The recent visit to Phoenix by the Chinese Association of Auctioneers presages business opportunity for local businesses. Selling through auction “allows manufacturers to introduce their product to a market without the huge expense of marketing,” says Deb Weidenhamer, whose iPai is the first wholly foreign-owned auction house in China and whose Auctioneers & Appraisers … [More]
New Rules Allow Advertising for Investors
Small businesses and start-ups have greater leeway in advertising for investors with the recent passage of a revision to the JOBS Act of 2012, regarding Securities and Exchange Commission rules, that enables small companies to publicly announce efforts to raise money. Regulation previously in effect dated from 1933, long before social media became a staple in communication, and … [More]
Spot Business Opportunity in Tomorrow’s Economy
Some of today’s largest, most recognizable companies may not be around after the next several years. To succeed, company leaders must not only be able to innovate, they must recognize opportunity and ensure they’re poised to seize it. Napster’s impact on the music industry is an example of the need to be alert to opportunities in innovation. Napster was a rule-breaking company … [More]
Change in Business: Threat or Opportunity?
Waves of change roll through the information technology sector roughly every fifteen years or so; for sectors outside IT, the waves may come less frequently but no less destructively. The IT experience can be viewed as a wind tunnel through which other businesses can pretest their survivability. The experiences in the following IT examples can be applied to businesses across … [More]
Global Tilt
Ram Charan has spent more time than anyone else on the ground observing and analyzing the tilt, or the power shift, of the global economy. Here, he gives business leaders the tools to detect trends that cut across not just industries but also countries, rethink the economic and business principles they rely on, and adapt to the speed of innovation and unprecedented needs of the … [More]
Global Dexterity
Being a global worker and a true “citizen of the world” today goes beyond merely acknowledging cultural differences. It means being able to adapt one’s behavior to conform to new cultural contexts without losing one’s authentic self in the process. Not only is this difficult, it’s a frightening prospect for most people and something completely outside their comfort zone. But … [More]
China’s Silent Army
This is the first book to examine the unprecedented growth of China’s economic investment in the developing world, its impact at the local level, and a rare hands-on picture of the role of ordinary Chinese in the juggernaut that is China, Inc. Beijing-based journalists Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Araújo crisscrossed the globe from 2009 to 2011 to investigate how the … [More]
Entrepreneurial Truths Give Boost to Business
"Doomed from the start." Entrepreneurs and entrepreneur-hopefuls may find it difficult to keep those four words from causing them to second guess their every move as they plan and run their business — especially considering that fewer than 30 percent of businesses last more than 10 years and most failures happen within the first few years of operation. The truth is, many things … [More]
Find That Unique Niche in the Marketplace
It is no secret that competition today has become increasingly intense. In fact, in today’s highly competitive marketplace, the competition is so deadly fierce that the best and the brightest don’t always succeed. Sometimes the best and brightest are annihilated by the competitors in the industry. In situations from starting a business or building a brand to trying to get … [More]
The Customer Rules: The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Service
The former EVP of Walt Disney World shares indispensible rules for serving customers with consistency, efficiency, creativity, sincerity and excellence. Lee Cockerell knows that success in business — any business — depends upon winning and keeping customers. In 39 digestible, bite-sized chapters, Cockerell shares everything he has learned in his more than 40-year career in the … [More]
