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PBM BlogMentoringToo often the mentoring process is done in a much too defined, formal way that doesn't lend itself to dealing with everyday issues that a professional will face as his/her career unfolds.Sales and Marketing - Two Different DisciplinesHow many times have you heard "sales" and "marketing" mentioned in the same breath, as if they go together like ham and eggs?So What Do You Want to Do?One of the things I find most interesting is that many are reluctant to say that they really don't know what they want to do, even though it is the truth.Managing 101 - the Basics Part 4I think the most enduring, long-lasting result that any manager can achieve is to have people that he or she has mentored achieve success in their own rights.Managing 101 – the Basics Part 3It takes significant time and energy to really understand each individual direct report. This is all about building a relationship over time.Words to Live by in BusinessI ran across this quote by Charles Hampton Turner, a professor at the London School of Business.Managing 101 – the Basics Part 2How would you like your manager to work with you? What's important to you in the workplace? What makes you tick?Managing 101 – the BasicsToday’s manager has abdicated his/her highest priority role: to create that workplace environment where people are highly productive.The Downside of Being a Ruler Company in a KingdomFor the last ten years my favorite example of a company that was clearly in a Kingdom marketplace has been Microsoft. But now we get a view of how that Ruler's internal organizational culture has evolved into a one that manifests itself as a "clumsy, uncompetitive innovator."Avoiding the Commodity Trap of the BattlegroundSee the difference between the challenge of trying to compete with commodity products in an eroding-margin Battleground market . . and the opportunity available by offering innovative products in a developing Frontier market.Climate Change - An Opportunity for Many BusinessesWhether or not scientists are accurate about their climate predictions, business managers can view this as a great opportunity for innovation, expansion, and bottom-line growth. Shoemaker in the KingdomHis prices are pretty high; sometimes the work is not done on time; he doesn’t take credit cards. He rules!How Often Do We Think About Innovation?If you listen to Harvey Mackay, he would say, "Not enough."You Just Never KnowYou never know what the next connection’s going to be; so you’re always in a networking mode.Where in Your Industry Value Chain are You?Many managers and small business owners who discover a mismatch find that they need to reconsider the definition of the dimensions of their market . . . and where they add perceived value.Rules for Virtual TeamsTeams that operate from a distance have some advantages and disadvantages in attempting to be productive. Is e- mail a positive or a negative?An Advisory Board Can Benefit a Business OwnerIt is lonely at the top. We hear this kind of comment all the time from entrepreneurs and professional business managers who are running their businesses without the benefit of having advisors and confidants they trust.Three New White Papers for ManagmentOur associate, Paul Pelkola, this week shared with us three new white papers of timely, practical, and valuable help to all executives, managers, and entrepreneurs. His papers are now available to all for free.Why Saturn Failed in a Battleground Auto MarketAfter more than two decades, millions of dollars, and the efforts of thousands of people, Saturn closed its doors as a complete failure. Why?Networking to Build Relationships Part VIIII find it so interesting that most people are reluctant to introduce others to people that they know. Why might that be?Irrefutable Laws of LeadershipI found John Maxwell's "21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" to be very profound, and every single one encourages thought and reflection. How many of us can be thought of as real leaders in terms of these laws?The Future of the Web and Its Implications for EntrepreneursA recent article in Forbes outlines a formidable future to contemplate for entrepreneurs attempting to develop markets for their products and services. We avoid knowing about these web-development advancements at our own peril.FAQs about Perfect Biz Match Assessment ResultsAs the number of business leaders who take a free Perfect Biz Match assessment rises, we are receiving and answering more and more of the same types of questions.Why SWOT?Are you being challenged by the changing landscape of your marketplace? Can't figure out what is wrong or what to do?Understanding Market Position is CriticalBeing open to understanding how you’re viewed in the market is the all important first step to achieving ultimate and optimum success as a business.Networking to Build Relationships Part VIIAs you go about building and nurturing relationships over the years, new job opportunities are some of the many benefits that will most certainly come your way.To Increase Innovation Some Widely Held Beliefs About Motivation Need to GoBe prepared to be asked to debunk much of what you have come to know as effective in motivating people to innovate creatively, certainly in today’s difficult economic environment, and perhaps in the future as well.The Synergy of Sales Management and LeadershipAlthough sales management and leadership are undoubtedly two separate functions, doing one without constant reference and deference to the other results in an organizational vehicle that’s either careening out of control or stuck at an eternal stoplight.Perfect Biz Match builds on Boston Consulting Group MatrixAs a professor of strategic management, for years I was comfortable using the familiar Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix. It allows a company to evaluate its various product or service lines along two dimensions: business growth rate and market share.Prenuptials Handle with CareMaintain control of your business while living up to “what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours.” Among the stickiest questions that come up in the context of family-owned businesses are prenuptial agreements.Assessments? Bah