Video conferencing is a friend of the environment. It helps reduce the volume of CO2 emissions from cars and reduces traffic congestion on our roads (as well as improving company productivity and reducing costs!). As governments throughout the world look to cut their CO2 emissions to meet global treaties, such as Kyoto, companies can use video conferencing as an easy means of achieving just that. Many leading companies now use video conferencing...more
Recent mergers in many industries remind me of a point that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower often made, "Generals move the pins on a map," he would say, "but the front-line troops have to get the job done."And the key to the job is leadership, small-unit leadership, leadership of the most basic units or teams of an organization. Without good leadership in front-line units  the squad leaders and platoon commanders or their business counterparts, the...more
The greatest occupational high that financial services Marketing Directors experience is bringing a vision to market through a financial product or service innovation. Seeking to experience the same euphoria that great inventors like Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Edison must have felt, they follow their dream of implementing a financial product idea that they believe will generate significant incremental sales. Unfortunately, that dream seldom becomes reality. We have been monitoring financial product launches for over two decades and now recognize that the failure rate of financial products and services is well in excess of 80%. Despite these odds, the search for the next big financial product idea lives in the hearts and minds of almost every worthy financial services Marketing Director.Only a few decades ago, the vast majority of new financial products and services introduced into the marketplace were successful. In today's cluttered competitive financial services marketing environment, however, virtually all financial product and service categories have matured and are over-represented. Now, to become a marketplace success, a new financial product usually has to take market share...more
Do you have an idea for a business? Perhaps the only idea you have is that you NEED an idea so you CAN start a business. Before turning any idea into a business, you must first have an idea how to succeed. For most people, the definition of a successful business is one which is profitable, and a profitable business is built upon ideas that have...more
Practical Biz Solutions The business success newsletter for business owners, top executives, and commission sales people from Stan MannPlease forward Practical Biz Solutions to appropriate friends.Dear Reader: High Achievers have great strengths. They also have correspondingly great weaknesses. The very leadership style that worked so wonderfully...more
Why do some teams perform well while others struggle? How can you assess how effectively your team is working now, and identify methods for improvement?Research shows that 85% of the reasons that teams of people succeed or struggle has more to do with interpersonal issues, than technical competence. But both are needed for effective teamwork. Below please find a checklist you can use to identify the strengths and development needs of your own team:1. Clear GoalsIt's very hard to get there if you don't know where you're going! And it's very hard to accomplish your goals if you haven't made them clear. Make sure there's no question about your team's purpose, function and objective.2. Clear Roles and Responsibilities.It's important that roles and responsibilities are clearly specified in order for people to be accountable for accomplishing their part of the team's tasks. Misunderstandings and conflicts frequently occur when roles and expectations are not clearly defined.3. Information Sharing.In order for the team to make the best decisions, each team member needs to be provided with relevant information. High performing teams don't guard informationÂ… they share it freely.4....more
If you gather 100 experienced leaders together to share with you their most important secrets for success, you probably wouldn't hear a lot of academic theory or jargon. Instead, this is a good idea of what you'd hear:1) Put ethics first. If you...more
Before you call your next meeting, the FIRST step is to decide if it is really essential. To determine that, ask yourself the following: Is this meeting essential? Can we do without it? Can we accomplish the task without a meeting? Can it wait...more
You wouldn't build your home on anything less than a solid foundation. Similarly, you can't build wealth and financial independence without first having sound foundational principles to build upon.I have found that many people are working on wealth...more
If someone offered to loan you $2100 of your own money at interest rates of up to 222% you'd probably laugh at them and walk away; but, this spring, 1 in 10 Americans will do just that: they'll borrow their own money at interest rates as high as...more
A strong tendency towards a sellers market will continue until the baby boomers finish the cycle of buying and selling real estate, estimated to end in 20 years, according to the Senior Real Estate Association. Baby boomers (born between 1946-1964)...more
There are many simple, infallible ways to earn income, and one of the surest ways is through marketing your business on the internet. When you learn basic internet marketing techniques, you'll wonder why you haven't already jumped on the bandwagon....more