Collaboration is the buzzword of today. Right along with creativity and innovation, everybody’s talking and writing about it, but what does it really mean for business? While it may be a great concept, the real challenge — and the enormous business opportunity — is to learn to collaborate in a way that makes a positive difference to the business. An organization may attempt to … [More]
Architecture: Building Our Business Environment
An old motorcycle dealership that is now a vibrant coffee and wine bar. An old abandoned produce warehouse transformed into a stylish and modern office building. A multi-story, multi-use contemporary building complex in the heart of a thriving waterfront location. These are just a few of the many architectural projects that not only provide places for people to work, eat, shop … [More]
Accountability: Make It Stick
As a leader at your organization, you like to think that you run a pretty tight ship. But if you’re being honest with yourself, you know that you let a few things slide. A missed deadline here and there. A few tiny white lies to clients. The fact that Mike in marketing often over-commits and under-delivers. Your own tendency to talk over others in meetings. In other words, … [More]
Sales Leads – Lost by Mistake?
U.S. businesses spend billions of dollars generating sales leads every year only to lose more than 70 percent of them simply because they don’t make contact quickly enough or follow up consistently, according to one study. But that’s not the only way they’re losing out on opportunities. A study of more than 600 companies by James Oldroyd, Ph.D., of MIT found the odds of a … [More]
Tap into Big Data for Profit
Big data is capable of making a big impact on the bottom line of businesses. The term describes the exponential growth and availability of data, which businesses are eager to exploit. But this overwhelming abundance of data is important to businesses only if they are able to accurately analyze it in a timely manner, which can lead to more confident decision making. The term … [More]
CopperPoint Mutual Emerges from SCF Arizona
“It seemed like a natural to turn the insurance business over to the people it was created for,” says Don Smith, CEO of what is now CopperPoint Mutual Insurance Company. His 14 years with the state’s workers’ compensation insurance company included leading SCF Arizona through its transition from a state fund to a private company, officially launched this past … [More]
Manage Distracted Employees
As all managers know, workday distractions are everywhere, stealing employees’ precious time and productivity. Between new technologies that beg for people’s attention to the prevalence of shortened attention spans, everyone on your team has the opportunity to be more distracted today than in the past. Of course, being distracted at work creates numerous problems, from missed … [More]
Are Teams Obsolete?
Ten years ago, the business world couldn’t stop talking about teams. Remember all those slightly cheesy posters that showed rowers rowing in perfect sync or maybe just close-ups of interlocked hands? As we saw it then, teams of smart, innovative people were how work would get done in the “organization of the future.” Well, here we are in the future, and teams — at least as we … [More]
How Does the Fitness Sector Shape Up?
When it comes to staying fit in Phoenix, it can be easy as climbing Camelback Mountain no matter what time of year it is. But many fitness operators have bet people want a little help even in what has been a challenged economy, and that bet is paying off. For Becky Renner, an Arizona regional developer for Orangetheory Fitness, the area’s outdoor recreational opportunities … [More]
Be a Bankable Leader
Why won’t my employees just do what I tell them? Why am I struggling to motivate my team? Why aren’t they giving me the performance I need? These are common questions that plague many leaders. Often, companies promote to leadership employees who are competent technical professionals — who know how to build a bridge, negotiate a deal or justify a capital expenditure. But whether … [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]
Today’s Luxury Home Market
Phoenix-area home prices have been rising since hitting a low point in September 2011. The median single-family-home price rose 32.7 percent — from $150,000 to $199,000 — from last September to this September, according to the most recent report from the W. P. Carey School of Business at ASU. The average listing price of luxury homes — generally defined as those valued at … [More]
Explode Sales with Targeted Online Marketing
The Internet has accelerated strategic target marketing to a new level. We have access to virtually any type of information at our fingertips. Combining this with expert analytics, marketers today can create, evaluate and redeploy targeted campaigns at light speed. In the “old” days, the best advertisers could hope for was to promote their company via media that created content … [More]
Commercial Real Estate as Investment
Across the country, commercial real estate companies are finding that managing a portfolio is a particularly challenging task in today’s economy. The following best practices demonstrate that effective portfolio management starts with the development of a thorough review process that allows a business to respond to opportunities in the market. Frequent Reviews Are … [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]
Jim Collins Speaks to Arizona
It starts with people. That is a basic tenet of Jim Collins’ teachings on how to effect greatness in an organization, and central to one of the challenges he gave to the assembled leaders at the Arizona Leadership Forum earlier this year. A foremost authority on leadership and author of New York Times bestseller Great by Choice, he urged everyone there to reach out to … [More]
Visitors Wanted — Get Your Website Found on the Internet
Last month, we discussed how to design a website to support your sales process. Now that you’ve created a sales-oriented site, it’s time to make sure you get found by your prospects. More than 85 percent of “clicks” go to the highest-ranking websites. The key search engine ranking components are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and traffic building. In this article, we’ll take … [More]
