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Author Archives: David Shedd
The Sweetness Of Doing Nothing
Ahhh, summertime! The time to take a vacation: to get away from the office; to relax; to spend time with the family and enjoy the important things in life. Alas, it appears that yet again most business leaders will … Continue reading
Leadership and the One Minute Manager (Kenneth Blanchard)
Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Kenneth Blanchard In leadership, don’t work harder; work smarter Lao-Tzu: “When the best leader’s work is done, the people say: ‘we did it ourselves.’” Management requires different strokes for different folks There … Continue reading
Better B2B Branding
In B2C (Business to Consumer), the brand is and has long been a vital component of all sales and marketing efforts. The Nike Swoosh™, the Coke brand, and the Apple brand are literally worth billions of dollars each to their … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Sales and Marketing
Tagged B2B, Brand, Business Leadership, Made to Stick, Manage to the Brand
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How the Mighty Fall (Jim Collins)
How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In: Jim Collins Summary For companies, there are Five Stages of Decline Hubris (excessive pride) born of success When “we are successful because we do these specific things” replaces the … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership
Tagged Business Decline, Business Leadership, How the Mighty Fall, Packard's Law
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The Management Myth (Matthew Stewart)
The Management Myth: Why the Experts Keep Getting It Wrong: Matthew Stewart In this book, the author, Matthew Stewart, interlaces accounts of his life as a consultant with a critique of current consultant and management thought. His overall view is … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership
Tagged Competitive Advantage, Consultant, Pareto 80 - 20, The Management Myth
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The Magic of Three – The “Windex” of a Winning Business
Throughout my blog posts, you will notice that I construct lots of lists in explaining and clarifying certain points. You may also note that most of these lists have three points. In doing this, I am using a technique … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Perform / Execution
Tagged Communication, Focus, Make It Happen, Priritization
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Switch (Chip Heath and Dan Heath)
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard: Chip Heath and Dan Heath This is an excellent book, which I recommend that you read. My notes are reasonably short and only give a flavor of what is discussed. Filled … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Improve / Turnaround
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Find Someone Doing Something Right Every Day
Last time, we ended with a quote from the psychologist William James: “The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.” As the leader of your company or business unit, one of your key roles is to build … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Leadership, Team / People
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Lessons from Private Equity any Company Can Use (Orit Gadiesh and Hugh MacArthur)
Lessons from Private Equity Any Company Can Use In the last few years, key Private Equity players have shifted their focus from financial engineering toward creating operating value. They are creating operating value in a systematic and focused way. As … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership
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The Beatings Will Stop Once Morale Improves!
In countless workforce surveys, employee morale and employee loyalty are at record lows. According to these surveys, a large majority of employees will, at the first opportunity, go out and find another job, gleefully leaving their current “@!$#*%* employers”. … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Team / People
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Raving Fans (Kenneth Blanchard and Sheldon M. Bowles)
Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service Successful organizations have one common central focus: customers Goods are not sold by companies Products are bought by customers As IBM used to advise its salespeople, “stop selling what you have … Continue reading
Business Turnaround 201 – Focus
In the blog, “Business Turnaround 101 – Let’s Be Honest,” we saw that the three fundamentals to turn a troubled business around are as follows: Understand Reality, Face Reality Focus, Prioritize, Plan (Less is More) Right People Doing the Right … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution
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Why Smart Executives Fail (Sydney Finkelstein)
The “standard” causes of failure do not explain why smart executives fail “The executives were stupid.” “The executives could not have known what was coming.” Etc. New ventures often fail spectacularly Do not lose sight of what counts in … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership
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Business Turnaround 101 – Let’s Be Honest
“My business is in trouble. We are losing money. Customers are not buying. Morale is low. And we cannot seem to do anything right.” What then must be done? You have to turn around your business. But, how? On this … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership
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Winning (Jack Welch)
Jack Welch’s best seller Winning gives the renowned GE CEO’s view on what business leadership is all about. As excerpted from the book and from a subsequent article in Business Week (www.businessweek.com), I give a summary of the business leadership … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership
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Change – A Broad Overview
Read the business magazines or the Wall Street Journal and change is, as always, a hot topic: “The world is changing faster than ever, so you have to change faster or you will become a dinosaur.” “People hate change. … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Improve / Turnaround
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What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (Marshall Goldsmith)
This book by executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith, discusses the weaknesses in leadership behavior that eventually catch up with most leaders and lead to their downfall. Use this list of weaknesses to evaluate your own behavior and those of your key … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership
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Quotes Relating to Winning at Business That I Just Like
Quotes on Decision Making and Problem Solving “A problem well stated is a problem well solved.” John Dewey (American Educator) “Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises” Samuel Butler “Defining a problem is key to … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership
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Quotes on Change
In some upcoming blogs, I will be discussing change and how to significantly change and improve your business. The three keys for change are the following: Understand Reality, Face Reality Focus, Prioritize, Plan (Less is More) Right People Doing the … Continue reading
Quotes on “Customer Service”
As you may recall, I consider “Customer Service” to be the third of the three keys for a Winning Business. Customer Service is defined as: Value Your Customers and Exceed Their Expectations Expand Your Business Outward on the Shoulders of … Continue reading
