Business metrics matter. They measure how successful a company is and well it is performing. We seem to live in a world saturated with data, metrics, and performance reports. Our corporate rivers are overflowing with them drenching everything in numbers and targets, drowning us in data, while leaving is gasping for insights. I have helped […]
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Teach Strategic Thinking with These 3 Simple Questions
When the Big Strategic Idea someone pitches you is blatantly boneheaded and un-strategic, you might remind yourself that strategic thinkers are made, not born. If this person is your friend or subordinate, then maybe it’s your job to help them learn the skill called “strategic thinking.” These three simple questions will get you off to […]
Building Consensus in Your Family Business
Building consensus about how the business should be operated, now and into the future, is one of the most difficult problems confronting family businesses. In a non-family business, the answer is rather simple and obvious: Develop and implement a strategic plan. In a family business, the process for building consensus is dramatically more complicated and […]
Approaching Professional Intervention as a Process
Professional intervention in a family business to resolve disputes is a smart strategy as the issues that confront a family in business together are difficult and complex. “A family business expert, who is experienced in dealing with family business dynamics, can be more objective to help grow the family business, to help maintain healthy family […]
Three Ways to Take Your Company’s Pulse
Every type of business, not to mention every type of manager, has a different set of vital statistics that really matter. For manufacturing people, it could be inventory turns, on-time delivery, and unit cost. For marketing people, it could be new account closings, market share, and sales growth. For call center managers, it could be the […]
Who Is Mr. Roche?
Mr. Charles Fiaccabrino is one of the most remarkable and impressive people I have crossed paths with. Over the past couple years, I had the distinct pleasure of working with him closely, as we (at Flevy) productized his thought leadership into a sales management methodology known as the Fiaccabrino Selection Process (FSP). Now in his 80s, Mr. Fiaccabrino has […]
How to Beat Your Competition by Innovating in Ways They Can’t Copy
The national retailer Urban Outfitters has increased its revenues by 500% in the last 10 years, expanding to nearly $3 billion today from less than $500 million a decade ago. Not only does the company grow faster than its peers, it is also more profitable, averaging 21% profit margins for the past five years, versus […]
Do or Die: The Realities of Change
In business, there are really only two choices: do something or do nothing. One choice leads to growth and sustainability and the other, well, allows more room in the marketplace since there is one less player in the game. Every organization eventually faces the truth, change is the only constant. If an organization fails to […]
7 Things to Do Before Your Next Performance Review
Performance reviews, while not necessarily the most effective way to do business, are a realistic part of the work year for many employees. Many people find the review process stressful, but I believe a great deal of the stress and anxiety around performance reviews can be reduced or eliminated with proper preparation. Try working through […]
The Biggest Obstacle to Innovation in One Word
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. This wonderful quote of Leon C. Megginson is still so relevant in this fast changing world. Trying to do things differently or to do different things within an organization is hard. Being […]
Family Business Owners, Dream Big! But Also Consult a Finance Expert
“Many family business owners who come to us for help complain that they always have a scarcity of time and money,” according to leading family business expert Don Schwerzler. “In fact, that is why many family businesses never achieve their true potential. They get so caught up in the ‘tyranny of routine’ that they fail […]
Responsibility Diffusion: A Critical Impediment When Growing a Family Business
“Responsibility diffusion is a critical impediment to successfully growing a family business. And, the larger the family business grows, the larger the problem becomes!” opines Don Schwerzler, an internationally recognized family business expert who has been studying and advising family business owners for more than 40 years. As a family business expert dealing with growth and profitability […]
