Strategy and Innovation Blog

To Emotionally Engage Your Employees Ask This Question

By Michael Falcon Originally published in Business2Business 

If you want your customer experience to improve, you must fully commit yourself to employee engagement and recognition. Consider these statistics:

Career opportunities, recognition, and organization reputation are consistently the top engagement drivers (Aon Hewitt, 2012 Trends in Global Employee Engagement).

The number-one reason most…

Get Adjusted: Making the Most of your Bottom Line

Previously posted in Inc by Andrew Silver

Here are 7 common add backs that can boost your (earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization)  EBITDA and company value:

Owner’s salary and compensation–usually the largest single add back item. However, even if you’re retiring, someone will have to lead the company and be paid a fair salary. Therefore, salaries can’t be eliminated…

26 Superb Ways To Reinvent Your Brand From Bad To Great

Why would a company concern themselves with branding? In this new rapid fire hypercompetitive age one has to stand out. Branding isn’t an intangible. Branding is personal. Selling the sizzle not the steak. An experience. Such as customer experience rather than customer service.

You must deliver the idea in your organization that everyone has to be passionate about the company and your products.

What Matters Most In The Business Case For Leadership

According to research conducted by the management consulting firm Mckinsey, leadership is a critical part of organizational health, which is an important driver of shareholder returns.

A big, unresolved issue is what sort of leadershipbehavior organizations should encourage. Is leadership so contextual that it defies standard definitions or development approaches? Should companies now…

Image courtesy of Open Forum

Customer service, if we are honest is seldom legendary. Long after customer service meetings and passionate chants nothing really changes. Recently our firm was desirous of transferring our hosting of our website to another firm. The new web company touted their unique designs as well as service. The phone number could not be found despite their mentioning customer…

11 Ways #HR Can Overhaul Management

CNBCreported recently of Luxottica CEO relinquishing his position as head in order to overhaul it’s management system. There is a salient lesson here easily overlooked. All organizations have to constantly be at the precipice of grooming talent. However, doing so one has to overlook protective silos so as not to avoid genius among sleeping giants so to speak. Meaning not all great candidates are…

6 Important Characteristics of Creative Leaders

Creative leaders see greater organizational openness ahead. But as rules are refined and collaboration explodes,  they use uncertainty as an opportunity for competitive advantage, protect the business and deliver results.

In uncertain times other companies hunker down building moats and castles. These successful companies have creative leaders who view this slowing of the economy as an…

Why Employee Engagement is More Important Customer Engagement

Customer service receives the bulk of attention along side leadership. They are however, miniscule. Apply all similar niceties assigned to customers to employees. There are as you know two customers in every business: the internal customer – employee and the external customer. So much attention is given to external customers. As if employees have a job. Hence they should be placated. This form…

14 Bad Tips For Hiring Toxic Employees During An Interview

At the outset, my opinion on the role of Hr notwithstanding employees is considerably different than most. I unlike the author frankly appalled disagreeable employees. I think an organization valuing diversity as much as they claim would applaud diversity in opinion. If an organization avows diversity as much as they claim, then certainly diversity of opinion would be one the most important…

6 Ways to Keep Your Business In Step with Your Dreams and Reality

Creating a successful is daunting. The ideas below from Inc dramatize the importance of always being nimble as well as passionate. In our work many small businesses fail because three things:

Brand before you expand

Rather than placing their attention on numerous products use your energy and resources to maximize a few. This helps you develop loyalty in your product because of the passion…

The article below by Mckinsey on world class teams would be worthwhile reading by the leadership and management of all organizations. In the first paragraph Mckinsey notes the capitulation of various forms of training to enhance the value of teams. They also note the realities of commoditization. That whatever they are doing so are…

Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave #innovation

By Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen

  Although most managers like to think they are in control, customers wield extraordinary power in directing a company’s investments. Before managers decide to launch a technology, develop a product, build a plant, or establish new channels of distribution, they must look to their customers first: Do their customers want it? How big will the market…

What makes a healthy company?

There are several generic components of a healthy company—a robust and credible strategy; productive, well-maintained assets; innovative products, services, and processes; a fine reputation with customers, regulators, governments, and other stakeholders; and the ability to attract, retain, and develop high-performing talent.

Thinking about health, as opposed to short-term performance, helps…

Permit me to take a different approach. I have never known an employee who could not be made better had they a more effective leader or manager. The fault of all failing employees rest with the manager. If you have a problem employee go to the manager. Jack Welch said management is the bottleneck of all organizations.

A terminated employee and a disgruntled customer have more valuable…

3 Reasons You Should Frame Your Mission Around Service

Small business owners have to contend with myriad challenges nearly all simultaneously. Business today isn’t for the faint of heart. One of the ways to create competitive advantage is to establish a culture of service. This benefits your organization directly and indirectly. How? First you create a culture of trust. Your employees see you giving back which fosters a sense of and respect for…