My friend and colleague, Henry Osborne, CEO of online backup provider, DCSBackups (www.dcsbackups.com) and I were talking recently about how the Katrina disaster is still impacting people in the New Orleans area. The conversation came around to businesses and how they did or did NOT recover from the disaster. Henry's company does online backup for businesses. Not to sound too much like a commercial, but this is a service that EVERY BUSINESS MUST HAVE. We use it here.
It's easy to get distracted from important things like backing up your data. Every day brings a whole new list of fire drills and crises that take our time and attention. But, think about it. More and more of our businesses are founded on access to important information.
What are you doing about backing up your critical business information? Have you ever actually tested your data recovery procedures? If you had a fire, or your sprinkler system went off would you be out of business?
Make an appointment with yourself and get this taken care of. You have life insurance to protect your family. Get "life insurance" for your business.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Monday, February 20, 2006
Shoot for Sustainability
Professor David Rainey, the Dean at the Lally School of Business at Rensselaer Polytechnic in Hartford, CT is working on a book on sustainable business development. After a recent conversation with him, I got to thinking about sustainability as it pertains to managing a consulting business (or even a sales territory).
Many consultants, (and sales exectives) live in a world of "feast or famine" where they are either workign flat out to close sales/process transactions/deliver services OR they are in a slump where they are working hard to scratch out that next sale. This results in the sterotypical "roller coaster" of revenues or commissions that makes life frustrating, trying, painful and draining.
A professional is someone who recognizes this pattern and takes steps to at least lower the amplitude of the wave. One way to do this is to manage your time is such a way as to always leave some time for filling the hopper with new opportunities. I do that by scheduling time each week to new business development, regardless of how "busy" I am.
By booking time in Outlook, when someone calls, I can schedule around that critical time. My customers get time and I get time to make sure I keep having customers!
What are you doing to make sure your pipeline is always full?
Many consultants, (and sales exectives) live in a world of "feast or famine" where they are either workign flat out to close sales/process transactions/deliver services OR they are in a slump where they are working hard to scratch out that next sale. This results in the sterotypical "roller coaster" of revenues or commissions that makes life frustrating, trying, painful and draining.
A professional is someone who recognizes this pattern and takes steps to at least lower the amplitude of the wave. One way to do this is to manage your time is such a way as to always leave some time for filling the hopper with new opportunities. I do that by scheduling time each week to new business development, regardless of how "busy" I am.
By booking time in Outlook, when someone calls, I can schedule around that critical time. My customers get time and I get time to make sure I keep having customers!
What are you doing to make sure your pipeline is always full?
Friday, February 03, 2006
CEO Confidence Reaches New High
Led by four consecutive bullish months, the Chief Executive CEO Confidence Index hit its highest level of all time in January. The leading economic indicator currently stands at 182.4, up 9.8 points this month and 31.5 points since October. The Employment, Investment, and Business Conditions indices also reached historical highs this month.
Chief Executive magazine has the ear of many executives nationwide. This news bodes well for those of us who sell our products and services to the business community. What are you going to do about it?
Now is the time to capitalize on this sentiment. Stretch yourself. Enter new markets. Try new approaches, new product offerings and make new connections. Spending the time now will pay big dividends NOW and in the future when the market inevitably softens.
Chief Executive magazine has the ear of many executives nationwide. This news bodes well for those of us who sell our products and services to the business community. What are you going to do about it?
Now is the time to capitalize on this sentiment. Stretch yourself. Enter new markets. Try new approaches, new product offerings and make new connections. Spending the time now will pay big dividends NOW and in the future when the market inevitably softens.
Monday, January 23, 2006
The Art of the Start
Happy New Year! I hope 2005 finished strong for you and you're excited about the upcoming year. Here at Alternate Futures, we have been very busy and are trying to respond as rapidly as possible to our customers. We're also looking at new ways to bring value to our clients and customers. With that said, I want to strongly recommend several books I read over the holidays.
First, Steven Gary Blank's "Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win." It's a straight-forward hands-on approach to building a new product or new business. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.
The second is Guy Kawasaki's, "The Art of the Start: A Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything." Guy is clever, a bit tongue-in-cheek and right on the money. It's primarily for start-ups, but it will work for anything.
What new things are you planning in 2006?
First, Steven Gary Blank's "Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win." It's a straight-forward hands-on approach to building a new product or new business. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.
The second is Guy Kawasaki's, "The Art of the Start: A Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything." Guy is clever, a bit tongue-in-cheek and right on the money. It's primarily for start-ups, but it will work for anything.
What new things are you planning in 2006?
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Thoughts on the Close of the Year
It's been a while since we posted a new entry in the blog. That's both good and bad...Bad because we're not being as timely as we should be in communicating with our clients and prospects in this forum...Good, because the delay was caused by a very busy 4th quarter.
