Business Concern

Think back to the last stupid thing someone told you to do. Your first thought: does the person have the right to tell you to do this stupid thing. If the answer is yes, then the thought is: how can I get around the stupidity. If the people who report to you have no respect for your decisions (they think you are telling them to do stupid things), then they will look for ways around what they perce...

A good decision is a decision that yields beneficial results. In a small to medium sized business (SMB) beneficial results are profits. The policy-making group of an SMB making consistently good decisions is likely to experience business success in the form of making a better profit. If you agree with this statement, then the question becomes: How does a SMB make consistently good business decisio...

" If it is not written down, it is not a plan." I would like to attribute that quote to someone, but after a reasonable Google search, I cannot. Nonetheless, I have heard the phrase and repeated it many times. The phrase makes sense for two basic reasons. First, writing something down is a fundamental way to rethink and confirm a thought process and decision. Second, it is difficult to communicate...

Live your dreams. That sounds very good. But does that concept sustain a life? Dreams rarely come true, and there is frustration about not realizing a dream. Thinking about values, even values derived from dreams, can deal with the frustration of not realizing a dream. Think about dreams and contrast that with the concept of values. This thinking can lead to understanding how goals based on values...

Generally speaking there is a type of employee that many business owners do not want in their business. This type of employee, whom I shall call a tiger, is one that may be described as aggressive, overreaching, obnoxious, opinionated, difficult, and narcissistic. I am going to argue that while business owners often find reasons to part ways with this type of employee over time, there are very goo...

Change is tough enough. No one likes it. The tendency is to deny the reasons for change exist and then procrastinate taking action . S ometimes, in a crisis, we have to change immediately . In a crisis, t hings are not just different, they have to turn around. Businesses from time to time have to deal with this type of required, rapid change. What has to be executed is called the "pivot."

Recent events of cybersecurity breaches and losses have led to the development of cybersecurity insurance - an insurance product designed to protect against losses related to computer or network incidents. For a small to middle sized business ("SMB") with less than 100 employees, does a cybersecurity insurance policy make sense?

Businesses with less than 1,000 employees (sometimes referred to as small or medium businesses or "SMBs") are becoming concerned about cybersecurity. Not only is there an increasing amount of cybersecurity threats, but government regulations requ

It is human nature to like those who agree with us; it is also human nature to dislike those who do not agree with us. Call it arrogance or pride, we all know the emotional reaction. Those business owners who can get past this emotional reaction and evaluate the differing opinions they encounter, often find their perception of reality altered and the decisions they make becoming better. This trait...

How optimistic should a business plan be? When a business starts, the thinking is about success and the plan will be optimistic. This is appropriate, but there is an issue of credibility linked to the degree of optimism. For the realistic long-term (3-5 years) and the realistic short-term (6 months to 1 year), the plan goals should be reasonably achievable for the plan to be credible. As a busines...

One way to represent the difference between traditional planning and dynamic planning is through a Venn diagram. The Venn diagram for dynamic planning with concentric circles shows the communication of all of the items of the planning set to all business groups.

A reliable way to accomplish business success is to implement and operate a planning process. Many business owners do implement a planning process and begin to use it, but fail to realize the benefits because the process is intermittent. Then, once the process is perceived as ineffectual, it is abandoned. It is not enough to implement a planning process, that process must be a constant process.

Questions initiate, form, and shape conversations. Conversations are the means by which owners articulate values to one another. Without these conversations, without an accurate perception of the other owners values, we have less information to understand the future actions of those who will influence the future conduct of our life.

While successful businesses usually have a decision-making process that produces quality decisions, that process can falter, and often it is because too much time has been taken to make a decision. The process of decision-making should be a structure of business procedure, but the time spent in the process for any given decision should be based on the specific decision to be made. This determinati...

What makes planning a consistent part of the business operation is timing. If creating a plan takes a retreat, facilitation, enough writing to fill a three-ring notebook, and space on the shelf for the notebook, then planning typically remains a separate activity not involved in the essential conduct of the business. Planning is most effective when it is dynamic – where changes made to the plan ar...

Let's be honest – no one is really in control. Life is a series of unexpected events that leave all of us disoriented at one time or another. While some events are foreseeable, the timing of those events or the probability of those events and the occurrence of unforeseen events is difficult if not impossible to forecast. Epictetus, the Greek philosopher, taught that events of life are beyond our c...

Let's be honest – no one is really in control. Life is a series of unexpected events that leave all of us disoriented at one time or another. While some events are foreseeable, the timing of those events or the probability of those events and the occurrence of unforeseen events is difficult if not impossible to forecast. Epictetus, the Greek philosopher, taught that events of life are beyond our c...

After dinner my wife offers a thin mint from a Girl Scout Cookie package. I notice the side panel of the package stating the five essential skills learned by girls in "the largest girl-led entrepreneurial program in the world." I read the skills, impressed that indeed these are the essential entrepreneurial skills, but also thinking that the succinct list obscures the complexity involved with mast...

Businesses that make better decisions have better results. Better decisions depend on an accurate perception of reality. For the policymaker of a business there is no more important skill than perceiving reality. It is a surprisingly complex capability.

I have been involved with several businesses where I was told the owners "don't speak to one another." In all of these businesses, the businesses were profitable; yet those in the business felt the peril of the situation. In the event the owners would need to determine policy together, there was serious doubt as to the ability of the owners to share ideas and make decisions, especially if time wou...

For the perplexed business owner, the metaphor of being lost is a good one. To examine this problem let us ask: "What does a hiker do to avoid becoming lost?"   There are reliable ways not to get lost. The hiker without a GPS but having a map and a compass before starting out can identify the starting location on the map. Also, the hiker will have a destination identified on the map. Then the hike...

" I would rather be lucky than good." I can no longer even smile at that throwaway phrase I hear way too often. The problem is that it is impossible to be consistently lucky. You might have been lucky with early business success, but that success will fade with bad decisions. Consistent business success requires consistent good decision-making. It takes work, attention, and focus to make good deci...

" I would rather be lucky than good." I can no longer even smile at that throwaway phrase I hear way too often. The problem is that it is impossible to be consistently lucky. You might have been lucky with early business success, but that success will fade with bad decisions. Consistent business success requires consistent good decision-making. It takes work, attention, and focus to make good deci...

So why should people in business plan? Because it helps you make better decisions. Planning is decision-making in a structured procedure. If you do not understand how planning can help you make good decisions, then you will not prioritize planning in your schedule. Once you see that planning will help you make better decisions and thereby experience better business results, you will prioritize tim...

The critical mass in the planning sequence (values, goals, action, and revision) is taking action. How often is this part of the sequence thwarted? As we know from experience, rarely do things go as planned. Yet this phase of the planning sequence is where the plan proves successful or requires revision. Something unexpected happens. The communication is flawed and the execution of the action is w...