Humbug Who needs them?Those who most need help are often those least likely to ask for it. Data are beginning to come in that verify our experience. Few companies match their organization’s position with that of their and market.Golfing in the KingdomI recently had the privilege of traveling to Scotland to play the St Andrews golf course, the birthplace of golf. It was certainly a thrill to walk the hallowed ground of the most famous golf course in the world.An Innovative Organizational Response to the Downturn by Cisco SystemsCisco Systems began its life in the Frontier with the invention of one IT system after another. As it grew it tended to dominate markets and became a Ruler organization in a Kingdom market.Whats Your Strategic Fitness Plan?Why do some companies succeed in consistently outperforming their competitors? How might the 4 + 2 formula help your firm?Networking to Build Relationships Part VIPeople ask all the time. How do I get started? Here are my suggestions:Getting Control of the Social MediaMaking sense of an ever increasing barrage of websites and platforms to bring information your way will be the next innovation.Networking to Build Relationships Part VI strongly encourage people that I meet to make sure that they are doing things to let people inside their organizations know who they are and that they are open to conversation, collaboration, advice, friendship, etc.My WorkMy work is a constant discovery and rediscovery of what I care about. My work is listening, learning, loving, giving. Only this.If You are a Consultant How Do You Generate New Leads?Consultants everywhere have an ongoing difficulty finding new business from either new or existing clients. This issue has been around since the beginning of time. Unless you have a very successful brand that generates new business by itself, this problem will be with you continuously.Health Care Reform Effects on Small BusinessOnce upon a time in my lifetime there was fragmented competition for health care. Holding a little black bag, our family physician would come to our house to give me a shot of penicillin, and my parents would pay her the going rate of $12. Patient and doctor. No one in the middle.Webinars for DevelopmentDeveloping new skills demanded by new market positions requires using the available resources on the internet. One of these is the webinar, which is becoming more readily available as a flexible tool to assist managers in acquiring and practicing needed competencies.Networking to Build Relationships Part IVPrevious posts in this series have focused on the face-to-face approach to building strong relationships. But what if you truly don’t have the time or simply are not very good at meeting people one-on-one? The Internet and e-mail have solved this issue for youA Contrarian Approach but Effective for Small BusinessesThe other day I had a discussion with an owner of an antique store in a small town in Wisconsin. I had noticed that several other antique stores had located next to the owner’s place. I asked him if there was a problem with all the competition.Perfect Biz Match Assessment Helps ConsultantI believe that the CEO has surrounded himself with people that tell him what he wants to hear. I also think that the market will offer a corrective dose of truth for him in the near futureOrganizing to Implement Your Market StrategiesNo single set of organizational dimensions is right for every company. What's right for you as a company is that which matches your market's demands. To modify slightly an old axiom: "Those who fail to plan their plan's organizational-implementation requirements . . . are planning to fail."Mapping Market Strategies for Your Products and ServicesWhenever a small business spends three half-day sessions developing its unique JTI Quick Plan, the company's management team members are invariably impressed by the ability of a dynamic MAP to chart the potential profit margin and strategic directions for each of the firm's product or service lines.Shrinking Lines of Credit for Small Businessby JACK . . . Small businesses must rely on a heightened level of innovative thinking to survive. On the biz/match grid, the credit crunch is pushing the market position of most small businesses further to the right, into untenable territory.When the PEST Appears Daily What Do You Do?by STEVE . . . If we watch all of the changes that are appearing on the hoizon from Wahsington (Health Care, Cap and Trade, Financial bailouts, Auto takeovers, Stimulus #3), I think it is time to get serious about PEST.Networking to Build Relationships Part IIIWe never know when an opportunity or an idea is going to come our way just because we asked questions and listened to someone else's story.Product Life Cycle in the Insurance IndustryDo you think the insurance industry is becoming more lie the soft drink industry in terms of its market position?Targeting a Kingdom Niche in a Jungle Marketby DAVID . . . If you’re a small business owner in this most difficult economic environment, chances are pretty high that you’re in a Jungle. You feel that you’re losing control in an increasingly turbulent and unpredictable market with lots of competition, increasing customer demands, and declining profit margins.Making MBA Programs RelevantWhether MBA programs are offered in the evening to working professionals and/or on-line, it seems likely that the traditional functional silos of Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, Marketing, Management will continue to be supplanted by integrated case studies in courses that place a greater emphasis on Risk Management, Strategy, Leadership, Organizational Development, and Ethics.Lessons in the RecessionSomeone once said that we learn more from our problems than from our good times. Certainly that is true about those of us who are attempting to find a place on the competitive map that makes sense for our business ideas and vision.Networking to Build Relationships Part IIby TONY . . . The key to success is to start networking when you don't need anything . . . when there is no urgency.Yearly Check-up for Small BusinessesFor the small business owner, a yearly check-up is a must, as emphasized in this article focused on the needs of clients of Small Business