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]
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]
Can’t Buy Me Like
Today’s brands face an apparent choice between two evils: continue betting on their increasingly ineffective advertising or put blind faith in the supposedly mystical power of social media, where “likes” stand in for transactions and a mass audience is maddeningly elusive. But in today’s world, where people have become desensitized — even disillusioned — by ad campaigns and … [More]
Alliance Creates Resource to Fund Business Growth
Expected to help kick-start the flow of capital to businesses for loans they need to grow, At Work for Arizona Business Loan Alliance launched last month with $12 million committed to fund loans of $50,000 to $500,000 to businesses that lack adequate equity investment or sufficient collateral for a conventional loan but are otherwise creditworthy. Forging this groundbreaking … [More]
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business
Whole Foods Market co-founder John Mackey and professor and Conscious Capitalism, Inc. co-founder Rajendra Sisodia argue for the inherent good of both business and capitalism. Looking at some of today’s best-known companies, they illustrate how these two forces can — and do — work most powerfully to create value for all stakeholders in business today: customers, employees, … [More]
The ‘Grow or Die’ Lie
All growth is good. Bigger is better. All businesses must either “grow or die.” These popular business axioms are routinely lauded on Wall Street, at business schools and by some of the most well-respected business consultants of the day. Few question their validity. But actually, these “truths” are anything but. At best, those beliefs are half-truths; at worst, they’re pure … [More]
Think Like a Futurist: Know What Changes, What Doesn’t, and What’s Next
Discover how to short circuit the habits that blind us to future trends, how to break through the walls of resistance to change, and how to find the tools needed to face the future with confidence. This book brings a practical and disciplined approach to creativity and future thinking that can be immediately applied. Futurism isn’t just a profession for an elite few but a way … [More]
The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations
Kotter and co-author Dan S. Cohen delve deeper into the subject of change to get to the heart of how change actually happens. Through real-life stories from people in the trenches, in all kinds of organizations, the authors tackle the fundamental problem that underlies every major transformation: How do you go beyond simply getting your message across to truly changing people’s … [More]
