Last week, one of my longtime business friends was kind enough to introduce me to one of his new colleagues over lunch. I was grateful for my friend’s effort, but a touch horrified when his words of introduction described me as still doing work that I quit doing at least […]
Phil
172 posts
The first purpose of a small business is to serve the entrepreneur who created it and who owns it. The business may have other purposes: to serve customers and even to serve the community. But before these, the business must serve the entrepreneur. How does a business serve its owner? […]
Don’t print a testimonial that praises you for something you don’t want to do. One of my clients occasionally works miracles for its customers. When they feel they ought to, my client can pull off a rush job, manage a customer’s disorganized team, and do it all at a rock […]
“I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game — it is the game.”– Louis Gerstner, Jr., in Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Corporate Culture isn’t a new idea any more. But I think that its importance is on the comeback. […]
Everybody likes testimonials. But what are they really for? A testimonial’s number one job is to help you help you sell. A good testimonial shows that your product made somebody else happy: by generating money, saving money, or taking care of some other need that they thought was important. A […]
I’ll confess. I don’t have a system for backing up my files. Sure, I do make backups (offsite and onsite) at least every few months. And when I’m working on a critical document, I make constant backups by sending copies of my files-in-progress to an offsite mailhost. But I could […]
Winning companies make a habit of doing things that are good for their health. That means choosing work (whether they be projects and clients, or products and market sectors) that adds to the company’s bottom line, assets, and general happiness. What do you need for a track record of smart […]