The worrying that always precedes a change When a new CEO or manager is hired into a company, for a while lots of energy flows from the top and new ideas seem to be generated daily. It is one reason not to fear the unknown when upper level management long in place turns over, often […]
Innovation
6 Ways to Prepare Your Company for the Future of Work
It’s time to take the drudgery and dread out of work at your business. You don’t like it, millennials won’t put up with it, and current productivity levels at work continue to decline. Only 32 percent of American workers are even engaged at work today. Most workers are still rushing to retirement, where they hope to escape […]
Surprise! How to Pick Up on a Trend
One of the truths about marketing is that our work often hints at or takes advantages of cultural trends that are on the rise. I love that we get to leverage emerging shifts and mine them for the truths they contain. They’re like a little surprise waiting for us around the corner. But to do […]
How to Beat the Odds and Build Big Data Projects That Work
By now, there’s little doubt that small businesses must adopt data-driven strategies to thrive in the modern economy. That imperative has driven many to rush headlong into big data projects, only to see them devour scarce resources and deliver few measurable results. They’re not alone. According to one Gartner analyst, 85% of all big data […]
Important Work Automation Forms to Consider
Businesses are undergoing dramatic transformations with the advent of AI and automation. The very fabric of the workplace is being transformed by the implementation of different types of automation systems. The technological changes are designed to perform routine and repetitive duties, augment human activities, and in some cases replace humans altogether. The implementation of workforce […]
How Do Food Entrepreneurs Learn? Check Out These Non-Traditional Methods
Entrepreneurship is having its heyday. It’s a term on most tongues in most sectors. The same is true of food. Put together, you get a double hot topic. Across the country, incubators and accelerators are popping up to support food entrepreneurs. New York is leading the charge with the likes of Food-X and AccelFoods. San […]
Could Small-Town USA Be the Future of the Manufacturing Industry?
There’s a scene in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factorywhere the title character shows off his “revolutionary, nonpollutionary, mechanical wonder” in action. Willy Wonka, with a twinkle in his eye, pushes a single button, and the entire machine whirs to life, mixing and milling and drilling. After a few seconds of constrained chaos, out pops a flawless, […]
How Much Time Do You Spend “Outside the Box?”
So, you’re managing all that work, all those interruptions, all those texts and pesky emails. You get home at some reasonable hour, kind of tired, and needing a recharge. Sound familiar? Well, that’s probably because you’ve “wasted” a significant portion of your time on tasks others could have done effectively. So, where do you get those […]
Balancing Innovation with Healthy Revenue Streams
Many businesses live and die on the speed at which they introduce new ideas. From an outsider’s point of view, this may sound like a call for immediately pushing out as many products or services as possible within a short period of time. In reality, balancing innovation with business realities is a far more intricate […]
10 Thinking Methods That Foster Business Innovation
Innovation is the key to long-term business success, both in startups as well as established organizations. Yet every business and every entrepreneur I know struggles with this challenge, focused on hiring the right people and implementing the right process. Yet, in my experience the key seems to be more a discipline of innovative thinking from […]
