So – your company has gone through its first Business Storm Cycle, and come out the other side. You survived the Tornado of hypergrowth and booming sales, and all the chaos that created. You experienced the pendulum swing of the Avalanche, your downturn phase where your costs kept rising and your margins were shrinking. Now you’re in your consolidation phase, and making the necessary changes in your people, processes, and IT systems to get ready [...]
How do you define “start-up?” Think about your answer, because that definition can impact your business in a big way, for better or worse. If you ask most business owners, they’ll tell you that the phrase refers to that period when a new business first introduces its product or service, and begins to sell. I disagree, because I find that definition to be far too limiting. In fact, I’d argue that an enterprise experiences multiple [...]
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So you’ve come through the Business Storm Cycle, bruised but still in business. You know that you need to rebalance and realign your people, processes, and IT. If you recognize yourself in that description and you’re reading this now, you’re probably saying, “Yeah, that sounds great. But how can I do it? What are the steps I would have to go through to make that happen in my company?” You may have considered hiring an [...]
IT problems affect every phase of the business cycle. The weaker your IT, the faster your Tornado will be over—and the longer your Avalanche will last. It’s vital that you take advantage of the consolidation phase that follows the Avalanche to address your IT issues. If you don’t, you won’t be able to prepare for your next Tornado. You may not even survive. IT is one of your most powerful tools for making your business [...]
Habits are funny things; good or bad, they can be the making or breaking of a person, or even of a business. What’s learned isn’t always easy to unlearn. My mother, for instance, couldn’t get used to the new arrangement of her kitchen when we moved after years in the same home. Because of that, she wasted a lot of steps and effort trying to do things in the same way that she had in [...]