Yesterday's post, Not that I told you so - redux, discussed the latest unemployment figures and the lamentable job done by the Obama Administration in stimulating the economy. I only mentioned in passing the so-called "shadow unemployment" which considers part-time...
Read More
Not that I told you so … redux!
Remember this line? "There is strong and mounting evidence that the recovery act is putting people back to work," a statement Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. made at a recent news conference in Washington.In a recent post, Not that...
Read More
Close Encounters of the Third Degree
In an interesting article, The Martial Art of Difficult Conversations, Peter Bregman of the management consulting firm, Bregman Partners, reflects on a few tips to diffuse difficult conversations that are reminiscent of the "close encounters of the third degree" exhibited...
Read More
Leading by Listening? What a concept!
... and, of course, who better to embody this powerful attribute than an orchestra conductor?Imagine listening like a conductor, appreciating every note and intonation ... recognizing that the bass section is too loud or the percussion section is interrupting the...
Read More
Give your employees $2,000 to spend!
What would happen if we gave each of our employees up to $2,000 to invest in a customer's experience on any particular occasion ... not an annual stipend ... but for any given situation?Most of us are aware of the...
Read More
New credit squeeze coming for small business?
You'll recall my recent post about the anticipated changes and expansion of small business lending. Now it's possible that two of the stimulus programs may expire ... BEFORE any new ones take their place. This includes the most popular provisions...
Read More
Strategy is what you choose NOT to do!
By now, you know that the Sunday NY Times Corner Office series is oft-quoted here to highlight varying aspects of leadership that flow from Adam Bryant's conversations with notable CEOs and business leaders. This week he interviewed Drew Gilpin Faust,...
Read More
Vol 52 – Building a Business: Health Costs
The North Bay Business Journal, a publication of the New York Times, is a weekly business newspaper which covers the North Bay area of San Francisco - from the Golden Gate bridge north, including the Wine Country of Sonoma and...
Read More
Alignment is the essence of management
... or so says Fred Smith, Chairman and Founder of Federal Express. By any other name, there is no substitute for making sure that everyone on your team is "aligned" ... with the goals of the organization, its vision and...
Read More
Update: Small Business Stimulus
The other day we learned of renewed efforts promised by the Obama Administration to stimulate small business.This week, they announced some plans to sweeten guaranteed loan programs. The administration is allowing a few weeks for comments before finalizing these details.The...
Read More
Incentives Rule! The freaks are back in SuperFreakonomics.
Many of you reading these pages have heard my refrain that "Incentives are the cornerstone of life", a mantra preached by Steven Levitt & Co. in their landmark book, Freakonomics. Their blog calls it "the hidden side of everything." Welcome...
Read More
Answers are good. Questions are better!
I regularly read the Corner Office column in Sunday's NY Times because the CEOs being interviewed invariably identify important leadership components that are valuable reminders of issues often overlooked. In his recent interview, Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, reminds us...
Read More
It’s about time!
Tomorrow, the Obama Administration is scheduled to announce new initiatives to spur small business lending. Among the initiatives are increasing limits for SBA loan and make it easier for smaller banks to access TARP money. As we know, the SBA...
Read More
Vol. 51 – Never Give Up! Never, Never, Never!
At first, I figured it was too late to talk about surviving the economic storm we're in ... and then, I thought, hey, this isn't over. What does this recession really look like? Maybe the sense of impending doom has...
Read More
CEOs: Be a General … and a Scout
I have mentioned on many occasions the Corner Office series in the Sunday NY Times which features an interview by Adam Bryant with a prominent CEO. The questions are consistent but invariably reveal an important reminder of key elements of...
Read More
Try me now – hire me later!
I have always advocated the "try 'em to see if you like 'em" theory of hiring whenever you can pull it off. Business Week has written this week about Test Drives in the C-Suite, which suggests a growing trend toward a...
Read More
You don’t have enough time NOT to plan for 2010!
I saw this recent article which is a unique take on explaining the value of business plans. While I firmly believe that an unwritten plan is mostly a morass of untested ideas and random thoughts, following a methodical approach to...
Read More
Death … Taxes … AND Succession Planning!
The sudden resignation of Ken Lewis from Bank of America highlights, yet again, the risks that family and other businesses take in failing to prepare for the inevitable succession of leadership. A succession plan doesn't mean you have all the...
Read More
Jobs Credit: White Elephant? Red Herring?
How do you create jobs? Finally, this question is finally getting some attention in Washington ... sadly, it took increasing painful unemployment reports to get this front and center ... but from the ground floor where we live, I don't...
Read More
Job Creation? Not that I told you so … just saying ….
Sorry, folks, but I do not see any meaningful evidence of a stimulus package, that vaunted $700B jump-start to the economy. I deplored it back then ... I think "mud sandwich" was the term I used. Some of us pointed...
Read More
Get Things Done – SIMPLY
Finding ways to get things done more simply is an elusive target for most of us. Forbes magazine recently carried an article in which Ron Ahskenas, a managing partner at Robert H. Schaffer & Associates, a Stamford, Ct. management consulting...
Read More
I don’t buy a dog and bark for it
The NY Times runs a weekly column entitled the Corner Office, that discusses leadership lessons from CEO's across a broad spectrum of companies. These interviews usually recall important tenets of successful leadership and serve as a valuable reminder about important...
Read More
There’s a lot of power in a blank sheet of paper
Most of the time when we sit down to work, even in our favorite chair, we have a stack of papers or files, maybe a list of some kind, and proceed to "work" as we've always defined it ... plow...
Read More
Vol. 50- Why punt? Go for it on 4th Down!
The North Bay Business Journal, a publication of the New York Times, is a weekly business newspaper which covers the North Bay area of San Francisco - from the Golden Gate bridge north, including the Wine Country of Sonoma and...
Read More
Where’s the revenue? What Stimulus?
Finally, a few observers are beginning to get it ... that increased reported profits are the result of cost reduction but mask the continuing decline in revenue, which is critical to job creation. Almost 75% of S&P companies have reported...
Read More
CEO Round Table – Q309 Update
During the last several meetings of the CEO Round Table, we've invested a lot of time with leading experts to discuss "Talent Management" issues. Experienced CEO's understand that building a high performance company centers around the recruiting, retention and performance...
Read More
SBA Loan Program disappoints again
Despite all the recent publicity about the SBA's "helping hand" to small business, recent reports tell another story. Loan volume in dollars is down $3.6 billion, around 27%, and 25,000 fewer businesses have been served this year. Pretty woeful record...
Read More