PERFECT BIZ MATCH is a road map to help managers navigate in today's complex and challenging business environment and steer their organizations on a path to success.
A recent article by Danita Bye highlights the
unique problems managers face when hiring the right sales person in today's
depressed economy that is now overflowing with applicants.
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. Are they in the Battleground, Jungle, Frontier, or Kingdom? Why would this be
so important?
Each of these markets demands
that organizations be matched appropriately to their market conditions. For
example, a sales person that has sold medical devices (in a Frontier market)may be applying for a position with a soft drink company (on a Battleground). On paper that individual probably looks very
qualified.But the odds are that such a
hire not work out very well. One might be very successful in one market but
would struggle with a new company.Why
is that?
A large soft drink company
competing in a Battleground market requires
sales people to sell what is essentially a commodity that is almost exclusively
driven by price.The need here is to
match the organization with the right sales person who has a Warrior mentality.You receive your orders and go out every day
and do battle for shelf space.On the
other hand, the medical device company in the Frontier market demands the attitude of a Pioneer. You are challenged to have your customers "try it, do it,
and fix it". You are selling something
that no one else offers . . . usually
for a premium price.
This ongoing problem seems
to scream out to sales managers to find out the kind of market they are in, and
then evaluate sales candidates against the unique needs of their organizations.
If they don't know where they live, the
first step for sales managers would be to take the Perfect Biz Match assessment.Posted by Steve
by TONY . . . Too 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. Read More
by TONY . . . 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. Read More
by TONY . . . I 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. Read More
by TONY . . . It takes significant time and energy to really understand each individual direct report. This is all about building a relationship over time. Read More
by TONY . . . Today’s manager has abdicated his/her highest priority role: to create that workplace environment where people are highly productive. Read More
by JACK . . . For 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 one that manifests itself as a "clumsy, uncompetitive innovator." Read More
by DAVID . . . See 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. Read More
by JACK . . . Whether 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. Read More
by DAVID . . . Many managers and small business owners who discover a mismatch find that they needto reconsider the definition of the dimensions of their market . . . and where they add perceived value. Read More
by JACK . . . Teams that operate from a distance have some advantages and disadvantages in attempting to be productive. Is e-mail a positive or a negative? Read More
by TONY . . . It 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. Read More
by DAVID . . . Our associate, Paul Pelkola, thisweek shared with us three new white papers of timely, practical, and valuablehelp to all executives, managers, and entrepreneurs.His papers are now available to all for free.Read More
by JACK . .. After more than two decades, millions of dollars, and the efforts ofthousands of people, Saturn closed its doors as a complete failure. Why? Read More
by TONY . .
. I 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?
Read More
by JACK . . . A 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.Read More
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by DAVID . . . As 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.Read More
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by STEVE . . . Are you being challenged by the changing landscape of
your marketplace?Can't figure out what
is wrong or what to do?Read More
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by TONY . . . Being 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.Read More
by TONY . . . As 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. Read More
by JACK . . . Be 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.Read More
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by
DANITA . . . Although 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.Read More
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by DAVID . . . As 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.Read More
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by TOM . . . Maintain 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.Read More
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by JACK . . . 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.Read More
by TONY . . . I 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.Read More
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by JACK . . . Cisco 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.Read More
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by TONY . . . People ask all the time. How do I
get started?Here are my suggestions:Read More
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by
JACK . . . Making sense of an ever increasing barrage of websites
and platforms to bring information your way will be the next innovation.Read More
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by
TONY . . . I 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.Read More
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by TONY . . . My work is a constant discovery
and rediscovery of what I care about.My
work is listening, learning, loving, giving. Only this.Read More
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by STEVE . . . 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.Read More
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by DAVID . . . Once 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.Read More
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by JACK . . . Developing 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.Read More
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by TONY . . . Previous 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 you.Read More
by JACK . . . The 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.Read More
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by TONY . . . I 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 future.Read More
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by DAVID .
. . No 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."Read More
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by TONY . . . Whenever 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.Read More
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by 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.Read More
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.[if gte mso 9]>Normal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4
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Read More
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by TONY . . . We 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.Read More
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by 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.Read More
by DAVID . . . Whether 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.Read More
by JACK . . . Someone 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. Read More
by JACK . . . For 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. Read More
by JACK . . . All businesses need toassess what the new economy is doing to their market positions, and how far tothe right it is taking them. Margins are also being squeezed, whichindicates more and more businesses are trying to make a living in the Jungle. Read More
by TONY . . . Arguably
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.
Read More
by DAVID . . . In 1998, Gary Culliss was a brilliant HarvardLawSchool student who in his spare time developed a truly innovative popularity algorithm for use in Internet search engines.Read More
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by STEVE . . . 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."Read More
by JACK . . . Recently 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.
Read More
by STEVE . . . 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.Read More
by DAVID . . . What'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?Read More
by TONY . . . The 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. Read More
by DAVID . . . Demographics
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.Read More
by TONY . . . We 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.Read More
by DAVID . . . No 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. Read More
by JACK . . . Managing
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?
Read More
by JACK . . . Simultaneously 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.
Read More
by TONY . . . In
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. Read More
by STEVE . . . 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." Read More
by DAVID . . . 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. How do such companies
as Wendy's, Nucor Steel, and Proctor & Gamble differ with respect
to the frequency of their entrepreneurial activities and the intensity
of their innovation and risk taking? Read More
by DAVID . . . 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 owners be able to transform, through various legislative mandates, the U.S. auto market into the kind of Kingdom market that they can rule? Read More
by DAVID . . . In 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. Read More
by TONY . . . Competence is less important in a business executive than listening and
other communications skills, according to a survey for training and
development. Read More
by TONY . . . The 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. Read More
by TONY . . . Creating 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". Read More
Take just a few minutes to fill out the assessment, by clicking on the button below You'll learn much about your organization, your market, how well they fit together, and what steps you can take to improve your prospects for profitable growth.
