With so many different types of business contracts and so much to understand about negotiations, disputes, breaches and litigation, it’s no wonder business owners and executives often are confused. There’s a plethora of educational articles online about contract negotiation and even some silly contract songs on YouTube, but the bottom line is that if business owners don’t … [More]
Thousands Per Minute
You can sell your product at thousands of dollars per minute in an online video or retail television spotlight. There is an art to successfully appealing to your audience on camera. There is a way to keep the watcher watching! In these pages, readers will find that formula, gleaned from selling hundreds of products on television shopping channels and infomercials. This book is … [More]
Everyone’s a Critic: Winning Customers in a Review-Driven World
More than 70 percent of consumers now consult online reviews before making purchases, and they take those picks and pans very seriously. A disgruntled but ignorant customer on Yelp might have more clout than any expert guidebook, magazine article or newspaper critic. Some savvy businesses have figured out how to navigate — and even profit from — the new world of ubiquitous … [More]
Twitter is Not a Strategy
In a cultural climate saturated by technology, marketing professionals have focused their energies on creating newer and more digital methods of advertising their brands. The tension between traditional branding and the seemingly unlimited possibilities presented by the advent of “digital” branding leads companies to abandon the tried and true aspects of marketing for the flash … [More]
Selling to Uncle Sam: What Business Owners Need to Know
The U.S. government is the world’s largest customer, spending billions of dollars every year on goods and services and buying everything from hair care products to cyber security consulting. Although selling to Uncle Sam might seem challenging, the payoff can be an upward spike in the growth of any company, large or small. Do’s and Don’ts for Government … [More]
Zero to One
The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange. This book is about how to build companies that create new things. It draws on everything … [More]
The Reciprocity Advantage
A powerful new kind of competitive advantage is now possible thanks to technological and social disruptions that are already occurring. These disruptions revolutionize how companies can partner to create new growth. The Reciprocity Advantage shares a model for creating that growth. Reciprocity and advantage are words that are not normally seen together, but reciprocity — … [More]
Trade Across the Border
Going global is where growth opportunities lie for many businesses. Arizona companies may find Mexico and Canada inviting options to consider. MEXICO Those looking at Mexico may find themselves in good company, as 34 percent of Arizona’s exports currently go to our southern neighbor and 35 percent of what we import comes from there. “Mexico is Arizona’s largest trading … [More]
The Plus Side of Bankruptcy
Although some people think bankruptcy is a death knell for businesses, it is actually a vital part of our economic system. Bankruptcy can allow a reorganized business to emerge stronger and better positioned to compete in the market. In fact, at its core, bankruptcy rewards entrepreneurship. Bankruptcy provides a safety net for businesses, which face economic challenges, to … [More]
Customer Experience Has Market Impact
Research from Watermark Consulting and Forrester Research tracked the six-year stock performance of companies on Forrester’s Customer Experience Index. Even during the recession years of 2007-2012, customer experience leaders averaged double-digit gains in stock performance, besting customer experience laggards by an impressive margin. This is not a coincidence — the better a … [More]
The New Corporate Facts of Life
Still myopically chasing quarterly profits, producing the same product in the same way, issuing directives to increasingly disengaged employees? Too many organizations cling to outdated models and practices. But they won’t be able to hang on much longer. The old rules of business are being rendered obsolete by disruptive innovation, economic instability, environmental … [More]
Quick and Nimble
Adam Bryant draws on interviews with more than 200 CEOs to offer business leaders the wisdom and guidance to move an organization faster, to be quick and nimble, and to rekindle the whatever-it-takes collective spark of a start-up, all with the goal of innovating and thriving in a relentlessly challenging global economy. By analyzing the lessons that these leaders have shared … [More]
Big Bang Disruption
Free navigation apps on smartphones wreaked havoc for the makers of stand-alone GPS devices. Airbnb and other resource-sharing services are undermining hotels. Uber, SideCar and Lyft are reinventing the heavily regulated taxi and limousine industry. These are just a few of hundreds of examples of Big Bang Disruptions — new products and services that enter the market better and … [More]
Exploring Public Procurement in Arizona
Both well-established and emerging companies seeking to expand in Arizona should consider whether to pursue lucrative government contracting opportunities. However, confusion about when and how the government actually purchases goods and services often keeps businesses from pursuing these opportunities. Through understanding what public procurement is, how it works and why a … [More]
Auction Is Business Opportunity in China
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]
