Everyone says they want innovation in their organization, but when an ambitious employee offers it to a CEO, for example, the idea is often shot down. Senior leaders often miss the value-creating potential of a new concept because they either don’t take the time to really listen and delve into it, or the innovating employee presents it in the wrong way. Innovation should be … [More]
Meetings: Make Them Time Well-Spent
Typical executives spend more than 20 percent of their time in meetings with five or more people. At the same time, surveys indicate that a majority of them are dissatisfied with the value and outcome of their meetings. There is a simple technique that takes only minutes (no pun intended) that can effortlessly eliminate some of the collisions, faux pas, cancellations, delays … [More]
How to Hire the Best Job Candidates
Most business leaders claim that hiring quality individuals for their organization is one of their highest priorities. Nevertheless, many of them tend to think that skilled interviewing and hiring come naturally, and that, because they are good at their jobs, they must also be innately good at interviewing and hiring. The truth is, effective interviewing and hiring skills do … [More]
Would George and ‘Honest Abe’ Make It in Today’s Business World?
Presidents’ Day, which falls between the birthdays of two of our nation’s most revered leaders — George Washington and Abraham Lincoln — is coming up on Monday, February 16. And as every school-aged kid knows, both men are remembered for their honesty. (OK, “little George and the cherry tree” might be more legend than fact, but it does indicate the extent to which our culture … [More]
The Meeting Market
Heading into 2015, Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau CEO Rachel Sacco sees the local area “really poised for one of the strongest markets in the last five or six years.” Hotels are showing strong demand, and this, she explains, is the first level of how to take the temperature of the industry. Business is booking at a short-term pace, but venues are getting a lot of … [More]
Company-wide “Bad Mood”? Boost the Entrepreneurial Spirit
When a company is in a bad mood, the signs aren’t always overt. People aren’t biting each other’s heads off or glaring sullenly across the conference table. Instead, it feels like everyone is just … coasting. Rather than digging for solutions, they make a cursory effort and then lay the problem at their manager’s feet. They’re not cage-rattlers and idea-sharers; they’re “yes … [More]
Captive Insurance Is a Financial Tool
An option businesses can use in managing their finances is captive insurance. Captive insurance is a separate legal entity — a corporation or limited liability company — that a parent company creates to cover insurable risks in a more cost-effective manner than insuring through a traditional insurance carrier. “It’s generally a wholly owned subsidiary of an existing business … [More]
Luxury Follows Its Own Trends
The Phoenix-area housing market is unlikely to see a significant boost until next year, according to the latest monthly report from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. “Demand has been much weaker since July 2013 and still shows little sign of recovery,” says the report’s author, Mike Orr, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at … [More]
Communication Is a People Skill
In the always-on digital age, we’re all guilty of indulging in communication shortcuts. These shortcuts save time, but they are costing us something valuable: Our overwhelming preference for quick and easy communication is causing our more difficult communication skills to erode from lack of use. It’s easy to email a client, but far more difficult to persuade the same person in … [More]
Biotech’s Road to Growth
The bioscience industry here is no longer merely a good idea awaiting its time. With an annual economic impact of $14 billon statewide, according to the Flinn Foundation — a private nonprofit organization that supports biosciences in Arizona through grants, programs and advocacy and is tasked with tracking the industry — biotech and its Phoenix hub are a legitimate economic … [More]
Avoid Desperation Selling
Have you ever done this: Looked at the bank account, looked at the bills, looked at your upcoming schedule and then just went into a major panic? What are you doing to do? The bills are coming in, the clients are heading out, and you are stuck right dab in the middle with what seems like no solution in sight. The last few months might have been great, but now, for some reason … [More]
Healthcare: Networks and Coverage
The alphabet soup of healthcare today includes MEC (minimum essential coverage) and EHB (essential health benefits). What is required under one does not neatly mesh with what is required under the other, which contributes to the confusion as employers and employees attempt to meet the requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. MEC refers to the … [More]
Business Built the Glendale CVB
Glendale hotel executives, looking for a way to boost business, took the unusual step of asking for a tax increase, and it turned out to be a win-win-win. Revenue from a 1.6-percent increase in Glendale’s bed tax is earmarked for the Glendale Convention & Visitors Bureau, which has increased its promotional and marketing activities; hotel occupancy rates are growing by … [More]
Leading through Inspiration
Inspiration and motivation are two completely different concepts, but a majority of managers still make the mistake of interchanging the two. It’s easy to get lost in the semantics, but the difference can be boiled down to one simple observation: motivation can be manufactured, inspiration needs to be instilled. Money, job security and career advancement are all effective … [More]
Employee Cynicism: The ‘In’ Attitude that Hurts Business
In an age of cynicism and irony, Northwestern Mutual is a throwback to a more innocent time. The company is the antithesis of “cool.” It has the kind of culture in which people embrace plain suits and sincere handshakes, take pride in wearing achievement ribbons, kick off conferences with patriotic music. It’s the very portrait of wholesomeness and earnestness — the Boy Scout … [More]
Healthcare and Open Enrollment: The Employer’s Role in Employee Choices
For many, healthcare insurance has been a personal or family need they have taken care of through their employer. Now, whether or not they continue to have a policy purchased through their employer, employees are asking their employer for the information on what the employer will offer and whether those offerings will meet the individual’s “shared responsibility” requirements. … [More]
Technology: Marketing
Technology is giving merchants a newer, slicker, 21st-century way to offer customers reward/loyalty programs, signaling a shift away from those wallet-clogging buy-ten-get-one-free punch cards. Indeed, merchants of all kinds are signing up for tech programs that enable them to keep tabs on their regulars and reach out to new customers while the customers pile up reward points … [More]
Plan Exit Strategies to Yield Positive Outcomes
Are there any true positives that can come from selling a business? Yes, say three experts who have experience making cash-outs and exit strategies both happy and lucrative events. There are various reasons an entrepreneurial owner may decide to sell a successful and profitable company, says Orville (Chip) Fisher, an attorney, investment banker and managing director at the … [More]
