Category Archives: Strategy/Planning

Seven Reasons to Add a CFO – part-time or full – to Your Team

Many small businesses operate with only a bookkeeper and CPA to manage the finances. The owner or GM fills in, or at least think that they fill in,  for all of the duties of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO). As … Continue reading

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Podcast – “Price is only an issue in the absence of value”

Learn where value really comes from and how to leverage total value.

This podcast is 7 minutes 21 seconds long

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“Price is only an issue in the absence of value”

At a recent business meeting, Stephen Giulietti (VP Wealth Management at Smith Barney, Boston),  dropped this business aphorism in the midst of a story, “Price is only an issue in the absence of value.” This pithy little sentence reminded me … Continue reading

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Podcast – Hiding Innovations from Customers

“Push here to lock end” – are you hiding innovations from customers?

This podcast is 3 minutes 51 seconds long. The text is available here.

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Hiding Innovations from Customers

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I learned something quite startling. The age-old problem of rolls of aluminum foil, plastic wrap, and other rolled goods jumping out of the box when you are dispensing them was actually solved years ago by a … Continue reading

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Podcast – Why and How to Develop a Business Plan for an Ongoing Firm

Why you need a business plan and how to develop one that leads to action not the dust bin.

This podcast is 13 minutes 10 seconds long. A transcript of the podcast is available in PDF download format here.

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“Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”

In today’s New York Times Warren Buffett writes about why he is buying American equities. He includes the following epigram: “A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” Here … Continue reading

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Book Review: Outside Innovation by Patricia Seybold

May 5th, 2008 The transformation of “customer driven”, “customer-centered”, “customer-defined” from just empty buzzwords in the latest management books to central values, key strategic skills is continuing. Patricia Seybold’s 2006 book Outside Innovation: How Your Customers Will Co-Design Your Company’s … Continue reading

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Getting the Right Things Done – the manager’s focus

Peter Drucker wrote a charming little book in 1967, The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting Things Done. I have now read it numerous times and each revisit rewards me. Just this morning I was speaking with a manager … Continue reading

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Customer-Centered Business – Peter Drucker and Web Marketing

Drucker Recently I have been returning to Peter Drucker‘s work, specifically The Practice of Management (originally published in 1954, the current edition is HarperBusiness, 1993). On page 50, Drucker says the following: “What is our business is not determined by the … Continue reading

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