ACHIEVEMENTS Sundt Rises on Top 400 Contractors List Tempe-based Sundt Construction, Inc. climbed 11 spots to No. 54 on Engineering News Record’s 2019 Top 400 Contractors list. ENR, the construction industry’s principal trade publication, generates its list of Top 400 Contractors based on the prior year’s construction revenue. Sundt reported $1.4 billion in construction … [More]
Arizona Companies Score on LBGTQ-Inclusive Workplace Policies
America’s leading companies and law firms are meeting strengthened criteria to meet the evolving needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community around the world, according to the 2019 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) recently released by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization. The … [More]
Ditch the Techie Jargon – Improve Your Organization’s Cybersecurity
An office memo that tosses around terms like “DRM,” “botnet,” “FTP,” “spear phishing” and “worm” could be a quick, easy read for the head of the IT department. But for everyone else in the organization, it may be one big mass of confusion. And with that bewilderment comes potential danger. There’s a serious gap in communication skills between cybersecurity pros and their … [More]
What Business Owners Should Know about Lobbying
What do you picture when you think of a lobbyist? Perhaps an older gentleman, with a slick suit, power walking down a marble hallway in Washington, D.C., flanked by a team of big-money corporate executives congratulating each other on the deal they made on the golf course? Most people have a Hollywood idea of what lobbyists do; they have no idea what the day-to-day work of a … [More]
Come Full Circle with NAWBO Phoenix
National Association of Women Business Owners represents the voice of the 12 million women business owners (WBOs) across the nation. This year, NAWBO Phoenix will focus its efforts on understanding what is impacting WBOs in the Valley to begin addressing some of the challenges and removing barriers to success. As we continue to see a rise in WBOs across the nation, there … [More]
Your Ideal Prospect/Client Needs You!
When was the last time you thought about connecting with your ideal prospect in the hopes of turning them into your ideal client: Today? Yesterday? Last week or month? Well, you are just like the rest of us. We all want to be in front of that person or business we have defined as our “Ideal Client.” Now, how do we go about doing that? Let’s just say you have a website that … [More]
Another Viewpoint about Women on Corporate Boards
Throughout my year as president of NAWBO Phoenix, the issue of legislating women on boards, as they recently did in California, has been our most talkedabout subject. We have tried to potlight different viewpoints on the subject. This time, we found someone who has actually done it, and tried to get her point of view. We reached out to Chas Roberts A/C & Plumbing CEO … [More]
You Don’t Need a Headshot
Two seconds. That’s how long a typical user will spend on your website or social media platform —unless something captures their interest. You have two seconds to make a connection. You have two seconds to tell a compelling story. What’s one thing that will hold their interest and cause them to stay for more than two seconds? Captivating visuals. So, if visuals are so … [More]
Seven Extraordinary Lessons for Accomplishing Your Dream Learned from a Nine-Year-Old and an Overboard Wish
My little one, Allie, is about to turn 10 years old. Being a social mediasavvy kid (she did grow up with a mom who worked in technology), she created a wish list on Amazon and sent me this message: “I really, really want this hoverboard. Can I get it?” “Sure,” I said. “Do you have enough money?” “I don’t have any money,” she replied. “I’m just a kid.” “You get … [More]
Top 10 Tips for Better Media Interviews
As many business owners know, publicity is a cost-effective way to get your message out to your target audiences. Publicity has an important, implied third-party endorsement/credibility. While every media interview is different, there are some basic rules you can follow in any interview situation to make your presentation most effective. Whether you are working with a reporter … [More]
Help! What Kind of Video Do I Need for My Business?
It depends on where you want to go. There are as many types of videos for business as there are cars on I-10 at rush hour. When you’re stuck in traffic, you can’t help noticing that some cars are old, some are new; some are fast, some are slow; some are sleek, some are unsightly; some are massive, some are so small they could fit inside a closet. Regardless of looks, cars are … [More]
From Labor to Human Beings, Why It Pays to Understand What Makes Your People Tick
Labor. Workers. Assets. Human resources. Human capital. Employees. Associates. Team members. These terms reflect the evolution of understanding around the resource that makes business run. For decades, the terms were one-dimensional, referring to the single aspect employers cared about: getting products made and delivered. Early management view of labor was simple: Clock in, … [More]
Building an Alliance to Help Arizona
In today’s economy, being a good corporate citizen has taken on a greater meaning than ever before. And the practice of respectable corporate citizenship has become increasingly more prevalent. Businesses understand that they can leverage what they do in order to positively impact society, and they are taking steps to activate these resources and help the communities where they … [More]
Corporate Culture & Employee Retention
Good companies invest in their employees. The reason is obvious. Happy employees tend to hang around and provide a return on that investment. But when it comes to employee retention, are companies investing in the right thing? In the Silicon Valley, the latest statistics show a new trend — one of unrest and high turnover. New employees stay on the new job between 1.8 and … [More]
Two Weeks’ Notice?
The last 20 years in the workplace have seen sweeping change: resume submission by paper in the mail to computerized applicant tracking systems, hard copy live paychecks to direct deposit, and completely cashless businesses. Longstanding practices and traditions have died out, whether as a result of being replaced by technological innovation or simply because they couldn’t keep … [More]
Feedback: September 2019
What is the single greatest advantage to being in metro Phoenix, and how are you using it to benefit your business? AMY ARMSTRONG Interim CEO Social Venture Partners Arizona Sector: Philanthropy Phoenix may be the fifth-largest city in the country, but it has a small town feel when it comes to relationships. Most people are connected by what seems like just a few … [More]
Balance Therapy: New Approach to Increase Productivity at Work
Did you know that sitting at a desk all day can actually be worse than smoking or eating donuts? Just think about how much time you spend each day in the sitting position. Don’t forget to include the time you spent commuting back and forth, the time spent at your desk, time spent sitting down for various meals, as well as any time spent watching TV or reading. Unfortunately, … [More]
Co-working Is Disrupting Office Spaces
Working from non-traditional spaces was once the realm of artists, writers and road warriors. People joked about those with computers taking up seats at coffee shops, cafes and restaurants, not seeing the larger trend coming into play. Today, it’s becoming a much different story. It is forecasted that by the year 2020, up to half the U.S. workforce could be freelancers in … [More]
