How to Acquire More Clients (and Maintain Your Integrity) We’ve all been manipulated into buying something we didn’t need. This type of selling behavior is particularly egregious for professional service providers because it is the antithesis of being a trusted advisor. Not surprisingly, a high percentage of professional service providers — attorneys, accountants, architects, consultants …
How One Business is Disrupting Its Market I don’t write food or restaurant reviews, but I admire any organization that changes the game and distinguishes itself in a crowded field. One such organization is the fast casual restaurant Hot Chicken Takeover (HCT) in Columbus, Ohio. It’s disrupting the fast casual restaurant market by competing on …
Dinosaur or Dynamo? How to Stay Relevant in a Rapidly Changing World Hasn’t the internet rendered public libraries nearly obsolete? That was the question in my mind as I watched Patrick Losinski, CEO of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, receive his “CEO of the Year Award” from Columbus CEO Magazine. I was wrong, at least about …
A Short Meditation on Customer Needs (Modeled after “If-by-whiskey,” the famous 1952 speech by Noah S. “Soggy” Sweat, Jr.) On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me where I stand concerning the commonly held belief that …
Increase Your Innovation Reward While Reducing Risk Many executives believe that innovation carries a risk-reward trade-off that dictates, “Any money invested in innovation can generate higher returns only if there is a commensurate higher risk of failure.” While the risk-reward trade-off theory makes a lot of sense when investing in mutual funds, it should not …
Why I Went Into Business I grew up wanting to be a psychologist or a journalist. I lived in a community in Philadelphia where business was seen as crass, as selfishly grasping for material wealth instead of seeking to make a positive difference in the world. But shortly after graduating from college, I found myself …
Debunking the Belief That ‘Customers Cannot Tell Us What They Want’
The Value of Learning How to Conduct a “Customer Diagnosis” A lot of damage has been done to the profession of sales — and capitalism in general — because business people often think their objective is to “make a sale” or “maximize shareholder value.” For many people, the very words “sales” and “selling” convey pushing …
What Most Companies Miss When Trying to Drive Innovation Innovation enables companies to differentiate, establish competitive advantage, and drive revenue growth, so it isn’t surprising that nearly every executive wants his or her company to be innovative. When I ask executives how they are driving innovation, people often tell me about their tactics to encourage …
Take a Lesson from Nike’s Strategy Playbook I’m sure many people felt sympathy for Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge when they saw he had to run most of the Berlin Marathon in late September with the neon-green insoles of his new Nike shoes hanging out. He still won the marathon, but fell 63 seconds short of the …
Input your search keywords and press Enter.