How many times have we as business leaders thought that if we can just outsmart, outmaneuver or outpace our competitors, the business would be ours for the taking?  Especially in commodity driven marketplaces where the competition is fierce and many, just to be able to separate ourselves on something other than price might make all [...]

Just read a good post from Umar Haque in the Harvard Business Review press blog: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/09/is_your_business_innovative_or.html 
He makes some good points that all business leaders should be questioning within their organizations.  Mainly, how are we viewing innovation within our areas of control?  Are we solely concerned with just bringing something new to our customers or are [...]

The following article from the Wall Street Journal does a great job in asking us to slow down the pace at which we communicate and to remember that speed is not all it’s cracked up to be.  It is important to realize that just because we live in an age where speed matters to so [...]

This is a great article for hiring managers.  Just when you think you’ve got the bases covered concerning sexual harassment, here’s a curveball you might not have expected.  There are great, common sense suggestions here to help ward off the opportunity for inappropriate behavior and to help educate those who think they’re doing no harm.  [...]

The following is a fascinating article from the New York Times summarizing an interview with John Chambers, CEO of Cisco.  I believe that all of us as business leaders can learn from our mistakes and that we have not built a great department, location, plant or company until we have faced tremendous odds and overcome [...]

This is an excellent article with very common sense steps on how to get the best information to all “stakeholders” especially during changing times like the ones we are experiencing now.  Despite our tendency to think that those closest to our frontline employees, supervisors and managers, are the best at delivering the company news, another [...]

I was reading an article recently that talked about the lack of effective communication from those in leadership roles and how it impacts their organizations.  I felt this was worth sharing.  If leaders are going to move their groups and consequently their entire organizations forward, it is essential to plan and execute good communication about [...]

How many people have you spoken with lately that say something to the effect of “When this happens then I know we’ll be back to normal.”  For those of us thinking about it carefully, there will be no back to normal.  Business as we know it is changing.  The amount of correction happening in the [...]

Recent news of higher unemployment seemed to throw water on the smoldering embers of a new fire in the economy.  Many signs are pointing towards a recovery: new housing starts, reduced inventories even a dropping in new claims for unemployment.  I suppose this is just the market’s way of keeping our exuberance in check.  After [...]

I read a great article in the recent issue of Money magazine titled “The Rise of Freelance Nation”.  The author’s premise is that in the new economy coming after our current recession, the flexibility of temporary workers, contract employees and freelancers will be what most companies and workers will be seeking.  Currently about 30% of [...]