Category Archives: Surrounding yourself with talent

Hire as if your survival depends upon it.

Aside from visionary management, this is your most important job. Many of us go through the motions of hiring to fill a position, trying to use our intuition and skills to find the best candidate for the job.  Sometimes we … Continue reading

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Are you still flexible enough to be coached?

Why should we ask this question? As an early-stage investor, the first test for me is whether “my” entrepreneur is flexible in both the plan and execution of their vision (since from experience almost everything about a business plan changes … Continue reading

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About personal use of corporate assets

Here’s the IRS take on the issue: It is no secret that the IRS carefully looks below the surface for personal use of company assets (including cash) in its corporate income tax audits.  This insight addresses more the impact of … Continue reading

Posted in General, Hedging against downturns, Protecting the business, Surrounding yourself with talent | 1 Comment

Is your strategic partnership just a glorified press release?

Celebrating that strategic partnership Many of us make it a priority to find and partner with companies that can add to our offering or extend our reach.  And we rightly celebrate each such pairing, often with a mutual press release. … Continue reading

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Can you get to the right person when you need to?

Can your contact solve real-world issues? I recently experienced an amazing effort of outreach by a vice president of a large national customer asking for a meeting with the product development team of a critical supplier, one of “my” companies.  … Continue reading

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Meetings insight: Just three actionable items!

How do you get your team to focus and move forward effectively?  A fellow CEO recently told me of her method of assuring positive movement within her team.  She holds a weekly meeting of her direct reports and asks them … Continue reading

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How to avoid “death by meeting.”

Zoom, Teams, phone, or in person? Imagine yourself with a calendar requiring you to be in six meetings in a day.  Day after day.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re required to be there in person or virtually, you get worn … Continue reading

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Your eye of the needle: Do you worry over bottlenecks?

Here’s your question to ponder… 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 … Continue reading

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Is your WORK interfering with your JOB?

So, what’s the difference? First, thanks to longtime reader and friend, Harley Kaufman, for the thought and title for this insight.  He stated, “Too often it seemed our internal staff was more focused on getting the ‘work’ (daily tasks) done … Continue reading

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Simplify your commission structure. Please.

Is your commission structure so complex that even you must have help understanding it – and calculating a commission on a pending bid? Salespeople are incentivized by the money.  Of course. They usually can calculate what’s in it for them … Continue reading

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