Define the Job, Not the Worker
Your long-time executive assistant just came into your office with some good news/bad news; for her, the good news is she’s retiring to a beach house in Cabo. For you, the bad news is that you’ve got to replace her – and she’s been a terrific employee. So – how do you write up the job description to find her [...]
Don’t Forget Your People!
So often during the consolidation that follows the precipitous drop of the Avalanche phase of the business storm cycle, companies throw a lot of money at technology and forget about the people and the processes. That’s a big mistake – and a missed opportunity. This is your chance to bring your people and your process together so you can use [...]
WHETHER YOU’RE GOING UP, OR COMING DOWN…
It doesn’t matter if you’re in an accelerating or decelerating phase of the Business Storm Cycle; the transformation is a similar process. What you’ll find on the upper slope when you’re accelerating is that you don’t have the right applications; you have people in the wrong roles, or you don’t have enough people. On the deceleration slope, you’ll find you [...]
ARE YOU LOYAL TO A FAULT?
“But Dave – I don’t want to lay Bob off. He’s been with me since the beginning!” Loyalty is a wonderful thing, but don’t be loyal to a fault. If you have staff members or a team that helped you get where you are, that doesn’t mean you can afford to overlook their inadequacies. Remember, as you revamp processes, you’ll [...]
HOW TO WIN A THREE-LEGGED RACE
Why do so many businesses run into trouble during the start-up phase of the business storm cycle? Often, it’s because the start-up tries to run before it can walk. It needs to take the time to make the people-processes-IT triangle equilateral so that it can scale to the Business Storm Cycle as it turns around. It’s like competing in a [...]
THE UPSIDE OF A DOWNTURN
When it comes to going through business cycles, there’s always some good news that goes along with every phase, even the ones that seem the bleakest when you’re in them. Consider the caterpillar: If someone was to tell it, “Hey, buddy, time to stop crawling around eating leaves! You have to climb inside this tiny little sack for the next [...]