Development Centers.Six Ps of MarketingSo if Product, Price, Place, and Promotion are the traditional Four P's of Marketing, what are the other two?Economic Conditions Changing Market PositionAll businesses need to assess what the new economy is doing to their market positions, and how far to the right it is taking them. Margins are also being squeezed, which indicates more and more businesses are trying to make a living in the Jungle.Match LEADERSHIP to the BIZArguably the most important factor in any entity's success is having that effective leadership. Major decisions on direction and strategy will determine initial and continued success or eventual failure.Dynamic Markets - Shorter Product Life CycleIn 1998, Gary Culliss was a brilliant Harvard Law School student who in his spare time developed a truly innovative popularity algorithm for use in Internet search engines.Whats Wrong with the Plan?Effective business-plan writing does not consist of saying, "With a couple of beers and an Excel spreadsheet, we can make a lot of money in no time." Your Most Dangerous CompetitorRecently two owners of a small family business completed together our free Perfect Biz Match assessment, and they were puzzled by the results. The assessment showed that although they were organized as Hunters, their answers to the assessment indicated that they believed they were in a Frontier market . . . clearly not a match.Am I Attracting the Right Sales People?I often hear from business owners that they really don't feel they have the right people in the right places, and that they need to evaluate job applicants more effectively. I am convinced that part of this problem stems from the fact that they have not identified the market in which they compete.Corporate Culture? Look on the WallsWhat's on the walls of your firm? What message are you sending to prospective employees? Is it consistent with your leadership style? Does it match the market in which you're competing?The Law of Marketing LeadershipThe basic issue in marketing is creating a category you can be first in. The law of leadership: It's better to be first than it is to be better. It's much easier to get into the mind first than to try to convince someone you have a better product than the one who did get there first.Health Insurance 101Demographics and economics are on a collision course in time, accelerating this year because of the spending spree taking place in Washington, D.C. Over the next several years, it's likely that no economic issue will affect businesses in all industries – both large and small – more significantly than reforms to our national system of delivering health insurance through employer-purchased group plans.Kingdom to Jungle Product Life CycleWe just finished doing some work with a commercial property management company that specializes in developing, leasing and managing suburban shopping centers. They have been in business for over 70 years and three generations.Am I Terminally Unique?And by the way, what the heck does that mean? After all, I am a business owner who really knows my stuff.Adjusting Your Leadership Style to Your MarketNo doubt each of us has reported to different type of bosses: ruling Chiefs, controlling Commanders, orchestrating team Coordinators, and rah-rah Cheerleaders. Which one is best? Perhaps surprisingly, not any one style is always preferred.Designing your Organizational Ship to Manage ChangeManaging organizations in today’s markets can be likened to sailing a ship under conditions that are as different as the winds and weather that captains encounter. Organizations and ships both need to be fashioned to work optimally under different kinds of conditions. Do you need a schooner, brigantine, cutter, or sloop, for example, to navigate optimally through the changing waters and winds of your market?Redesigning Organizations for Market ChangesSimultaneously management began to realize that cost/profit ratios were becoming more and more negative. The labor cost percentage was growing as they were able to charge less for services and fewer services were needed. It was a new world. The old organizational ideas were no longer valid, not because they were intrinsically wrong, but because the company was now in a new market.Letter to Battleground Company CEOIn order for a company to operate effectively in this segment of the marketplace, it must be able to deliver its products at the lowest possible cost. That is, it must be streamlined, lean, automated and have a very flat organization. Is it Time to Sell my Company or Not?How many times have we asked ourselves that question? Many years ago I heard a gentleman say, "There are two times to sell your company: (1) when you want to, and (2) when you have to."How Entrepreneurial is Your Firm?Published this year in the International Journal of Business and Management is a most timely look at "How Entrepreneurial Firms Prosper while Larger Firms Crumble" . . . especially during these trying economic times.Government Motors in a Jungle Market?Given their new owners, can Chrysler and GM transform themselves into Hunter organizations, embracing the culture of customer service and flexibility needed to succeed in today's domestic Jungle auto market? Or might these companies' new Ruler owners be able to transform, through various legislative mandates, the U.S. auto market into the kind of Kingdom market that they can rule?PBM in an MBA ClassroomIn different MBA classes over the past few years I have used Jack Tesmer's Perfect Biz Match assessment to bridge the gap between the academic and business worlds.Executive DevelopmentCompetence is less important in a business executive than listening and other communications skills, according to a survey for training and development.Networking to Build RelationshipsThe term, "networking," has become overused and misunderstood. People talk of "networking" as going to a meeting and exchanging business cards or of participating in business organizations, etc.Managing your People AssetCreating an environment where people can thrive in their jobs is becoming a lost art. Managers in all types and sizes of businesses are becoming less capable of dealing effectively with one of their key assets (if not their most key)---"people".