All Posts

Social and sentiment analysis can also play into that from a demand signal management perspective. Social plug-ins can see the sentiment analysis on brands, platform, and customer preferences. So what does this mean having a true voice of the customer in the wake of a horrific supplier event?[read more]

Is customer or employee loyalty lagging at your business these days? Even under the best circumstances it can happen if you take your eye off the ball for even a short while. With so many things to focus on, many business owners sometimes lose sight of just how important customer as well as employee loyalty can be.[read more]

amazing/shutterstock

If you set your bar at "amazing," it's awfully difficult to start. Your first paragraph, sketch, formula, sample or concept isn't going to be amazing. Your tenth one might not be either.[read more]

Studies show that on average a self-employed person works 4.4 more hours per week than an average employee at a company, and they are also more likely to report higher levels of stress than a typical person who is employed by someone else. And yet they tend to be happier. Why?[read more]

The announcements that Google and Lockheed Martin have purchased quantum computers has led to a lot of recent coverage on the topic. Quantum computers are very, very fast. Instead of using the traditional approach of a string of 1's and 0's that are either turned on or off, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits.[read more]

What are the top drivers of employee engagement? Find out what works to get your employees fully involved in helping your organization win. According to a survey, 54% said their company did not have an explicit employee engagement program. Thirty-eight percent said they did have such programs. The remaining 7% did not know.[read more]

I am excited about the combination with Yahoo. When Marissa took over Yahoo, I expected that acquisitions would play a role in her transformation of the company. At the time I wrote that the ideal target would be “startups that have very talented people and also interesting products but could benefit from the scale of Yahoo.”[read more]

It’s not your job to defend your team. It’s your job to improve your team. Upon reflection, all of the great CEOs and executives that I’ve ever worked with believe this and behave this way.[read more]

Well known author and academic Richard Florida has written extensively about the rise of the creative class. According to his work, the creative class - a grouping of knowledge-based professions - has rapidly increased its share of total employment over the last 2 decades and now comprises about one third of all U.S. jobs.[read more]

Today’s business activities are increasingly more team-based and more reliant on people working together toward a goal – one person’s output is dependent on another’s and so on. No man/woman is an island any more. Therefore, it is more important than ever that our employees have the skills and temperament to work together effectively.[read more]

innovation/shutterstock

If innovation seems like some mystifying, unfathomable task, these “Playing With Your Brain” exercises can take much of the mystery out of the process.[read more]

The art of persuasion is actually a science and anybody can be successful in convincing others to do something as long as they use the right techniques.When someone does something or gives something to that person, then it is natural that the person feels obliged to return the favour. In business, it is the same.[read more]

miscommunication/shutterstock

The challenge of communication isn't to never miscommunicate, it's to cut down the time between the interaction and the realization that the communication didn't get through. Because the sooner we know we're not connecting, the sooner we can fix it.[read more]

We’ve all heard about putting lipstick on a pig – trying to make something pretty by just adding some surface enhancements. Too often employee programs fall into this category. Companies read about zappos (everybody drink!) or the new engagement wunderkind – google, and their “fact-based approach” to engagement – and say “Bring me one of those.”[read more]

challenges/shutterstock

Even though small businesses collectively generate $5 trillion in sales in the U.S., the biggest challenge of an individual small business is survival. 80% of all new business start-ups are out of business within five years. And if that doesn’t get your attention, 80% of the 20% that survive the first five years don’t survive the second five![read more]

small business/shutterstock

Given the fact that small business employs over half of the private sector and contributes to half of the private GDP, a pessimistic small business community is not good for our economy. However, another survey claims that not everyone is pessimistic.[read more]

manifesto/shutterstock

Harvest ideas. Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.[read more]

Much has been said in marketing circles about target markets, demographics, psychographics and other ways to define who and what makes an ideal customer. The notion mostly implies that you determine the makeup of a market that your business seems suited to attract. The thing that’s always bothered me about this simple approach is that it sort of has a lowest common denominator element to it – who can we attract?[read more]

Self-employment increases with age, peaking with over a quarter of workforce participants 65 and older being self-employed. This works out to about 1.9 million 65+ self-employed workforce participants.[read more]

Let’s face it, sales is not an easy profession. If it was, there would be more people doing it and those that do it would be getting paid far less. However, there are ways that you can make sales easier. One of the best ways is through lead nurturing.[read more]

The Fed will continue monitoring inflation, but does not expect inflation to rise more than 0.50 percent above its target rate of 2.00 percent over the next one to two years.[read more]

Lots of people talk about business models these days, but what does it really mean? When it comes to starting or planning for business success your model is essentially your decision about how you intend to add value – which is another way of saying – how you intend to make money.[read more]

Earlier this year, AP reported “Some occupations are beneficiaries of the march of technology, such as software engineers and app designers for smartphones and tablet computers. Overall, though, technology is eliminating far more jobs than it is creating.”[read more]

Image credit: Complaint Department – Please Take a Number by Niven

Even the most zealous advocate of superior customer service will surely agree there is a limit to how far we should be expected to go with the old “customer is always right” principle. Because, objectively speaking, sometimes customers can be quite unreasonably demanding, or just plain rude. But it’s not good business to allow our initial or even abiding sense of annoyance or indignation to waste what is paradoxically a gift to our business by passing up the learning opportunity.[read more]

Jeff Cornwall interviews venture capitalist Vic Gatto. Gatto co-founded InfoTech, a software company in Boston, which grew from three to over 250 employees when sold in 1999.[read more]

A lot of discussion on engagement has focused on providing new and quirky benefits – foosball tables, unlimited vacation, and gourmet food in the cafeteria. Those are all great things. But in my mind, they are the “benefits” of working at a particular company.[read more]

If we're in a position to initiate something new or different, the time we've invested building solid relationships can determine our ability to gain support and moment. The leader who spends time playing corporate video poker may revel in his individual genius, but lacks the relational chips needed to convert that genius into action.[read more]

We face a future that will be defined by the end of work - it can become a golden age or one of horrific consequences. Horrific because we have no means of dealing with this type of future. We have nothing that has prepared us for it. We only know how to punish and ridicule those that don't work. But what if there is no need to work?[read more]

underground economy/shutterstock

Last year we suggested growth in the underground economy is likely a key reasons workforce participation has fallen so much in the U.S. Others are starting to also suggest this. Noted author James Surowiecki's New Yorker article The Underground Recovery points out: "Ordinary Americans have gone underground, and, as the recovery continues to limp along, they seem to be doing it more and more."[read more]

team/shutterstock

The point of the event or meeting is to educate and enthuse, to encourage growth and camaraderie and “team build." So what are you going to do to get everyone’s attention and get them working together? Introducing periodic elements of fun that still serve a purpose will go a long way, but you should set the tone from the beginning.[read more]