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General Management

This section focuses on a wide scope of topics related to running your business from managing employees to setting strategy.


Human Resources

  • A Beginner’s Guide to Working from Home - Whenever you choose to work, however, make sure you use the time to work and work consistently. Treat yourself like your own employee; give yourself hours and make certain that you stick to them.
  • Telecommuting - Telecommuting has become a popular choice for business owners who are looking to increase efficiency, morale, and cut back on costs. Find out more in this article.
  • 10 Ways to Run an Effective Internship Program -
  • Internships: An Effective Means to Hire - “Employers view interns as a “breath of fresh air,” according to Ohio State University’s Career Services Department. This means that interns may be able to think differently than your average employees and may be able to provide a younger perspective to challenges.
  • How to Write a Job Description -
  • “The Sweet Life” Globalization and Offshoring Can Bring - In today's New York Times, there is a lengthy and fascinating piece detailing a rapidly increasing byproduct of India's economic boom times - and we're not talking about GDP. As the article says: In a changing India, it seems to go this way: make good money and get cars, get houses, get servants, get meals out, get diabetes. You want a sobering stat? Here you go, "In 20 years, projections are that there may be a staggering 75 million Indian diabetics." Who is a prime target for this dreaded disease? I'll give you a hint: it's not farmers!
  • Workplace Harassment - Defining workplace harassment, the impacts, consequences, and how it will be managed in the workplace
  • Progressive Discipline - Progressive Discipline is the process of using a set of progressive measures when an employee fails to correct his or her unacceptable behavior after being given opportunity to do so.
  • Job Descriptions - All employees like to know what is expected of them and how they will be evaluated. Job descriptions can also be of great value to employers.
  • All About Praise - Some employees don't go above and beyond the call of duty even when they know it will help the company, because they think nobody will recognize their efforts.

Management

  • Strengthening your Emotional Leadership - A step-by-step guide on improving your management skills and organizing your business by obtaining clarity in your own personal goals.
  • Complaining vs. Providing Solutions - There are two ways to handle problems. You can complain about it or you can solve it. Complainers will see the problem as just that - a problem. Problem solvers will see it as a challenge and will look for ways to improve the situation. It is easier to complain about something than it is to look for solutions.
  • Sustainability Drives Innovation - In the September 2009 Harvard Business Review, C.K. Prahalad along with Ram Nidumolu and M.R. Rangaswami suggested that "sustainability is a mother lode of organizational and technological innovations that yield both bottom-line and top-line returns."
  • Green Cleaning Resources - A list of green cleaning products, services, and guides. Look here if you don't know where to start with your janitorial program.
  • What Is A Small Business? - Provides some statistics on what a 'small business' is.
  • Unpopular Decision Making -
  • Teamwork -
  • Performance Management -
  • RAVING FAN CUSTOMERS - How to attract and maintain a substantial fan base.
  • Project Planning - Explanation of the "Project Tree" work model.

Management by Objectives

  • Goals and Objectives - What is the difference between a goal and an objective? Goals are broad; objectives are narrow. Goals are general intentions; objectives are precise.
  • Some Questions to Ask - Obviously, every business has its own individual challenges and opportunities. But most successful businesses of any size do tend to have something in common: none of them settle for the status quo. As an inherent part of their ongoing business model, these successful businesses regularly review their processes and operations.

FAQs

  • Goals and Objectives - What is the difference between a goal and an objective? Goals are broad; objectives are narrow. Goals are general intentions; objectives are precise.

