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 …
The economy never ceases to be a topic of concern and debate. Essentially, there are two layers of discussion–the macro-economy that is what is fussed over in the national news with focus on the fiscal cliff, tax policy and the deficit, and the micro-economy, which I define as the economic circumstances we find ourselves in–our …
Rags to riches stories are some of our favorites–from Cinderella to J. K. Rowling. We love to cheer for the underdog. While most of us have never been in “rags”, few of us have escaped hardship somewhere along the way. Even though none of us like to hear it, the challenges we face, if harnessed …
In the equestrian world, we have a saying, “There are two kinds of riders, those who have fallen off and those that haven’t—yet”. Until October of 2012 I went for many years in the latter category. Eventually, I joined the ranks of the former and when I did, it was a doozy. But that is …
How many of you have read some outstanding business books to help you understand concepts for growing your business, like Good to Great by Jim Collins or Mastering the Seven Essentials of High Growth Companies by David Thomson? All of us have read these types of books right? So why aren’t we making national or international …
This is Seth Godin’s blog today and it is spot on. At the end, if you can, answer the question in the title. What’s it for? If, seventy years ago, you asked Henry Luce, “What is Time magazine for?” he’d probably talk about setting society’s agenda, capturing the attention of the educated and powerful and …
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