In looking at the organizational culture of a family business, we are assessing behaviors that are important to creating a strong effective staff and competent leadership. “Successful family businesses tend to have the family’s values and culture deeply embedded into their business strategies, policies and practices,” says leading family business expert Don Schwerzler. “How well the business […]
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Want to Train Your Staff on Lean and Organizational Excellence?
Several training series have recently been published on Flevy on the management topics of Lean (Operational Excellence) and Organizational Excellence. These training series can be used for internal certification programs in organizations of all sizes. Lean Shop Floor Training Series – 8 Modules. This is a Lean training series for beginners. With this series, you can arm your […]
Workplace Politics Kills Innovation
As a manager in big companies I hated workplace politics. Among colleagues you compete for scarce budgets, scarce people and scarce promotion opportunities. This does not bring out the best in people, creating a lot of wrangling and maneuvering. Sometimes it even seems that internal competitors are more vicious than competitors in the market. Individual agendas […]
Our Interview with the Co-founders of TheConsultantLounge, the One-stop Hub for Consultants
We recently had the opportunity to speak with the two co-founders of TheConsultantLounge.com, Laura Woodroof (picture on the right below) and Martina Segerer. TheConsultantLounge is an online and offline community for smart and passionate management consultants who were looking to expand their network and share their experiences across the broader consulting ecosystem. Both Laura and Martina are seasoned consultants with combined […]
How Top 1% Businesses Measure Their Success
Many of us have heard the old adage “What gets measured gets done.” Organisations are awash with KPIs–key performance indicators. Variously attributed to 19th Century UK Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and American author Mark Twain the oft-quoted phrase, “There are lies, damned lies and statistics,” reflects justified cynicism about the cult of measurement. The greatest […]
A Comprehensive Guide to Staff Retention
Between 2002 and 2008, I was employed by British Telecom as the Central Regional Sales Director. This afforded me the ability to influence, coach, mentor and deliver results through a staff of over 300; across 2 call centres and Field based consultants. I wrote this article a few years ago but never published it, but […]
Our One-on-one with the World Leading Expert on Family-owned Businesses, Don Schwerzler
Don Schwerzler is arguably the world’s leading expert on family business. In fact, he has been working and advising in this field since 1967, a track record of almost half a century. Don has been published in many leading business magazines, newspapers, and trade magazines. He is also the founder of the Family Business Institute and runs […]
Customer Service in 2015
As 2014 wound down, I took the time to pause, and look ahead to what top customer service trends will surface in 2015 and beyond. Good service — whether it’s to answer a customer’s question prior to purchase, or help a customer resolve an issue post-purchase should be pain-free, proactive at a minimum and pre-emptive […]
Ethical Leadership, Decision-making, and Organizations
Ethical decision-making and leadership are the basis of ethical organisations, corporate social responsibility, ‘Fairtrade’, sustainability, the ‘triple bottom line’, and other similar concepts This article introduces the concept and reasoning behind ethical leadership and ethical organisations. Ethical principles provide the foundations for various modern concepts for work, business and organisations, which broaden individual and corporate […]
Improve Your Website to Satisfy Customers
Company websites serve businesses in a variety of ways. To some, it’s the mecca that showcases all of your best work. To others, it’s a way to capture leads. However you categorize your company website, the fact is it projects your brand’s digital presence. It can also be a helpful tool in serving customer needs […]
The Highway of Change and a Practical Framework Approach to Change
Since Monday, 9th January 2015, my free Flevy download Practical Framework Approach to Change has been downloaded over 500 times. The document contains just a “snapshot” of my approach, rather than going into any explicit details about the tools and techniques related to each of the framework components. The level of interest shown has spurred me into writing […]
What Are Balanced Scorecards?
Balanced Scorecards tell you the knowledge, skills and systems that your employees will need (learning and growth) to innovate and build the right strategic capabilities and efficiencies (internal processes) that deliver specific value to the market (customer) which will eventually lead to higher shareholder value (financial). –– Robert Kaplan & David Norton In 1990, Art […]