Zappos, for those of you who haven’t heard of it (I hadn’t), is an online retailer with a reputation for world class customer service. It started out selling only shoes but has since branched into lots of other stuff as well. It went from a startup to $1 billion in sales within 10 years. Anyway,
“Wealth continually grows from multiplying existing resources using existing technologies.” -Pilzer’s Law
Paul Pilzer is an American economist and best-selling author who promotes the notion that economic progress and wealth are driven by technology. New technologies will continue to feed economic growth, but in Pilzer’s view, a lot of growth can come from properly utilizing the technologies we’ve already got. Most technologies used in small business are
12 Critical Questions
Awhile ago, we talked about Marcus Buckingham, a senior researcher at the Gallup Organization, and discussed his findings in his excellent book, “Now Discover Your Strengths.” He has more to offer us. Buckingham says a workforce can be divided into three categories: people who are loyal and productive, or “engaged,” those who are just
Best Hiring Practices 101d
This is the final installment of a series on Best Hiring Practices. The series is not intended to be all-inclusive, but rather an examination of the most impactful things you can do to improve your hiring process. In the previous postings, we’ve talked about the need to hire well . . . and the high
Best Hiring Practices 101c
In our last posting on “Best Hiring Practices,” we talked about the need to write a comprehensive job description detailing not only the skills an applicant must have, but also the behaviors. Now the next step is to prepare written interview questions. Why written? For that answer, and for a lot more on preparing for
Best Hiring Practices 101b
This is the first installment of a series on “best hiring practices,” and as such, it probably makes sense to start at the beginning. The real beginning is making the decision that you need to hire someone, but for this purpose, we’ll assume you’ve already done that and that you now need to take the
Best Hiring Practices 101a
Although unemployment is still high and small business owners are reluctant to undo some of the painful staffing cuts they’ve had to make, some owners are creeping back into the job market to fill some needed vacancies. So it seems an appropriate time to talk about a hiring “process.” While there’s no hiring process that
Time to audit your products/services?
Last time, we talked about the importance of knowing profitability by customer, but what about the products and/or services you sell? Do you know which lines of business are the most profitable and which are the least? You may think you know where your profits are coming from, but do you really? Are you sure?
“Goals produce results, not activities.”
Our last posting talked about consistency. We talked about identifying “critical success factors” . . . operating principles that, when applied consistently, are at the core of a company’s success. But operating principles are only half the equation. They are the front end, the input side of things. They are the consistent activities that produce
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”
In his outstanding book, Great by Choice, Jim Collins relates the story of Howard Putnam, a former CEO of Southwest Airlines. Putnam institutionalized the Southwest Airlines’ “recipe” for success. His “recipe” was not a strategic plan or a vision or a mission statement, but a carefully thought-out list of operating principles. That list included: Utilize
