Business Strategy

18 Dec, 2013

A Result to Remember: It’s Not the Product. It’s the People.

By |2016-10-29T15:29:37+00:00December 18th, 2013|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

Delivering customer service – at least the way it is practiced in most companies – is easy. The customer asks you for something, and you give it to them. Building a culture that is obsessed with serving customers is hard. Carl Sewell’s family of auto dealerships is at or near the top for sales and service with the brands they represent for one simple reason: They are the best at sustaining a culture that serves customers.

27 Nov, 2013

The Missing Measure that Drives Culture Change

By |2016-10-29T15:29:38+00:00November 27th, 2013|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

Culture change follows behavior and performance change not the other way around. If you buy into that premise, the behavior and performance you expect, enable, measure, reward, and hold people accountable for will become the habits that define the culture. The best organizations have clarity, alignment, and execution across each of these areas. And that leads to the question of “how do you know a change is taking place?”

14 Oct, 2013

Three Lessons About Leading Change from the Debt Ceiling Chaos

By |2016-10-29T15:29:38+00:00October 14th, 2013|Accountability, Business Strategy, Communication, Corporate Culture, Government & Politics, Integrity & Ethics, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

There has to be something we can learn from Washington’s failure to address the debt limit, right? There are three very important lessons about leading change you can take from the chaos over approving the federal budget and raising the debt ceiling.

24 Aug, 2013

Another Book About Change?

By |2016-10-29T15:29:40+00:00August 24th, 2013|Book Reviews, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Communication, Corporate Culture, Innovation, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

Why did you write a book about change? The host of a recent radio interview was being polite and, I suspect, genuinely interested. But the question is an important one—a quick search on Amazon.com found over 150,000 book titles that have something to do with change. Let’s assume that some of those titles are duplicates for hardcover, paperback, Kindle, etc. That still leaves thousands of books written on the subject. Aren’t those enough? The short answer is, “No.”

13 Aug, 2013

Connect with People Where They Are

By |2016-10-29T15:29:40+00:00August 13th, 2013|Business Growth, Business Strategy, Communication, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

Scott Keller and Carolyn Aiken, consultants at McKinsey & Company, suggest that 80 percent of what leaders care about and talk about when trying to enlist support for change does not matter to 80 percent of the workforce. To gain the commitment for the change that you want, you must connect with people where they are. You do that by making the change relevant and real.

4 Aug, 2013

The Problem and Opportunity with Change

By |2016-10-29T15:29:40+00:00August 4th, 2013|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Innovation, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

Another blog post about change? Really? The last three I posted aren't enough? How about the thousands of other books, blogs, and articles on the subject? I am with you. I don’t need to hear another message that changes are coming and I need to get on board. And yet, we are confronted with this reality: Most of our efforts to make change work don’t work as well as we had hoped … or even at all.

23 Jul, 2013

The New Normal Has Happened Before

By |2016-10-29T15:29:41+00:00July 23rd, 2013|Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

“When will things get back to normal?” That question has been asked countless times since the economic meltdown of 2008. Most people want to know when the job market will bounce back; the economy will return to something close to sustained growth; uncertainty will subside; or the rate of change will slow to a more manageable pace. But, what if this is it? What if instability, rapid change, and uncertainty are the new normal? And, what if I’m wrong and things bounce back quickly? If you can succeed now, you will crush it then.

27 May, 2013

Past Success Proves You Were Right … Once

By |2016-10-29T15:29:43+00:00May 27th, 2013|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Innovation, Leadership, Results|

You own your logo and marketing message. Your customers own your brand relevance in the marketplace. And when your customers say you are irrelevant, no amount of advertising, positive press, or sales promotions will convince them otherwise. Two iconic American brands are proving that every day.

8 Apr, 2013

Opportunity Lost

By |2016-10-29T15:29:44+00:00April 8th, 2013|Business Strategy, Leadership, Results|

In its “Economic Prospects for the Year 2000,” the writers at Business Week saw a glass half-empty and chose to see it as mostly full. The world painted in its 1989 article would have been a great place. The vision that they created was completely possible. We missed the opportunity. We lacked the rigor in our thinking and failed to consider all the possible implications of our choices. We lacked the discipline to execute toward the vision. And, we lacked the courage to confront reality and put long-term success ahead of short-term reward.

31 Dec, 2012

Connected, Aware, and Relevant

By |2016-10-29T15:29:46+00:00December 31st, 2012|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Communication, Leadership, Results|

My December 31, 2012 social media post drew a lot of likes and one great question. Here is the post: We shouldn’t fear getting old. We should fear becoming disconnected, unaware, and irrelevant. The response from friends, fans, and followers was great because of the age span represented. I heard from people in their twenties and people in their sixties. Here’s the great question I received: How do you change your mindset to keep from becoming disconnected, unaware, and irrelevant?

Go to Top