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Author Archives: Dave Berkus
How to battle the dragon AND avoid the encounter.
Sometimes a competitor is just too entrenched, too strong, too well equipped to directly face in battle. At least that is the conventional wisdom. Yet, there are constant examples of new entrants into a niche that grow, prosper and sometimes … Continue reading
Posted in Growth!, Positioning
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What do you wish you’d known yesterday?
Wouldn’t it be great if there were no more digital or printed reports to tell us what happened in the past? I know. We need financial data for comparison, and to a degree – for planning. But we should be … Continue reading
Eye of the needle? Why worry over your bottlenecks.
Think for a minute whether there is any process or person that could be classed as the eye of the needle in your organization. Is there anything, process or person, that stalls the flow of work from start to finish? … Continue reading
How to avoid “death by meeting.”
Imagine yourself with a calendar requiring you to be in six meetings in a day. Day after day. How long would it take to induce you to rethink your use of time – and that of the others sitting (or … Continue reading
Posted in Surrounding yourself with talent
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How to simplify your commission structure
Is your commission structure so complex that even you must have help understanding it – and calculating a commission on a pending bid? Sales people are incentivized by money. They usually are able to calculate what’s in it for them … Continue reading
A simple test: “Are we managing like jerks?”
Are we who issue orders to associates or employees ever acting as jerks? We’d never like to think so, or we wouldn’t do it in the first place. If someone is saying “This is confusing to me” when you’ve given … Continue reading
Hire on ability. Fire on fit.
This is not necessarily the way we intend to behave as managers, but our headline reflects the reality of most experiences when viewed in retrospect. We carefully vet the potential hire for experience required. Ninety days or longer later, if … Continue reading
Celebrate your mistakes!
How do you teach your work force that mistakes are OK as long as they learn and don’t repeat them? By being a visible example. A friend and fellow CEO states that he publishes each of his mistakes in his … Continue reading
Why bother to sit in with customer service?
Over fifty years ago, I was CEO of a record manufacturing company in Hollywood. We were the only such facility on the West coast to provide and control the entire process from studio, through finished vinyl record pressings in the … Continue reading
Careful with terminations. Don’t disparage.
It happens all the time when you’re a CEO. Somebody important leaves or is let go, and you worry over the impact upon remaining employees and customers. You worry that the person leaving will begin to unload all the pent–up … Continue reading
