Margaret Reynolds Many of you have heard me speak of a book called Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink. Written by Jonathan Byrnes, an MIT professor and a colleague on the speaking circuit, it shares alarming insights into the profitability of our customers. For example, after significant empirical study he found only 40% of customers contribute …
As leaders of our companies, the buck stops with us. Yet clearly, nothing would happen if we couldn’t delegate. So how do we decide how to allocate our precious time? In fact, statistics say that executives are making more decisions (since we are running leaner) and have less time to do so (an image of …
As the leader of your business, most things start with you. You are working incredibly hard to keep the business performing at the highest possible level. It is likely you wear many hats and juggle a lot of balls—all at the same time. Leaders are making more decisions than ever with even less time available …
As regular blog readers you may know that from time to time we publish interviews with amazing leaders that have accomplished a track record of high performance while leaving a legacy. Some of you ask how do I get interviews with such high profile people like Dan Cathy of Chick-fil-A or Joe Scarlett of the …
For the last few years my message has been that growth is not only possible, but preferable, even considering the hardships we have to overcome to achieve it. Sound obvious? And yet, far too many companies are exhausted trying to fix problems caused by today’s market with traditional approaches, reluctant to change their attitudes and …
You may be aware that while I help companies do strategic planning, I really don’t like to use the term, “strategic planning”. Seems odd, doesn’t it? The reason is that far too many people are in the strategic planning business and, in my humble opinion, it is confused with meeting facilitation and/or process. Let me …
We know we shouldn’t take anything for granted, but we do. We like to be able to count on today unfolding the way we planned; that our experiences will be as helpful tomorrow as they were yesterday in navigating life; that we will have the support of loved ones. Yet the world changes around us …
What makes great customer service? Hire friendly people, teach them how to interact with customers and encourage customers to tweet about how great the service is? If you agree then you and Go Daddy have a lot in common. Unfortunately, customer service misses the mark no matter how nice the people are if you can’t …
Ever wonder what a glass of lemonade made out of lemons looks like? When your company is getting pounded by a slow economy, how do you come up with a win-win solution that saves you money and makes customers happy? Just ask Dina Dwyer-Owens, CEO of The Dwyer Group and author of R.I.C.H. (Respect, Integrity, …
Recently, I was in New Orleans and couldn’t resist touring one of their beautiful old cemeteries. They had people interred there from as long ago as the 1700’s and as recently as the day we visited. It is a thing of beauty and soul. Someone asked me what I would like on my headstone. My …
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