Business Strategy Archives - Page 10 of 22

10 Mar 2010

Business Management in Economic Recessions

Books Business Strategy Economy

Consider this: Back in December 1982, a business manager with 25 years of experience had worked through five recessions. Now fast forward to December 2007. The next generation of business leaders, those again with 25 …

23 Feb 2010

The Value of an Economic Consultant: The Lagging Division

Business Strategy

Coming out of a recession (not the most recent, but another recession), a company had one line of business with flat sales. The company’s other divisions were hitting double-digit growth rates, but this one division …

18 Feb 2010

Getting Value from a Consultant: A Story About Misdirection

Business Strategy

Good advice in engaging consultants, from a recent LinkedIn discussion, is to be specific about what you want. However, sometimes good results occur with some misdirection. A client asked me to help them with an …

16 Feb 2010

Leadership Focus in the Best Managed Companies

Business Strategy

Quote of the day: "The best managed companies have leaders focused on the future, not on today." Tim Freeman When I meet with executives these days, I'm generally seeing people concentrating on current issues. Thinking …

8 Feb 2010

The Value of a Business Consultant

Business Strategy

My best example of the value of consulting is actually a sailing story. I was the guest skipper of a 37-foot sailboat racing off Berkeley, California on a calm winter day. The racing area is …

7 Feb 2010

“Adopt a Recovery Mindset” for Business Planning

Business Strategy Economy

The Eugene Register-Guard quotes me giving that advice: Executives and business owners charged with strategic planning for 2010, here’s a bit of advice from Economist Bill Conerly: “Stop thinking like it’s a recession, and start …

3 Feb 2010

6 Steps for Businesses That Need Credit

Business Strategy Economy

Yesterday I shared my thoughts about bank credit standards. Today let's talk about what a business that needs credit should do in this environment. A business that needs credit should do the following six steps: …

31 Jan 2010

Markets Don’t Stay Bad Forever: Cycles, Trends, and an Oil Refining Example

Business Strategy Economy

Valero Energy Corp. is selling oil refineries that it had bought a few years ago. We used to have a shortage of domestic refining capacity, but now we have an excess—even though there has not …

30 Jan 2010

Inventories in the Economic Recovery: Caterpillar Snaps the Bullwhip

Business Strategy Economy

The recession is the time to cut inventories. The recovery is the time to re-stock. First, though, you have to make sure that your vendors are up to the challenge. The Wall Street Journal recently …

21 Jan 2010

The Future of Banking

Business Strategy Economy

I've been spending a lot of my time working on the future of finance and banking. If you're a banker (or bank association officer), take a look at this summary of my work on The …

19 Jan 2010

Massachusetts Senate Race: Implications for Business

Business Strategy

I try to avoid politics in this blog, but sometimes I cannot. Republican candidate Scott Brown has won Ted Kennedy's senate seat, in "the Scott heard round the world." You are a business leader who …

12 Jan 2010

Employee Attitudes in the Economic Recovery: Take This Job …

Business Strategy Economy

I always loved listening to Johnny Paycheck sing Take This Job and Shove It. Now some workers are actually saying that. Here's the number of quits in the entire economy: Quits are still well down …