Great executives and managers seem to intuitively know what they don’t know. But it is not at all uncommon to not even know what questions to ask. Who would have thought about COVID 19 and public’s panic responses? Image credit: Alexas_Fotos / Pixabay One week we all thought we had our responses dedicated to supply […]
Dave Berkus
CoronaVirus and Small Business: A Discussion About Economics
The CoronaVirus (Covid-19) will potentially cause some real economic disruptions in the US. Specifically, it will have an adverse affect on small and medium-sized businesses. Here are some tips to consider. Advice to managers, entrepreneurs With a multitude of caveats, it might be worthwhile to heed the following advice: Anticipate the worst, prepare for it, […]
Are You a Consensus Leader or Dictator?
It’s a good bet that you’ve been exposed to articles, courses and lectures about various styles of management. You’ve read how each is appropriate for some companies and for some levels of organization and at various times. When should the dictator in you emerge? A consensus-building leader works well in that style until someone yells […]
How to Undermine or Reinforce Your Corporate Culture
Ever had a manager who hung those motivational posters around the office, spoke of “pushing together,” or “you’re empowered to give great service”—and then acted at least once in complete disregard of those statements? You don’t want to be caught even once It takes only one time caught by subordinates to lose the faith of […]
How Do You Handle Your Cash Reserves?
Here comes some advice for all of us to use in business or in our personal lives. But to understand it, we need to delve into the short-and long-term sources and uses of cash. Good cash strategies to remember It is tempting to use available cash in good times to build the business and in […]
Why Recurring Revenues Increase Your Company’s Value
The massive shift in revenue models in recent years Have you noticed how many web apps and content have turned into subscription services during the last several years? Call it the Netflix effect. Application developers once considered their products as licensed in what would closely be allied to a single sale. Until someone realized that recurring […]
What is the Real Goal for Our Management and Company?
Often, we joke together as managers of companies or of people that our goal is “world domination” or “to crush the competition.” But no matter how stated, the primary goal of an enterprise is to make money. The three measures of progress How do you measure progress toward such an undefined goal? We measure it by […]
Over-Promoting Employees: Recalling the Peter Principle
Remember the Peter Principle? Funny how good messages come back in new forms after years of languishing out in the ether. Dr. Laurence J. Peter in The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong wrote in the early 1960’s of the “lateral arabesque,” describing how companies promote incompetent employees sometimes by sending them to another department or […]
Gamify Those Otherwise Dull Work Assignments
Most of us are driven by the competitive spirit, the desire or need to win. It reinforces self-worth, provides closure at the end of a good effort, and energizes us during the effort to achieve. Being driven to achieve results Many of us as managers—and our employees as workers—are driven by process, actions required to […]
“What’s in it for me?” A Motivational Lesson
Ever wonder why one of your employees, shareholders, managers, suppliers, or board members sometimes behaves in a way you might consider irrational? Putting yourself in their shoes If you want to best describe the motivation behind the action, think “What’s in it for me”? Your employees, your shareholders, your customers, and your suppliers are all driven […]
