For many businesses, the recent economy has presented opportunities for growth, but unexpected challenges may still be standing in the way. Whether a company is a brand-new small business looking to get started or an established giant needing to expand quickly to meet new needs, local municipalities have a surprising number of resources dedicated to helping businesses in their … [More]
Five Key Elements of Digital Transformation Payback
Digital transformation as we see it is the business transformation of a firm/corporation. These transformations have five characteristics. Design/Strategy Numerous frameworks and strategy approaches have evolved over time, become the hype of the day, and then vanish again (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel 1998). No matter what the approach chosen actually is, one thing I have … [More]
Workplace Trends to Watch in 2023
The future of work is dynamic. One would need an entire book to describe the many forces affecting trends in the workplace now and in the years to come. Unfortunately, by the time that book made it to print, its contents would be out of date. So rapid are the forces of change, many organizations in the United States are still reckoning with the effects caused by the COVID-19 … [More]
Why B2B E-Commerce Needs IT Voices at the Table
When COVID-19 arrived on our doorstep, the shift in B2B buying preferences from in-person to online was already well underway. The pandemic simply sped up the tide of change by pressing the digitally reluctant to take the leap. Newbies soon found that B2B e-commerce offered them a slew of advantages. For buyers, online purchasing made it easier to identify suppliers and … [More]
Attract Executive Talent in a Post-Pandemic Recruitment World
Much talk of labor challenges, employee turnover and the Great Resignation this past year has focused on rank-and-file workers and mid-level talent. But CEOs and other top executives have not been immune to these forces. The Great Resignation Spreads to the C-Suite Nearly 70% of executives are seriously considering leaving their jobs, according to a recent Deloitte report. … [More]
A Successful International Marketing Strategy Can Make a World of Difference
I get it: Expanding internationally can seem daunting. But it doesn’t have to be. In a world more connected than ever, technology and infrastructure make international growth incredibly accessible for organizations. By having the right outlook and asking the right questions, expanding globally can accelerate next-level growth — helping companies extend their reach beyond an … [More]
How Employers Can Rehabilitate a Toxic Workplace
A McKinsey study from July found that toxic workplace behavior is the strongest predictor of employee burnout and intent to resign, with more than 60% of negative workplace outcomes resulting from toxic workplace behavior. In fact, according to a study from MIT Management Review, a culture employees describe as toxic is 10 times more likely to lead to turnover than … [More]
Five e-Commerce ERP Integrations Improve Business Performance
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems now hold a prominent place in the tech stack of any enterprise, enabling organizations to consolidate data from different sources and thereby control and optimize various internal business processes. According to the 2021 ERP Report from Panorama Consulting Group, 96% of enterprises that implement ERP solutions report improvements in … [More]
Messaging a Warm Reception
We all know that if there is one set of instructions and five people listening to those instructions, it’s a virtual certainty that different people will perceive and interpret those instructions differently. Said more plainly, the information will be received differently. The reason leadership communication is so difficult is leaders can expect the number of people they … [More]
Reduce the Risk of Business Email Compromise
Understand the Risk Business email compromise (BEC) scams are a type of online payment fraud that targets businesses and can result in significant financial loss. BEC involves gaining unauthorized access to a legitimate email, text message or social media account or an attempt to spoof or fake a legitimate account. The purpose is to enable the criminal actor to send a … [More]
Look Both Ways Before Hiring
It’s no secret that the staffing shortages facing most businesses today are extremely challenging. It is also highly unlikely that these challenges are going to resolve in the near term. So, the problem facing businesses now is what they should do when they just cannot find the talent they need. It is time to rethink all staffing options. The key is to make the most of their … [More]
Next-Level Team Building to Enhance Company Culture
In a recent business poll by the research company i4cp, more than 71% of respondents stated that their organizations either already emphasize or aim to emphasize corporate culture in their day-to-day practices. Longtime proponents of a positive corporate culture have argued that it can enhance long-term prospects, but it is equally true that a negative one is linked to … [More]
Disruption and Continuity – Preparing the Business Response
Business continuity planning is an essential piece of business planning. Continuity plans are created to ensure that the company is capable of continuing delivery of products or services at pre-defined acceptable levels following a “disruptive incident or circumstance.” A disruptive incident or circumstance includes a wide range of potential threats to a company — natural … [More]
Tough Talks – How to Have Difficult Conversations with Employees
One of my clients, a business owner, reached out to me and said, “How do I tell this person that they need to keep their personal stressors from impacting everyone at work without sounding like a jerk?” The situations may change, from telling employees they are underperforming to telling them their attitude is alienating everyone around them to telling them they are being … [More]
Domain Hijackers Prey on Business Websites
Today, it’s relatively easy to have a professional-looking website that inspires confidence and drives customers to one’s company. If a particular domain name is available, a business needs only use an internet domain registrar to make it its own. Unfortunately, the ease of registering a domain name comes with a price: It can allow fraud to proliferate. For example, imagine … [More]
Succession Planning: Preparing for the Expected or Unexpected
With an aging population of baby boomers in ownership roles, succession planning has become an ongoing priority. Although some of the activities were paused due to uncertainties related to the pandemic, the ideas have been brought back to the table with interest rates remaining relatively low and liquidity relatively available to deploy. Many businesses remain actively … [More]
Tasks, Tasks – and Non-Promotable Tasks
Anyone reading this article has done work that wasn’t promotable. Maybe it was handling a low-revenue client or spending another day dealing with that one customer who can’t be satisfied. Or staying late one night to reformat the very unprofessional-looking budget spreadsheet created by a co-worker. Or perhaps it was being “voluntold” to organize a fund-raising event. We … [More]
The Unknown and Underutilized COVID Business Stimulus
The Employee Retention Tax Credits, or ERC, was first enacted by the multitrillion-dollar CARES Act in March 2020 to address the economic impact of COVID on many businesses. When first enacted, the ERC gave employers the opportunity to qualify for up to 50% of $10,000 in eligible wages, or up to $5,000 worth of credits, per employee for 2020. Since then, several pieces of … [More]