My anecdotal observations are that the economy is continuing to grow and position itself for a solid 2005. It's not the breathless explosion of frenetic activity we saw in the late '90s, but it sure feels more sustainable.
My clients are seeing steady business flow in their core businesses and much more interest in new projects and ideas for next year. Many organizations are coming to the realization that you cannot contract your way to success. No amount of cost cutting will grow your business in meaningful ways...that requires measured risk taking and a determination to move forward.
What are you planning on doing next quarter that will position your firm to win?
GMS
PS Best Wishes for peaceful and happy holidays and a prosperous 2005.
It's been a while since we posted a new entry in the blog. That's both good and bad...Bad because we're not being as timely as we should be in communicating with our clients and prospects in this forum...Good, because the delay was caused by a very busy 4th quarter.
My anecdotal observations are that the economy is continuing to grow and position itself for a solid 2005. It's not the breathless explosion of frenetic activity we saw in the late '90s, but it sure feels more sustainable.
My clients are seeing steady business flow in their core businesses and much more interest in new projects and ideas for next year. Many organizations are coming to the realization that you cannot contract your way to success. No amount of cost cutting will grow your business in meaningful ways...that requires measured risk taking and a determination to move forward.
What are you planning on doing next quarter that will position your firm to win?
GMS
PS Best Wishes for peaceful and happy holidays and a prosperous 2005.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
The Role of CEOs in Innovation
Recently, Joe Tucci, CEO of EMC Corp. the $6B info storage and management firm wrote a worthwhile piece in the October issue of Chief Executive magazine. Titled, The Role of CEOs in Innovation, Tucci's points are these:
U.S. dominance in technological innovation is not destiny. Manchester, England was the 18th century center of technology, capitalists, skilled labor and interdependent suppliers and competitors, but lost its dominance to India and the Far East when they stopped innovating. Sound familiar?
Innovation is more than R&D and generating “new” products. Equally important is generating new ways of doing business, of managing the tension between the impulse to avoid risk and the payoff associated with rational risk-taking. It's avoiding “group think” and encouraging (sometimes forcing) colleagues to ask, How is our market changing? Are we changing with it? Or even better, how can we reshape the market to our advantage?
Innovation comes from increasing your company's exposure to unconventional thinking.
Admittedly, many companies are still smarting from the tech bubble crash of several years ago, but ultimately if you force your company to think and ACT differently from the rest, the market will reward you handsomely.
So, what is your company doing to break out of the pack? Are you creating your future, or running as fast as you can to react to someone else's ideas? What's the last “unconventional” thing YOU did?
GMS
U.S. dominance in technological innovation is not destiny. Manchester, England was the 18th century center of technology, capitalists, skilled labor and interdependent suppliers and competitors, but lost its dominance to India and the Far East when they stopped innovating. Sound familiar?
Innovation is more than R&D and generating “new” products. Equally important is generating new ways of doing business, of managing the tension between the impulse to avoid risk and the payoff associated with rational risk-taking. It's avoiding “group think” and encouraging (sometimes forcing) colleagues to ask, How is our market changing? Are we changing with it? Or even better, how can we reshape the market to our advantage?
Innovation comes from increasing your company's exposure to unconventional thinking.
Admittedly, many companies are still smarting from the tech bubble crash of several years ago, but ultimately if you force your company to think and ACT differently from the rest, the market will reward you handsomely.
So, what is your company doing to break out of the pack? Are you creating your future, or running as fast as you can to react to someone else's ideas? What's the last “unconventional” thing YOU did?
GMS
Monday, October 11, 2004
My visit with Henry Kissinger
Henry and Me
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to meet former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. In addition to telling him about when I was 14 in the early 1970's and wondered how old he'd be when I was President, (so he could be my Sec'y State), I got to hear him speak on the state of the world in 2004.
Leaving out the political intrique of the Presidential elections, I'll focus on his thoughts about China. Dr. Kissinger has known every Chinese leader since Mao, and he believes that relations between our countries has never been better. He marveled at how fast that country has grown over the last 20 years, and how dynamic their economy has become. Chinese leader Hu Jintao is a technocrat who understands China's place in the world economy.
Dr. Kissinger suggested that the "center of the world will soon shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
That got me thinking. How are YOU preparing to take advantage of that opportunity?
GMS
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to meet former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. In addition to telling him about when I was 14 in the early 1970's and wondered how old he'd be when I was President, (so he could be my Sec'y State), I got to hear him speak on the state of the world in 2004.
Leaving out the political intrique of the Presidential elections, I'll focus on his thoughts about China. Dr. Kissinger has known every Chinese leader since Mao, and he believes that relations between our countries has never been better. He marveled at how fast that country has grown over the last 20 years, and how dynamic their economy has become. Chinese leader Hu Jintao is a technocrat who understands China's place in the world economy.
Dr. Kissinger suggested that the "center of the world will soon shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
That got me thinking. How are YOU preparing to take advantage of that opportunity?
GMS
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