Maria Contreras-Sweet, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration and the voice of small business on President Obama’s Cabinet, last month heralded the release of “Measuring the Representation of Women and Minorities in the SBIC Program,” a groundbreaking SBA study showing the racial and gender makeup of investment boards is tied directly to investment decisions … [More]
The Integration of Love and Business
Driving and texting. Church and state. Love and business. At first glance, one would think these things should stay as separate from one another as possible. And, frankly, that’s how most people treat them — as combinations that simply don’t mix well, each half of the given pair to be compartmentalized and engaged with on its own. The thought of love being exercised in … [More]
Combat Social Media Mud-Slinging
Winston Churchill said, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” An Internet search for “Charlotte police shooting” will pull up more than 20,000 news articles and videos littered with speculations and quotes from witnesses, family members and police. Did Keith Lamont Scott have a gun, or was it just a book? The viral nature of … [More]
SBA Awards $18.8 Million to Support Small-Business Trade Growth
Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, last month announced $18.85 million to support export growth among American small businesses. The funding was awarded through SBA’s competitive State Trade Expansion Program. The share for Arizona businesses in Fiscal Year 2016 is $299,903. Calling it a boon for America’s small businesses, … [More]
Succession Planning Takes Work
Recruiting is broken! It is costly, outdated and misused. Succession planning, important to any business’s long-term success, is the underused, less expensive and more effective alternative to recruiting for difficult-to-find management positions. Realizing this dream, however, requires putting in place a solid road map so companies can identify their high-potential players and … [More]
Just a Minute? Make the Most of It
Ask any working professional what they could use more of, and you’ll probably keep getting the same answer: time. In the frantic pace of the digital age, time is something everyone seems to be short on now. (It’s almost laughable that we once thought technology would help create more leisure time!) But if people could figure out how to make the most of their waking moments, … [More]
No Joke: Humor Is Vital to Workplace Culture
Comic actor Charlie Chaplin famously said, “A day without laughter is a day wasted.” This philosophy can be applied directly to the workplace. A Gallup study found that people laugh significantly less on weekdays than on weekends. And a study by Happify found that millennials — who represent the largest generation in the U.S. workforce — are obsessed with their jobs, … [More]
No Time for Teamwork?
“Culture?” The half-formed question hung in the air between the puzzled speaker and a room full of students. We were hosting Larry, a founder of three successful energy startups, as a guest lecturer in our seminar on corporate culture at the University of Pennsylvania. We had just asked the veteran entrepreneur what we thought was a simple warm-up question: How do you create … [More]
Faces Matter
When a person is deciding whether or not to do business with your company, you might expect them to check all the key selling points. Price, benefits and features, brand reputation — these are all things that marketers anticipate customers will care about and, therefore, are the brand identifiers that receive the most attention when it comes to sales and marketing. However, … [More]
Are Unknowing Mistakes Driving Away Customers?
Loyal customers are hard to come by these days. We all know this. After struggling through years of turmoil and uncertainty, the last thing most leaders would purposely do is take customers for granted. And yet, in many a company, all the fervent efforts to attract and retain them are falling curiously flat. It’s not that they’re storming angrily out the door. It’s that their … [More]
Releasing the Hidden Innovation Brakes
The senior vice president for product development and his team had spent nearly 18 months developing a new range for an international cleaning products business. Initial customer research in two European markets had identified a need for office cleaning machines with a more efficient use of the cleaning agent, and the project had passed through the company’s structured product … [More]
Digital Forces a Change in World of Work
Responding to disruptive changes in digital technology, business models and workforce demographics, 92 percent of business and HR leaders have identified the critical need to redesign their organization to meet global business demands. This is according to Deloitte’s fourth annual report, “Global Human Capital Trends 2016: The new organization, Different by design.” Yet only 14 … [More]
Is Work About Time?
In this day and age of hyper connectivity and changing values, it’s a wonder that many of us still work in an office during a fixed window of hours. Of course, for airports, hospitals, shipping companies, retail stores and many other organizations to run efficiently, they need to have strict schedules and their workforce has to be there or bad things can happen. But what … [More]
The ‘Boys Club’ Needs to Include Girls
Whether it’s Hollywood movie studios and their paucity of female directors, the tech industry and its alarming exodus of frustrated women, or the stifling male fraternity culture that dominates Wall Street, women continue to be marginalized in the business world. The vast majority of CEOs responding to a McKinsey survey noted that hiring females is essential to “getting the … [More]
To Telecommute or Not to Telecommute?
Today’s workforce is changing. More than 80 percent of employees consider telecommuting a job perk, and 36 percent would sacrifice salary for the option of telecommuting at work, according to a survey conducted by Global Workplace Analytics. This begs the question: Should employers provide telecommuting options? The increased demand and employee popularity of telecommuting in … [More]
Business in Real Time
We humans are amazing. It has taken about seven decades of cooperative technological endeavour to bring robots even close to the skill of a human being walking on rough ground — something that tiny babies can master in a month or two. We can achieve this because our senses provide continuous feedback from every movement and adjustment. If that baby had to go through all the … [More]
Humility Is the New Key to Success
Not so long ago, our culture really (really) admired people with big egos. We called them rugged individualists, fearless leaders, MVPs, visionaries and go-getters. We respected these confident and successful folks for (seemingly) having all the answers. They were all too happy to stand their ground and argue their point, and we saw this as a sign of strength and … [More]
What Is Fair Competition in the War for Talent?
In today’s hyper-competitive global economy, talent is often your most valuable weapon. If you’re like most business leaders, you’re not above engaging in a little employee-poaching to improve your position. After all, if you can entice an MVP from another company to enlist in your ranks, you’ll deprive the competition of a key asset while taking immediate advantage of your new … [More]
