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Category Archives: Functional Skills
Delegation (Outsourcing) and Keeping a Focus on Strategy and Results
Delegation and outsourcing share many management requirements. And they illustrate the overlap between the personal and organization spheres. Both benefit from a more nuanced use of the general management maxim, “Build on Your Strengths”. Both require a substantial understanding of what needs to be done, how it should be done, the results required, and the needed timelines. And, finally, both require ongoing management involvement to assure that those responsible for the tasks or functions, whether individuals or vendors, succeed. Continue reading
Podcast: Outsourcing – not a strategy that is as simple as a make or buy decision
Outsourcing is sometimes seen as a panacea, especially for startups. However, a sound knowledge of business practices is required to make outsourcing really work.
Outsourcing – not a strategy that is as simple as a make or buy decision
Outsourcing functions is a key element of every business’s strategy. Richard Mammone, Rutgers University BEST Institute, has written a brief article, “Humility and the Successful Startup: Every skill required to form a business should be judged on make-or-buy grounds. If … Continue reading
Unhappy Prospects and Customers – a gold mine
A client told me a story today that illustrates a principle that every business owner or manager needs to embrace and act on. Unhappy prospects or customers are an opportunity to display your real value and win a fan for … Continue reading
Posted in Marketing/Sales, Quality System
Tagged customers, Facebook, Fact-based, feedback, Google Alert, problems, prospects, results, social web, Twitter, Yahoo Groups
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Podcast – Three Counter-Intuitive Steps to Becoming a More Effective Manager
Be a More Effective Manager – stop answering those questions, seize your time, and it’s your fault
Posted in Change Management, Integrity, Operations, People, Podcasts, Productivity, Strength
Tagged Coaching, culture, delegation, Drucker, effective manager, employee, fear, human resources, management skills, participation, People, performance, personnel, pruning, responsibility, results, strategies, Time, time management, training
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TED Talk by Tim Brown of IDEO – Why Design Is Big Again
I have not read Tim Brown’s book Change By Design, but this TED talk strikes me as very valuable in itself. I look forward to reading the book which has just been published. The focus on involving end users, rapid … Continue reading
Three Counter-Intuitive Steps to Becoming a More Effective Manager
Become a More Effective Manager – Three Counter-Intuitive Steps In the world of planning and strategy, there is a truism that too much planning, too much detail, too much analysis, leads to inaction, to a loss of opportunity. Along the … Continue reading
Posted in Change Management, Integrity, Operations, People, Productivity, Strength
Tagged Coaching, culture, delegation, Drucker, effective manager, employee, fear, human resources, management skills, participation, People, performance, personnel, pruning, responsibility, results, strategies, Time, time management, training
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Understanding Your Customers Comes Before “The Five P’s of Social Media”
In his posting The Five P’s of Social Media–Where Do You Start? on the Fast Company site, Lon Safko writes about where to get started in social media that: “The Five P’s are; Profiles, Propagate, Produce, Participate, and Progress”. His … Continue reading
Posted in Marketing/Sales, Web/Internet
Tagged customer value, customers, FAB, features advantages benefits, Greg Jarboe, key word, low fare, Marketing/Sales, pbs newshour, Sales, seo, social web
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Learning To Be Effective – comments on Kelley’s How To Be a Star At Work
Learning to be an effective manager is almost entirely a self-guided learning enterprise. Almost no business schools even approach the topic despite the hundreds of courses they offer on almost every functional aspect of management[[1]] No Significant Differences between Stars … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Change Management, Integrity, People, Productivity, Strength
Tagged bell labs, business problems, business schools, collective efforts, effective manager, henry mintzberg, high performance organization, management, management development, performance, problem solving, problem solving skills, raw intelligence, robert e kelley, strategies
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Managing Key Personnel – Do What Is Inevitable – evasion and self-deception will not work
Recently I was speaking with the owner of a financial services firm. She has 15 people in her organization which is now almost 18 years old. By any measure a successful firm. She told me about one person who has … Continue reading