Recent corporate financial scandals have highlighted the importance of business ethics and legal compliance. Yet a recent National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) survey of 280 corporate CEOs and directors found that "only one of three directors felt that they were highly effective in ensuring legal compliance". Building an Ethics and Compliance ProgramMost companies realize that they need to develop and implement a business ethics and...more
Many financial services power-houses—e.g., Fidelity, CitiBank, Merrill Lynch and MetLife, have adopted a marketing positioning strategy that portrays them as leaders in virtually all segments of the market. As a result, their financial sales and marketing campaigns focus on casting a very wide net in order to attract the largest possible market.The practices of these industry "Goliaths" have spawned many financial services "Davids" who believe...more
Effective communication skills are essential to successful business development. Yet they're often under-emphasized and sometimes completely ignored. Why? Because we communicate so much and so often (approximately 20,000 words per day) we often take it for granted. But regardless of how good your product or service is and how much expertise you have in your area, it all goes to waste unless you can communicate it to others. When you actually get the chance to sit down with a potential client and discuss doing business together, don't blow it by committing one of these big five business development blunders. 1. Talking about your product or service. Infodumping is simply telling someone all there is to know about what you're selling. You probably cover how long you've been in business, who developed what, your philosophy of business, your market share and all the choices you have available. This approach is likely to leave the potential client in exactly the same place on the sales continuum as when you started. Your objective should be to get him to gravitate towards you. Go into your meeting with a strategic goal. What specifically do you want him to know, do or believe...more
You must decide for yourself whether you will charge for your services or not. Should you decide to charge, the next question is "what should my fee be?"1. Determine What You Need To MakeWhen setting fees, part of the calculation is how much you need (and want!) to make. If you first decide how much profit you need to make, you can then determine...more
Here's a bunch of important things you should know about day trading before you start. First off, can you daytrade if you don't have the requisite $25,000 plus? Yes. You can start Day Trading with as little as $750 if you decide to trade using a spreadbetting account rather than a standard broker, allowing you to ignore most day trading regulations...more
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 both as a key component of their business strategy and a vital cog in their environmental plans as well. Lex Vehicle Leasing, part of the RAC group, has been using video conferencing between its Manchester, Marlow and Stirling offices and since the beginning of 2004 estimates that it has saved over 80 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere. In addition to this environmental benefit the company also reported time savings of almost 6,000 hours from employees not travelling to meetings and getting bogged down in congestion. To put this into perspective this figure equates to over 150 working weeks when Lex employees were at their desks helping customers and not stuck in their cars travelling too and fro. There are also several...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...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...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...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....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...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