As much as we want to be everything to everyone; life and business just do not work that way. Companies that succeed know they need to hone their focus on their vision. They translate this vision into a powerful mission statement. They realize that mission statements are more than pithy phrases or something to fill [...]
Most startups fail for one of the following reasons:
Poor Management Acumen
Many entrepreneurs start relatively early and consequently do not have a lot of management experience under their belt. Often they are technical experts and lack business acumen, and either cannot or will not bring in the resources necessary for success. This one is key, because [...]
Most of the times, start ups are heads down, focused on what they need to do to keep afloat and make it to that next milestone. Every so often its good to come up for air and take stock of how you are doing compared to your competition, and your industry in general. One way [...]
I’ve been very busy lately, and consequently lagging on my writing. I have several drafts that are taking more time to come together than anticipated. That being said, a distraction for me is staying current on some great conversations around entrepreneurs. This post came across my desk, and I thought it should be shared. Maria [...]
Delegate or dump? Sometimes its hard to distinguish the two. Often managers delegate the work they like the least as opposed to strategically assigning it. In doing so, they’ve dumped the problems on others and walked away – its human nature after all, to avoid doing things we dislike. But risks exist with simply passing [...]
I ‘ve walked by this sign more times than I can count and I finally had to take a picture. I know from talking to the manager’s that their desire is, understandably, to sign clients to a one year membership. However, they do not have too many takers – most clients are selecting the six [...]
Project management is a discipline that offers a lot of value outside of managing “projects”. Many managers fail to see its advantages, claiming “I don’t have a project, I manage a department and its not finite”, or “project management is all about process and its too time consuming and resource intensive”.
To the first point, I [...]
Many managers I’ve worked with reside at either end of the spectrum: They are either hands-off or the micromanager. The best managers I know understand that they cannot be locked into a single position, and rather move up and down the scale as the situation requires. They know for example, that when a team is [...]
Key note speech by Jack Shaw, President of Intelligent Healthcare Technologies on accelerating innovation. Thoughtful and thought provoking speech, but be prepared, its over an hour.
Anita Campbell recently posted this piece in Small Business Trends – great website. The write up appears to be based on input from Mark Cuban. I have nothing to add, its sage advice from people who have been in the trenches of start ups. I thought it was worth sharing.
“You’re not spending enough money.” That is [...]
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