Margaret Reynolds 
AVENUE BANK Interview with Ron Samuels, Chairman and CEO of Avenue Bank Recently, I shared a survey with you that indicated that SME leaders had dramatically increased their optimism about the US economy post-election, from 38% to 68% in one quarter. That is the kind of jump rarely seen. Clients are reporting that within 30 days …
Your organization is not functioning in isolation. It functions within an economy, industry, and geographical area that influence the opportunities and challenges it faces. To maximize the value of your strategic plan, it is essential to be able to diagnose accurately the cause behind the symptoms of any hardship. Thus, it requires a macro or “big picture” perspective of the market served, as well as a closer inspection of the microfactors unique to the business or niche within which it operates.
In-depth market knowledge provides value in three important ways.
Almost every CEO wants to growth their business. After all, performance improvement is usually how CEO’s get evaluated. The question is, what solution do they use to accomplish it? Solution Option 1: Do it Myself Without question this is the most commonly deployed method for pursuing company growth. Unfortunately, it is the least successful. Statistics …
Employee Engagement is a hot topic in business lately. That can be attributed to our recognition that for our businesses to thrive we need smart, active employees who deploy their considerable brain power making the company better day in and day out. It may be the best competitive advantage we have. The one thing others …
Recent studies suggest business leader’s optimism is returning to pre-recession levels. The first survey, fielded by The Business Journals the day after the Presidential election, projected level of confidence in business success at 82%. A second survey by the American Institute of CPAs’ (AICPA) found that 62 percent of chief executive officers, chief financial officers, controllers …
The holidays are right around the corner. For most of us it may be the only time of year where the traffic in and out of our office door lightens up and we can find some quality time to think about some strategic issues we have wanted to get to but never had the time. …
Welcome to the club! As a leader you have the indubitable honor of working harder than everyone else, losing sleep at night, figuring out how to motivate and engage your workforce while striving to beat last year’s numbers. Leaders today face more game-changing decisions in a shorter time span making it harder than ever to achieve …
The election is over and many feel relief. No more debates, no more ugly ads, no more vague promises. The outcome of the election shocked the media and the world. One historian compared it to the 1948 election when “Dewey beats Truman” was the famous headline–a premature announcement due to an upset victory by Truman. …
Every business needs to discern which customers are their target customers—the ones that best fit their business model. Those customers are the ones that your company makes money on, can best serve based on your unique capabilities and strengths, and are going to grow over time. The first two may be obvious. The third criteria …
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