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This is an insanely busy time for some of you, while others are taking the chance to settle back a bit and prepare for next year’s challenges.
But wherever you’re at, it’s always good to maintain perspective. That’s what leaders do, right?
Read the rest of this entry »I’ve noticed there are industries with “innovation fatigue.” Social media has been this way, with the rate of change going faster than people can absorb.
It wears people out.
The interesting part is that this rate of fatigue is different for each person and situation. I’ve been a tech geek for over five decades, so I tend to enjoy these innovations more than most people do.
But even I stopped looking for the ultimate word processor 25 years ago. I stopped investing in the latest and greatest laptops a bit later.
Read the rest of this entry »Last week I talked about the depressing race to the bottom. That’s a strategy of focusing on reducing prices over all other considerations.
When several companies do this at the same time, it destroys profit for everyone and can even kill an industry. We see this all the time.
Fortunately, there’s a different strategy you can embrace. It’s not any easier, but it sure can be more rewarding.
Read the rest of this entry »I’ve heard several reports recently which talk about companies doing everything they can to drive profit. And of course the quickest variables to fiddle with are cutting quality and cutting employees.
Cut expenses, then you can reduce prices, so you’ll gain market share and win more profit. Here’s the problem with that logic. In a competitive market with multiple companies doing the same strategy, you don’t gain market share (or profit) at all when you reduce prices. Not unless you can do that faster than the competition for some reason – but that destroys your profit.
Unless you have a magic wand, of course. Most people out here in the real world don’t have one. You just have a bunch of companies all racing to the bottom, where NOBODY is eking out any kind of profit.
Fortunately, that’s not the only way to play the game.
Read the rest of this entry »Some industries are getting more nervous.
Tariffs. Wars. Interest rates. Softer consumer confidence.
The question is what you choose to do with all this swirling information. Because it’s always something. If you want a reason to avoid committing to a decision, there’s always something you can blame it on.
Read the rest of this entry »We all feel blown around by events, I get that. The employee called in sick with no warning. That customer is being a total pain. You just found out that the health care costs will be going up next year, and a lot more than you expected.
When you’re reacting to each of these, how are you showing up? It’s a question that we often don’t think about – or want to think about.
But it’s in these daily interactions that you’re showing the real character of who you are.
Read the rest of this entry »Very few of us can change the world all by ourselves. That’s the price of having a vision that’s large and has a significant impact.
So we work with others along our journey.
I try to capture this concept with the word “partnering.” But that’s not primarily about the legal structure of being Business Partners. That’s totally fine, but only a small fraction of the people you’ll need to work with.
Read the rest of this entry »This landscape of values-based businesses can be quite confusing.
I had a chance to discuss this with a researcher in the field recently, and we started off with the term itself. Purpose-driven. Conscious. Values-based. Mission-driven.
Such a mishmash of buzzwords! But if you look underneath that, you see a common thread:
Read the rest of this entry »What you measure gets attention. What gets attention gets worked on. And what gets worked on is improved.
This is such a basic train of thought, yet how often do we actually lead this way?
Let’s say that the key to your particular business success is developing personal, nurturing relationships with your customers. Yet when you have meetings and talk about progress, you’re showing revenue, expenses, on-time delivery and defects. Where did customer relationships even get mentioned?
Read the rest of this entry »I get it. People are a pain. Employees. Customers. Random people in the store.
Not you, of course. You’re perfect. But everybody else is so annoying sometimes!
So how do we deal with this reality? Well, first, it’s about recognizing that this is the human condition. We’re all flawed and make mistakes.
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The Values-Based Business 