A new intelligence is required in workplaces today. It’s collaborative intelligence, or, as we prefer to call it, We-Q™. We-Q is not how smart or emotionally developed we are as individuals; rather, it is how intelligent we are mentally, emotionally and socially as a collective — and it is a crucial skill for all kinds of business in the digital age. The reality of this … [More]
Counsel for Business
An attorney is an important asset to a business at every stage, whether it is just beginning or has been running for many years. A lawyer’s expertise can help a business that is starting up with everything from employee agreements to exit strategies; if there is a product involved, a lawyer can help secure a patent or protect intellectual property. No small role is just having … [More]
Got Tech? Got the Right Tech?
What exactly is productivity? In professional terms, productivity often means, well … more. But, more what? In a literal sense, productivity is the rate of output per a unit of input — essentially, the amount of work that can be completed given an amount of time or money. This makes sense in simplified scenarios; for example if one employee is able to send six emails per hour, … [More]
Finance: Employee Wellness Benefit
Financial wellness is increasingly a concern of employers for their employees. “There’s almost universal awareness now that financial problems affect business,” says Mike Sullivan, director of education with Take Charge America, explaining that people do not attend to business as well as they would if they didn’t have financial problems on their mind. “So businesses need to … [More]
Customer Loyalty: Gauge It as a Growth Predictor
Sure, your company has satisfied customers. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be in business (at least not for long). But here’s a question few companies ask: How loyal are they? Will they recommend your products and services to others? Will they stick with you through thick and thin? Or will they run at the first sign of a price increase or some other change that rubs them the wrong … [More]
Are We Busy or Are We Productive?
The “new normal” seems to be that we are overwhelmed and don’t know where our time has gone at the end of the day. We are connected and “on” almost twenty-four hours a day. We are very busy, so much so that “busy” has become a badge of honor in this century. We often feel that if we are not busy, we may be seen as not working hard enough. But the real question is, are we … [More]
Mixing the Perfect Sales Cocktail
Sales can be complicated! Even career sales professionals find being a good salesperson can be frustrating and complex. Different factors contribute to sales complexity: being able to find the right lucrative opportunity, having access to the right resources, selling the right product or service that appeals to businesses and consumers, developing effective lead generating … [More]
Venturing in Today’s Age of the Entrepreneur
Now is the age of the entrepreneur, and today’s entrepreneur operates in a sphere where changes follow each other in rapid succession. In the coming years, the interests of the consumer will once again become a focal point in business. Entrepreneurs are advised to seek a personal relationship with their clients by taking account of their individual needs and desires. Social … [More]
Cracking the Code to Innovation
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]
