Mary Marshall To have a strategy is one thing, to do something with it is something entirely different. My Emerging Leaders Class at the Small Business Administration just completed their 7 month course for entrepreneurs and I’m happy to say all 16 participants graduated with an executable … Read more
One can’t help but read the headlines today and get a little depressed by all the fear that is being put out there. Whether it’s stories about Ebola, ISIS, elections, global warming or just about anything else that someone has an opinion on fear mongering … Read more
“Faced with a choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, most everybody gets busy on the proof.” -John Kenneth Galbraith I love this quote, because it’s spot on. We would rather spend hours defending our position than entertain … Read more
Compromise as a noun is described as an “agreement or a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions – an ability to listen to two sides in a dispute, and devise a compromise acceptable to both.” As a verb it … Read more
In our quest to find the key to building great companies we look for the easiest and fastest solutions. The “solution du jour” seems to be CEOs trying to make employees happy by providing all sorts of perks. The not so surprising result is that … Read more
One of my clients has been struggling with the dashboard question for a while. What to track? What makes a difference? In addition, he had a couple of partners whose interest in the “numbers” was less than enthusiastic and they simply wanted to get the … Read more
I get asked this question all the time, “what should my dashboard look like?” The answer is, it depends. Most dashboards should have the basic financial key indicators for your business, revenue, gross profit and net profit but those seldom tell the whole story. What … Read more
As I was preparing a talk for the Washington State Biz Fair this Saturday, I realized that the idea of networking can be intimidating to a lot of people. When the topic of networking comes up generally there are long sighs. It can be people’s … Read more
There was an interesting section in the Wall Street Journal this weekend about the Top Employers in the US. The section was paid advertising, so I don’t give the rankings much credence as it’s one of those pay to play “awards.” However, there was a … Read more
As we get back to work after the long Labor Day weekend, and a glorious summer, (at least here in Seattle), I got to thinking about why we don’t always see what’s right in front of us. I had two similar conversations with clients this … Read more