Business articles
Showing page 50 of 79 - There are 2359 Business articles
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Making your workers your partners
- There is an inherent conflict between owners and managers of companies. The former want, for instance, to minimize costs - the latter to draw huge salaries as long as they are in power (who knows what will transpire tomorrow). For companies traded in the stock exchanges, the former wish to maximize the value of the stocks (short term), the latter might have a longer term view of things. In the USA...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - The inferno of the finance director
- Sometimes, I harbour a suspicion that Dante was a Financial Director. His famous work, "The Inferno", is such an accurate description of the job that it cannot be otherwise. He is fervently hated by the workers. He is thoroughly despised by the other managers ("mean bastard" is his common nickname among them, mostly for scrutinizing their expense accounts). He is dreaded by the owners of the firm ...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Dividing the loot
- It is when the going gets better, that the going gets tough. This enigmatic sentence bears explanation: when a firm is in dire straits, in the throes of a crisis, or is a loss maker ? conflicts between the shareholders (partners) are rare. When a company is in the start-up phase, conducting research and development and fighting for its continued, profitable survival in the midst of a massive inves...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - 10 fool proof ways to intensify your profits
- 1. Create benefit intensifiers for your list of ad copy benefits. Example, The Benefit: "Save More Time", The Benefit's Intensifier: "Never Seen Before".2. Use a little humor in your ad copy. It could be the little extra motive you need to close a sale. People are usually persuaded easier if they're in a good mood.3. Ask your visitors questions that induce thoughts, feelings, memorie...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Unravelling the data mining mystery - the key to dramatically higher profits
- Data mining is the art of extracting nuggets of gold from a set of seeminngly meaningless and random data. For the web, this data can be in the form of your server hit log, a database of visitors to your website or customers that have actually purchased from your web site at one time or another.Today, we will look at how examining customer purchases can give you big clues to revising/improv...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Managing motivation
- "Without the chance to meaningfully participate in steering one's own destiny, without the opportunity to gain the sincere respect of one's own peers, without an honest stake in making the community more successful through one's own work and ideas, employability can quickly decay into generic training programs or bogus choices..." --"Beyond Empowerment: Building a Company of Citizens" by Brook Man...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - 10 ways to maintain profits in a slow economy
- 1. Sell more back end products to your existing customer base. You already created rapport, trust and proved your credibility to them.2. Make it a practice to up sell to new and existing customers. After they decide to buy one product, offer them another product.3. Cross promote your products and services with other businesses that aren't competition. You will reach a wider audience ...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Creativity and innovation management ? personality testing
- Whilst tests measuring the creative or innovative personality exist, there are a number of inherent flaws. Some are noted below:a) Whether a creative or innovative type exists at all is highly contentious. Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation ? universal abilities. Creativity can be defined as producing a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a nu...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Creativity and innovation management - core competencies and competitive advantage
- Following is a brief definition of core competencies and competitive advantage and their fit with creativity and innovation management.Core Competence:A core competence is one which critically underpins the organisation's competitive advantage. Companies can differentiate themselves from their competitors with specific core competencies, but often not for long. The differentiation is...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Your biggest problem in business? work ethic
- US Work Ethic Issues and Lack of serviceWell many of us are getting upset with the lack of service these days and no one cares and somehow we have all lowered our standards to the fact that getting good service is not to be expected, but rather a nice surprise if it ever does occur. Many great companies have derelicts, under achievers, cry babies, and people which could really careless...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - A tricky supervision challenge
- Many managers believe that treating their team members as responsible adults will assure excellent results. The truth is that while this usually is effective, some people need much firmer limits than others to perform their jobs.Ellen, the manager of a rehabilitation hospital unit, was discussing her frustration in supervising one of her social workers. Ellen would much rather help Angeliqu...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - First things first -- process before technology
- Here's a brief story I encountered while leaving Newark International Airport following a recent business trip. Hard to believe, but true.After a long flight home from the West Coast, I took a short train ride to the long term parking facility, located my car (which is becoming more difficult with age it seems), and proceeded to the parking exit. Note that it's been a while since I've used ...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - The boss didn?t understand why his staff wasn?t reading his mind
- Many people believe that everyone sees the world exactly the same way as they do. This is never true and was the source of much turmoil in Dr. Jacob's office.When the Job Isn't Getting Done"They never seem to get any work done on time, but they complain that they're being underutilized."Dr. Jacob, a chiropractor, was talking about his office staff."I have...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Influencing change - a guide for sellers, coaches, and supervisors
- When people or groups make a decision to purchase something, they go through the same decision cycle that an individual goes through to decide upon a personal change, or an employee goes through to change behaviors at a boss's insistence.Until now, our communication rules have assumed that when we kindly or persuasively offer others good information that could solve problems and achieve suc...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - The 10 realities of change
- I've seen several articles that begin with lines like "the only constant today is change." I assert that change that is constant can't really be called change. It's simply a new reality. It's time that we accept that things simply don't stay the same and speed to change is the new reality of business. Like any other new reality it requires new responses.There is not more change than there w...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Business fails when we do not talk
