Management Articles

The 1980's business culture in the USA and internationally put a considerable emphasis on personal reward on the basis that highly motivated individuals could transform organisations and societies. The extreme example in film was Gordon Gekko in Wall Street stating that greed was good. The 90's, however, have seen companies traumatised and bankrupted by the inappropriate use of remuneration as a motivator. Yet major corporate successes have been built on reward based remunera...

The demand for leadership talent greatly exceeds supply. If economic growth continues at a modest 2 percent for the next 15 years, there would be a need for one-third more senior leaders than there are today. Who will replace your retiring executives, and how will you keep your company's leadership pipeline full? The demand for leadership talent greatly exceeds supply. If economic growth continues at a modest 2 percent for the next 15 years, there would be a need for one-t...

As part of my continuing series on Value and Pricing, the following article shows you how to position your company's value contribution to support the highest value-for-value exchange. Too many business owners, when asked about the value or ROI of their product or service, shrug their shoulders and say, "I can't really put a value on it." If you can't put a value on it, think how hard it is for your prospects and customers! And if they can't put a value on it, how likely i...

Last week, one of my clients—we'll call him Rick—had a demo scheduled with a prospect. The standard "show up and throw up" they typically did early in the sales cycle. Trying to shorten the sales cycle, I asked naively, "Why does the customer want to buy? What are they trying to accomplish?" Rick couldn't tell me. I asked if he thought the salespeople knew. He said no. I gave him an assignment: he had to find out "Why," "Why now," and "What's it worth." Otherwise no demo. ...

Last month, I wrote about positioning your company to attract and keep top performers. One very effective way to do both is to compensate your key employees with equity. Performance pay has become a critical factor in keeping top talent; combine it with a sense of ownership and a stake in the future of the business, and you've got a powerful set of incentives. That is what equity does. The basic theory behind equity compensation is simple: generously pay your people in ...

"The world we've made, as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far, creates problems we cannot solve at the same level of thinking" - Albert Einstein Runaway success is never based on incremental improvement. I know this is a very bold statement, but bold statements and even bolder results are what breakthroughs are all about. What about in your company - what would constitute a breakthrough? Would you like to increase overall productivity by 40%? Of course ...

First decide what you really want to do. What would make work worth working at and life worth living. Then figure out how to do it. Most people look to what they know they CAN do as a guide to what they WILL do; I think to get anything important done in the world, you have to look towards what you WANT to do, and then figure out how to do it. When most people think about what they are committed to, they consider where they can build a bridge to from where they already ...

1. If you operate an office that receives visiting clients you probably have a reception area. Such an area can be used to great advantage. While your client is waiting to see you why not give them the opportunity to learn about you and the company? Large photographs of the factory or the products / services you provide help to make it clear what your company does or stands for. It also gives an insight into areas your visitor may not be able to access under normal circumstan...

Successful hiring, in any company, is one of the most difficult tasks in which to achieve repeatable success. From unexpected outbursts to terminal tardiness to woeful incompetence, every company has a hiring horror story regarding employees who interviewed strong but performed poorly. Perhaps a subtle, but more dangerous occurrence is the all-too-common hire who performs their job in the gray twilight of mediocrity. They never rise to the occasion and they never catastro...

* How often should recognition awards be given to employees? It actually depends upon the employer or the company itself. The maximum frequency of awarding is monthly, but some companies reward weekly. Some companies like pharmaceutical companies usually give awarding ceremonies every six months, depending on the performances of their agents. They usually give incentives or even cars to the agents who have reached the quota of sales. * Is it better to give an employ...