Tag Archives: entrepreneurship

It’s a crisis…uh, no it’s not. Wait…

The Washington Post today announced that the UN’s World Health Organization has upgraded the H1N1 flu virus to a Category 6 Pandemic. It is worldwide, and appears to be gearing up for the Southern Hemisphere’s winter season. For those who … Continue Reading

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Happy (tweet) Fathers’ Day (from your child via FaceBook)

My wife was working on the vacuum cleaner today. Despite my intention to be a lazy slob all day, I decided to pitch in. A short diagnosis let me do a temporary repair, and sent me to the Internet to … Continue Reading

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Key Performance Indicators

I developed this piece for my peer group clients in The Alternative Board® A number of them have said it’s greatly clarified their understanding of what Key Performance Indicators were, and how to approach them. So I share it here… … Continue Reading

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Is It Time for Courage?

A friend of mine occasionally shares his copy of EcoTrends®. This research newsletter tracks 41 different economic indicators. Since I’m not actually a subscriber, I refer you to their site if you’re interested in the details of their analysis. The … Continue Reading

Posted in Business Perspectives, Economic Trends, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Politics and Regulation, Strategy and Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is Less Bad Good?

The government is proclaiming the beginning of the beginning of the end. “Only” 540,000 new people lost their jobs last month, instead of 620,000. The somewhat panicky tone that has characterised these communiques continues. A one month drop, especially following … Continue Reading

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All for one…one for all

The individual incentive, whether monetary or non-monetary, seems logical. It fits best with sales people, who are the most familiar examples when we think of employee incentives. What kind of people would work harder for a group incentive? Actually, there … Continue Reading

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All for one…me

Continuing the discussion on employee incentives. We have four possible combinations for incentives, monetary/group, monetary/individual, non-monetary/group and non-monetary/individual. How can we determine which incentives will work best? Sometimes the answer is trial and error. There are many good reasons to … Continue Reading

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All for One…

Most small business owners approach employee incentives with mixed emotions.They want to provide some system that creates a sense of urgency and responsibility in their employees, but they don’t want to give up too much of an already thin bottom … Continue Reading

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It’s Not Adoption

I spent some time this week with a client who was implementing his first-ever layoff. He has been in business for over 17 years, and has become very close with many of his employees. Some were friends before they were … Continue Reading

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Incentives, John's Opinions, Leadership, Managing Employees | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tweens

A client asked me last week “Do you think that companies have a size at which they are particularly difficult to manage?” Great question, and I think the answer is probably “yes.” In the beginning, the solo entrepreneur (you) has … Continue Reading

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Your Official Inflation Notice

A number of my clients have not yet reacted to the crashing of the financial world around them. They are not idiots, but San Antonio remains relatively healthy, and almost 2/3 of the companies we currently work with (about 104 … Continue Reading

Posted in Business Perspectives, Economic Trends, John's Opinions, Strategy and Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Double Bubble

After three positive days in the stock market, it is tempting to breathe a sigh of relief and forget the doom and gloom reports. There are still dynamics, however, that will take a while to work through the system. Take … Continue Reading

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