- You may remember being told as a child, "Keep quiet!" "Children should be seen, not heard," and "You talk too much." You were a "good" kid if you kept quiet. However, being quiet when you are little causes big problems later in life.As an adult, you may have been punished for communicating. For example, if you admit you committed a crime and are sorry about it, no one cares. You still go to...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Creativity and innovation management - turning ideas into action
- The phrase "turning ideas into action" is a Russian doll.Managing the ideas to implementation process is important for at least two reasons:a) To make effective use of resources ? investing in one idea uses resources that could be applied to another idea. Yet all ideas do not have the same likelihood of success.b) To prevent re-engineering. There is often not enough ...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Creativity and innovation management :- thought leadership
- Leadership is only sustainable when leaders consistently come up with good ideas ? when they are dependable thought leaders. It follows then that leaders would be more effective if they knew how to manage creativity and innovation.Some of the tools for effective creativity management include:a) Develop the brief. Formulating a brief helps i) induce the problem solving state of mind, ...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Manage or lead ? why the difference matters and what to do about that difference
- Many books have been written about managing people, and an equally large number have been written about leadership. Some use the words manage and lead interchangeably, and some talk about the differences between the words, building a distinction based on style or behaviors.With all due respect for these books, let me make it simple.Manage things and lead people.Manage...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Get over yourself
- Let me tell you a secret.Things don't always go the way we want them to.Let me tell you another secret.We don't always hear what we want to hear.Duh.These two statements are hardly secrets; we all know they are true. If they aren't secrets, then why do we act surprised when it happens? And worse, why does the surprise often turn to pouting?Adult Pouting...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Five ways to turn resistance into opportunity
- Resistance. It isn't something people cherish or enjoy encountering. We experience resistance everywhere at work:People don't like that idea.People don't want the work flow to change.Someone doesn't agree with the feedback they received and becomes defensive.Someone doesn't see the value in a revised policy and they become resistant.People don't want to buy what ...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Five reasons why leaders fail to create successful change
- A bold title, don't you think? I mean, change is a complex thing, so to define five reasons seems to oversimplify the issue.Let me be clear. There are far more pitfalls than these and far more possible reasons change doesn't have the desired effect. The key in this title isn't "Five Reasons," it is "Leaders Fail." Yes, there are many variables that can influence the succ...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Organizational capital in politics, war, sports and business
- Intangible Corporate Assets such as Organizational Capital, Blue Sky and Brand Name Capital, actually they all have a common thread in my opinion. Here are some thoughts on these issues. And first I would like to comment on a couple of UCLA, Anderson School of Business items which are of interest. And I must say these research pieces are somewhat cutting edge, in business management theory....
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Partnering for performance
- "The difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says, 'Go!' ? a leader says, 'Let's go!'" -E. M. Kelly* Are you a boss or a leader?* Do your employees see you as part of the team or as looking over it?* How would your team members define your management style?I ask these questions as a challenge, and offer the opportunity to take a look at your manager/tea...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - What are your best practices?
- Best Practices StudiesThese studies can be defined as inquiries into the skills and methods of your high performers to recognize their achievements, document their methods and skills and then share this information with team members to improve overall performance. The responses generated from your study may hold the solutions to a variety of team challenges in the Call Center. As a team lea...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - The power of ?ask?
- For Call Center managers, it is not a pipe dream to improve employee moral while increasing productivity. It may even come easy to some to find fresh, new ways to reduce performance problems. Sound like an advertisement for something unattainable? Perhaps try to engage, involve, and connect employees to their work by the power of ASK.Of course Call Center managers encounter unique problems ...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Effective meetings begin with a real agenda
- Everyone knows that an agenda is the key to an effective meeting. But an agenda that consists of a list of nouns, such as budget, software, and picnic, is useless. Here's how to prepare a real agenda that puts you in control of the meeting.1) Goal. Every real agenda begins with a goal that describes the result wanted at the end of the meeting, such as: find a way to reduce travel costs by 1...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Training and roi (return on investment)
- Statistics consistently reinforce that the biggest challenge in today's contact center environment is agent training. Turnover continues to be high; new hire costs are on the rise--$6500 per agent! At the same time, losing customers because of bad call experiences negatively impacts your bottom line. What can you do? How do you justify the training expenditure?Research has been making a cas...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - To thine own self be true--its better for business: what arthur andersen would say to his company
- As a child, you probably heard, "to thine own self be true." But what does that really mean? When the newspapers are full of cheating and lying business owners, politicians, and academics, does it really make sense to maintain your integrity?To me, the answer is a clear, unwaffling YES! Without your integrity, you really don't have a business or a career--just a waiting game until you world...
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- 2007-11-13 22:16:19 - Understand what flows through your business to find improvement
- I remember once seeing a cartoon which showed two people working a counter. On the wall behind them was a sign which read, "Quality Work, Low Price, Fast Service ? Pick Two." In order to deliver all three, which is what customers expect, it's important to understand the flows of your organization.The first flow is, of course, cash flow. This comes in two varieties, money coming in...