learn from this exciting game? Those 90 minutes could be worth a lifetime of learning. 1. Have a goal – and defend it with your life. Don’t let anyone stop you from achieving the goal you have set yourself. It is in the opponent’s interest to deflect you from your goal. Use everything in your power to protect your goal and stay focused on it. 2. Never stop believing you can win. Not for a second should you doubt your ability […]

The seven deadly sins of start-ups

It is a true but uncomfortable fact of business life that as many as four out of five start-ups end in failure. Why do start-ups fail? Here are the seven deadly sins of start-ups. Make sure you don’t make the same mistakes. 1. Failure to develop products that meet a critical need. It’s one thing to develop technology that does something cool, perhaps something that’s never been done before. It’s another matter to deliver a complete product that meets a critical need better than the competition. This means developing the entire package – hardware, software, infrastructure, sales channel, promotion, customer […]

THE COST OF GETTING THAT NEW CUSTOMER

So, you got a new customer? Congratulations! But have you stopped to think what just that new customer cost you? Perhaps you should wait on passing the champagne around till you consider the matter carefully. “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” is good advice. Is that new customer getting you good or poor Return on Investment? The best way to find out is write it all down. Spend a day in the office just listing every single expense incurred on the new client. Use a whiteboard, spreadsheet or a large sheet of paper and start writing. Your list could […]