Employee Training and Managerial Development for Free!!

Posted on December 4, 2012 by David Shedd

More than ever, companies need to train and develop their employees and managers. As such, countless billions of dollars are spent on seminars, executive education, speakers, etc. The results, however, have been underwhelming.

The dirty little secret is that, done right, the best employee training and managerial development takes place on the job and in the office. And usually this training costs absolutely nothing to do.

The training may be free; but the benefits are enormous. Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Leadership, Team / People | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Determining the ROI of Product Development

Posted on November 5, 2012 by David Shedd

This is a guest blog by K. Armen Miamidian, a time-tested CFO for successful mid-market companies.

What’s Pumping Your Profits: An Internal Look at the ROI of Product Development?

  • When are expenses not just costs?
  • Why do risky assumptions become seductive?
  • How can you master the future by measuring the past?
  • Where do you find undiscovered strategic intelligence?
  • What is your P&L not telling you? Continue reading →
Posted in Business Acumen, Growth and Strategy, Sales and Marketing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Instilling Passion Back Into Our Businesses

Posted on October 23, 2012 by David Shedd

For many companies, the last few years have been a long, hard slog for the leaders and employees alike.

  • Raises and bonuses have been minimal.
  • It is more difficult to make good profits and win.
  • Anxiety is high as there is no certainty as to when current weak business conditions will improve.

As a result, many businesses lack the passion and drive that they once had.

Within each of our companies, how can we, as business leaders, re-ignite the enthusiasm, energy, and drive to be the best? Continue reading →

Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership, Team / People | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Social Media for the B2B Executive

Posted on October 9, 2012 by David Shedd

Social media – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, etc. – usually revolves around business to consumer (B2C) efforts. In it, companies are trying to reach many possible customers through their social media effort.

For business to business (B2B) companies, the situation is quite different. The prevailing relationship is not one to many. Rather, it is one to one or one to few. In B2B, it is vital to have personal interaction and develop real off-line relationships. As such…

B2B companies need to use the on-line world of social media as a gateway to create relationships in the physical world. Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Growth and Strategy, Sales and Marketing | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Data Analytics 101

Posted on September 25, 2012 by David Shedd

Data Analytics…Big Data…Sabermetrics

With the success of the book and movie, Moneyball, a few success stories in the retail world (Amazon and Wal-Mart), and a lot of hype from the consulting and technology industry, data analytics has become a buzzword in the C-suite.

The goal of data analytics is to properly evaluate and model the data your company collects on sales, customers, marketing, profitability, etc. in order to spot a growing market segment or business opportunity and make your company more profitable.

The holy grail of analytics is to match what Amazon, Google, and Wal-Mart have done in using analytics to transform their industries and reap substantial profits. Continue reading →

Posted in Growth and Strategy, Improve / Turnaround, Sales and Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Three Paradoxes of Leading Multiple Business Units

Posted on September 11, 2012 by David Shedd

As your company expands or as you progress up the ranks in your company, you will likely move from having P&L (profit and loss) responsibility for one business unit to having P&L responsibility for several different business units (usually located in several different geographic markets).

To be successful in this role, you will have to balance three paradoxes.

1.  Centralization v. Local Autonomy

Continue reading →

Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Perform / Execution | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Goal – Operational Excellence Made Possible

Posted on September 5, 2012 by David Shedd

In their book, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox introduced their Theory of Constraints as a primary method to realize operational improvement.

Key Concepts

  • Global Optimization: The key in any process and any operation is to optimize the whole system, especially being wary of local optimums. Continue reading →
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Master These Three Processes First in Order to Thrive in 2013

Posted on August 28, 2012 by David Shedd

Every year, countless companies undertake process improvements and change initiatives.  Most fail. Generally, they fail for one of three reasons:

  1. Continue reading →
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Manufacturing Made Simple

Posted on August 21, 2012 by David Shedd

In their book, All I Need to Know About Manufacturing I Learned in Joe’s Garage: World Class Manufacturing Made Simple, William B. Miller and Vicki L. Schenk lay out the basic principles of low cost, high quality, on-time manufacturing. The book is a quick read and a nice reminder of the importance of keeping any and every process as simple, fast, and intuitive as possible.

Ten Commandments of Manufacturing Excellence

Continue reading →

Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sales and Marketing in a Time and Attention Starved World

Posted on August 14, 2012 by David Shedd

In today’s over-saturated world of twenty four hour media, advertisement, and promotion, we are drowning in too much data and too many messages. Our brains are full, and our attention span is depleted.

Paradoxically, despite this flood of information, we remain thirsty for highly specific information that directly helps us solve our problems.

As such, the goal of sales and marketing today needs to center around providing only that specific information that is highly relevant to the prospect or customer. It is WII-FM (What’s In It For Me) on steroids. Continue reading →

Posted in Growth and Strategy, Sales and Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

High Impact Selling – Timeless Sales Advice

Posted on August 7, 2012 by David Shedd

My re-reading of William T. Brooks’ 1988 book, High Impact Selling: Power Strategies for Successful Selling, reminded me that the keys to successful sales have been known for years. They just need to be implemented and followed.