Offshoring

  • When it comes to offshoring, do your homework! - Depending on what type of industry you’re in, and depending on what you’re looking for in terms of help, choosing “Country X” over “Country Y” may come down to how comprehensive their respective legal/legislative systems are in protecting the rights of companies doing offshoring business within their borders.
  • Can You Afford NOT to Innovate? - In today's business, innovation is key. Are you willing to take more chances to achieve greater success?
  • Offshoring Innovation – A Trend That’s Here to Stay? - Innovation is a global trend that some companies have mastered and others haven't. Innovation has become crucial in this age of ever changing technology, and is one of the first stepping stones of success in the business world. However instead of staying within the safety of company for new ideas, business owners are looking all over the world for fresh innovation.
  • “The Sweet Life” Globalization and Offshoring Can Bring - In today's New York Times, there is a lengthy and fascinating piece detailing a rapidly increasing byproduct of India's economic boom times - and we're not talking about GDP. As the article says: In a changing India, it seems to go this way: make good money and get cars, get houses, get servants, get meals out, get diabetes. You want a sobering stat? Here you go, "In 20 years, projections are that there may be a staggering 75 million Indian diabetics." Who is a prime target for this dreaded disease? I'll give you a hint: it's not farmers!
  • “Resource Turbulence” Bumpy Times Ahead for India? - No matter what, changes that allow more “have-nots” in India to become “haves” can’t be looked at by anyone as anything but a good thing, in and of itself. But in the process, will the growing pains involved in creating a more equitable Indian workforce irreparably harm the country’s well-earned place in the world as a leading provider of highly-skilled, highly-efficient labor?
  • “Medical Tourism” The Latest Outsourcing Niche to Take Off - The so-called medical tourism phenomena where patients who lack adequate medical insurance and the money for high-cost, often-life-saving surgical procedures opt to travel from the US to countries like India, Thailand, Singapore, Mexico, etc., is an example of a booming outsourcing niche. And it's only going to get bigger from here.
  • Working with the “enemy”: Co-opetition is driving innovation today - This new era of globalization has opened the door to co-opetition for small businesses as well. I think if small businesses embrace globalization and take the options it provides them seriously, co-opetition could be their answer - at least in addressing the new competition brought in by multinationals from BRIC nations I touched on in an earlier post.
  • Will Global Layoffs Benefit India? - It is premature to believe that the business that was once theirs will now come to India. Much of it is hi- tech work that doesnt fit into the current paradigm of the Indian outsourcing industry.
  • Where do you go for offshoring help? These days, it’s a whole wide world. - Of course, all this is a very good thing for businesses in the U.S. and elsewhere that are in need of some offshoring help. More countries offering quality offshoring services means more options and more negotiationg leverage for these companies. It's a "win-win," as that horrible old cliche goes.
  • Where Does America Go From Here? - Encourage America’s corporations to begin to turn their focus away from products and services that are easily “commoditized” by countries like China, India, Brazil, etc. and instead focus on what America allegedly has always done best - “innovation” and “marketing."

Strategy and Execution

  • Customers: The Heart of Your Business - In the face of global business, innovation in serving the customer and increasing the value of your customer's experience with the company and its products has become a necessity. If you don’t find new ways of engaging and serving the customer, your competitor will. So, learn to focus your innovation efforts on the customer, and you will build lasting, profitable customer relationships.
  • Learning to Fail Your Way to Success! - Some of the most successful people have failed numerous times in their life. In fact a lot of companies even claim their failures as the reason they are now successful. Failure and innovation go hand and hand. Taking risk is a great way to help any business become more successful.
  • Thomas Friedman Op-Ed, and the Correction - A look at the recent economic recession from a green lens: is this downturn a sign that we've been doing things wrong for fifty years?
  • What is Execution - Execution is about achieving results. It's about turning ideas into actions and dreams into reality. Without action, no plan has any meaning.
  • Driving Results - Market research has been the traditional approach for companies trying to discover which product innovations are the ones people really want.
  • Strategy - How to build a well-defined business strategy.
  • Steps to Excellence - The "Balanced Scorecard," method is a tool for helping companies achieve success.
  • Progress Over Perfection - The efficiency behind the "Progress Over Perfection" business philosophy.
  • Guidelines for Developing Personal Leadership Philosophy - Building your leadership goals and strategies.
  • Observational Research - The pros and cons of Observational Research.

Driving Results

  • Driving Results - Market research has been the traditional approach for companies trying to discover which product innovations are the ones people really want.

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