Over the years, we’ve made strategy far more complicated than necessary. Smart people with advanced degrees and high salaries generate elaborate documents containing complex analysis, algorithms, heuristics, scenarios and projections which seldom yield competitive advantage. More than 50% of the 2010 Fortune 500 companies – each with elegant strategic plans […]
Business
In turbulent and uncertain times, it is tempting for companies to wonder whether if they do actually require a strategy. They do. By way of proof, imagine that you find yourself in the middle of a dark and hostile jungle. If you want to get out of the jungle, do […]
THE OWNER VERSUS EMPLOYEE MINDSET Some people just want to be employees. In the early stages of a company, you want everyone on the team – from your front-line employees to your partners who own equity with you – to go above and beyond toward making the company successful. You […]
DOWNSIZING WITH DIGNITY Make no mistake. Downsizing is extremely difficult. It taxes all of the management’s resources, including both business acumen and humanity. No one looks forward to downsizing. Perhaps this is why so many otherwise first-rate executives downsize so poorly. They ignore all the signs pointing to a layoff […]
WHY RANDOM SAMPLING IS IDYLLIC FOR INTRODUCING NEW PRODUCTS New startups in business abhor competition; a stiff one at that! It gives the entrepreneur goose pimples and since he is unsure of the next move to make when faced with daunting challenges about sales prospects for the new product. He […]
HOW TO MAKE PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS A WIN-WIN EXPERIENCE There are many reasons why appraisals are necessary. Positive reasons include the opportunity to: Often a negative reason is the close relationship between appraisals and employment legislation (for example, lack of appraisal may make it impossible to terminate someone’s employment). This is […]
HOW TO CREATE PERSUASIVE MESSAGES (PART 2) Logos: Using Evidence Logos, the logical arguments presented by speakers, can also be compelling. These facts, figures, and other forms of persuasion help listeners believe they are making an informed, rational choice. As a speaker, you have two obligations. The first is to […]
HOW TO CREATE PERSUASIVE MESSAGES (PART 1) Audience Analysis The first rule of effective communication is to analyze your audience. What will your audience care most about? What can you learn about the people with whom you will be communicating? What kinds of goals and objectives do they have? The […]
MANAGING STRESS: Time Management (PART 2) Plan the Work, Then Work the Plan Make Good Lists for Effective Prioritization Time management matrix is essentially about prioritization, and virtually every time management expert focuses on the importance of prioritizing and rescheduling, usually in the form of a daily or weekly “to-do” […]
MANAGING STRESS: Time Management (PART 1) One of the most important ways of handling stress is through effective time management. By managing time better, most of us can prevent many of the problems that stress causes by not putting ourselves in stressful situations in the first place. The inability to […]