Fundamentals of High Impact Selling

  • People buy for their own reasons, not for yours or mine
    • WII-FM – What’s In It for Me?
    • Thus, make your every appeal to the prospect’s self-interests
  • People do not want to be sold; they want to buy
    • People buy benefits – not features, products or services
      • What do you do to appeal to your customer’s interests and desires?
      • What value does the purchase of your product and service create for the customer? Continue reading →
Posted in Growth and Strategy, Sales and Marketing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

We Need Less Leadership!

Posted on July 31, 2012 by David Shedd

In her thought-provoking book, The End of Leadership, Barbara Kellerman writes:

One of the problems plaguing the leadership industry is its fixation on developing good leaders, while ignoring completely the problem of stopping or at least slowing bad leaders. Stopping bad leadership is as important as creating good leadership.

Based on my experience with turnarounds and re-igniting growth at stagnant companies, I agree fully. The problem at all of these stagnating or declining companies was that there was too much of the wrong kind of leadership; there was too much bad leadership. Continue reading →

Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Perform / Execution | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Hire Smart or Manage Tough – Sound (But Often Forgotten) Hiring Advice

Posted on July 24, 2012 by David Shedd

“No management style can undo the damage of a poor hiring decision.”

Red Scott

In the quick read, Hire Smart or Manage Tough, Red Scott, the former Vice-Chairman of Pier One Imports and a grand-nephew of legendary tough guy, General George S. Patton, dispenses advice on why and how to hire top talent. Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The 4 Innate Qualities of Great Employees

Posted on July 17, 2012 by David Shedd

With title inflation, clever wordsmithing, and self-marketing campaigns, every employee or potential employee appears to be a great employee. However, we all know the truth; few people are stars. In order to differentiate people and find the gem, seek out people with all of these four innate qualities: Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Success, Team / People | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Fast Track to Waste-Free Manufacturing – Appropriate for Any Process

Posted on July 10, 2012 by David Shedd

In his still-insightful 1999 book, Fast Track to Waste-Free Manufacturing: Straight Talk from a Plant Manager, John W. Davis discusses how to improve a manufacturing operation by a simple and relentless focus on waste. The methodology he describes is really applicable to improving any process in your business.

Introduction

  • A change to waste free manufacturing can take 12 – 18 months and must be daily led by the plant manager.
  • Waste free manufacturing is a never ending process that simply will not allow business as usual. Continue reading →
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Lessons from a Customer

Posted on July 3, 2012 by David Shedd

Over the last month, my family and I have moved from Chandler, Arizona to Newport Beach, California. We sold our house in Chandler, moved ourselves and our belongings, and bought a house in Newport Beach.

As so many of you who have done similar moves know, we became “turbocharged customers” during this two month process, hemorrhaging money as we fixed up our former house to get ready to sell, moved, and fixed up our new house. By my latest reckoning, we have dealt with 106 stores, companies, and service providers in the course of this move.

The overall lesson from this one customer is sober.

Good Customer Service is Rare

Continue reading →

Posted in Growth and Strategy, Perform / Execution, Sales and Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Leadership Machine – Developing Skills for Your Leaders and Executives

Posted on June 26, 2012 by David Shedd

In their book, The Leadership Machine (Architecture to Develop Leaders For Any Future), Michael W. Lombard and Robert W. Eichinger discuss ways to build leaders and develop leadership competencies (skills) in any company. Although the book is a bit too full of consulting speak, it does contain useful ideas on what makes good executives and leaders. And it provides insights and ideas on how to develop specific leadership skills that may be lacking in your executives.

Why Leadership?

  • There is a leadership supply problem. There are not enough good managers and leaders in almost every company. Continue reading →
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Personal Success | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The “Hard Work” Myth

Posted on June 19, 2012 by David Shedd

A few months ago, there was a lot of discussion and a bit of vitriol about Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, and her habit of leaving the office at 5:30 pm in order to have dinner with her family. Much of the discussion has focused on the difficulty of women in executive positions to balance work and life, etc.

For me, the issue is that Ms. Sandberg is puncturing that greatest of American entrepreneurial and corporate myths:

To work hard is to work long hours.

Continue reading →

Posted in Perform / Execution, Personal Success, Team / People | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance – An Inside View of a Successful Turnaround and Culture Change

Posted on June 12, 2012 by David Shedd

In Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? – Leading a Great Enterprise Through Dramatic Change, former IBM CEO, Lou Gerstner, gives a first-hand account of how he led the turnaround of IBM in the 1990’s. I recommend the book  for businesspeople (in any industry) to see a case study in turning a company around and significantly changing a business culture.

Continue reading →

Posted in Growth and Strategy, Improve / Turnaround | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Do You Want Fries With That?” – An Opportunity for Profitable Growth

Posted on June 5, 2012 by David Shedd

McDonald’s employees are trained to ask all customers whether they want fries with their meal. This little question, repeated millions of times a day in thousands of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide, creates millions of dollars of profits for McDonald’s as millions of customers go ahead and purchase the high margin McDonald’s fries.

In today’s slow-growth economy, all businesses should follow McDonald’s lead:

What other related products or services can you offer to your customers at the time of purchase?

Continue reading →

Posted in Growth and Strategy, Sales and Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments