Posts Tagged ‘guiding principles’
How To Balance Strategy And Culture
This blog is first and foremost about business strategy. To create loyal customers, to nurture dedicated employees, to manage the business process, all comes down to a solid strategy. Within that strategy, some things are written in pen, and some things are written in pencil. Company culture is written in pen. And is written well…
Read MoreHow Rocky Balboa Handles A Crisis
In the first four Rocky movies, he fights three different opponents. While, admittedly, the narrative arcs of the movies follow similar lines, the training plans differ significantly from one movie to the next. In each film, he has different strengths and weaknesses. Most notably, a hit to the eye damages his peripheral vision for the…
Read MoreFrom Risk to Opportunity
Risk and opportunity must coexist in business every day. Focus only on risk, and your business will become stagnant. Ignore the risk for opportunity alone, and you will outpace your resources. Somewhere in between Kodak and Pets.com lies the successful business. Right now, COVID19 is doing its part to highlight the risks. Let’s also address…
Read MoreWhy Ask Why – A Story
Making the right decision is never easy. One of the things that makes it difficult is that we so often are fixing the wrong problem. Once a business problem becomes obvious to us, it has been through various stages of development. If we try to solve only the problem that we see, we risk solving…
Read MoreBusiness Values: Management Starts Before You Hire
It is the eternal dilemma of the manager or business owner: how to manage people with inspiration, leadership, and motivation, still maintaining a results-driven approach? Of course you want to nurture your team, let people develop their strengths, create a job they will enjoy, and more. But not to the detriment of meeting targets. How…
Read MoreExamples of Basic Competencies
For many years we have been struggling with the definition – and correct appreciation – of soft skills. Basic Competencies are a useful replacement. Many employers find “soft skills” too vague: when it comes to actually evaluating and choosing a new employee they prefer a material selection process; something to which they can point with…
Read MoreHiring for Competence
Knowing the key competencies required to work in your company is a foundational element of hiring the right people. In a post entitled Hire Wisely, we looked at the differentiating between what can be taught on the job and what the candidate has to bring with him or her already. Much of the latter comes…
Read MorePractical Mission Statement Examples
Thank you to Russel Earnest of Shirt Sleeves Solutions for pointing me towards the Inc.com article Walking the Talk: How to Turn a Mission Statement into Sales. Russell and I had been discussing the uses of mission statements, and he kindly saved and shared the print article with me. I have written in the past about…
Read MoreWhat is a Mission Statement
My first video blog, an edited transcript is below. You have all heard of the furniture giant known as Ikea, I presume. When you think of Ikea, what comes to mind? Home furnishings; DIY; a unique shopping experience; affordability… a lot of things will come to mind when you think of Ikea. I would like to take…
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