Business Strategy Archives – Page 14 of 38

11 Dec 2012

You Get What You Measure: Choose Wisely

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:33:52-06:00December 11th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|

I am sure you’ve heard the expressions:

"That which gets measured tends to improve."
"If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it."
"You get what you pay attention to."

In many ways in business you get what you measure.

What if you are measuring and focussing on the wrong thing?

Unfortunately, you will get that too.

How Most Do It

Say you are running a customer support or call center.

People call in or complete a support request online and the job
at hand is to resolve customer problems.

Since call centers are expensive and generally are […]

27 Nov 2012

Secret: Employees Don’t Need To Know That (or Do They?)

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:34:16-06:00November 27th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams|

There seems to be a fair number of businesses that believe the key to their success is knowledge… tightly held knowledge.

Secrets.

Such important secrets that not even employees need to know.

Classified-RF

They want to hire great employees and grow their businesses. They want their business to run without them so they can:

Focus on the bigger picture,
Take longer vacations without having to stay connected,
Work less hours,
Grow the business,
Etc.

The key to this is delegation.

So they delegate pieces to a few key managers. Not too much.

Just enough so they can […]

19 Nov 2012

Big Dreams Are Accomplished By Great Teams

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:34:21-06:00November 19th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

I have to warn you up front, I was watching Larry Winget videos on YouTube prior to writing this post. Here goes.

I recently read a tweet that said something like:

"If you are working for someone you are fulfilling their dreams and not yours."

This is the classic I made it doing X, if you do X just like me you will succeed too expert advice that is being oversold.

What a load of crap. If you are working for someone and are not accomplishing any of your goals or moving forward towards them in some way "it your own damn […]

12 Nov 2012

Do or Die Trying: A Strategy That Needs Help

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:34:27-06:00November 12th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast|

Is that your business strategy? Set a course and go… until you do or die?

That can certainly be exciting… for a while. In some rare cases it can even be essential.

But it is usually not the best path. At least not one to Manifast your dream business!

As Yoda said:

"Do or do not, there is no try."

So in case you had doubt, dying has no value.

Strategy

I define business strategy as something like:

"A forward looking vision (destination) and plan (path) that takes into consideration what you think is going to happen in the future to give you an advantage in […]

8 Nov 2012

“Start with Why”: So Why Manifast?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T15:36:21-06:00November 8th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast|

One of the books I am reading right now is “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek.

This is not the first book I’ve read on the importance of knowing your purpose or having a mission.

The book talks about “why” as opposed to “what” and “how”. The businesses that create the most loyalty and avoid being commodities do this right.

“Inspire” rather than “Manipulate”. When people are aligned with your “why” they will pay a premium or suffer inconvenience to stay with you. The rest need to manipulate their customers into buying.

Lots of great stuff here but rather than talk theory… […]

1 Nov 2012

A Dog and Pony – Re-framing Abundance and Receptivity

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:34:48-06:00November 1st, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

I was thinking about manifestation, receptivity and abundance a lot the other day; especially from a personal and business success perspective.

Part of it was my own learning and observation, part of it was triggered by comments during our Wednesday coaching call… but it was my own dog who really put it all together for me.

A Dog and Pony

Our dog Kaylee was visiting a friend's house. They happen to have kids. Kids tend to leave lots of toys laying around.

She entered the house not knowing what to expect. She had never been there before.

As she ran around exploring and checking […]

30 Oct 2012

Expending Energy in all the Right Places

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:34:54-06:00October 30th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Recently, I have been revisiting where my time is actually going. Everyone should do this periodically.

It is especially important for entrepreneurs, business owners and self-employed people.

Reflecting

I did a detailed review of where I actually spent my time over the last 12 months with additional focus on where it was trending.

Not surprising that the trend was drifting from where I wanted to be.

Common wisdom is that you should do the work that adds the most value to the organization.

This time around I also considered what I should be doing at a deeper level.

What work gives me energy? What drains it?

I took […]

21 Oct 2012

Your Culture Doesn’t Grow in a Petri Dish

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:35:01-06:00October 21st, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams|

Your brand is how people outside your company perceive your company, products and services.

You don't control your brand. After all, you don't control people or what they think.

It used to be that you could buy a brand image if you had enough money to spend on advertising.

This is becoming more difficult if not impossible; especially for the smaller players.

You can influence your brand.

Petri-Dish Image courtesy of moomsabuy | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Your Culture

Your company culture is determined by your values, behavior and consistency on how you […]

10 Oct 2012

Value > Payment > Cost: It’s the Law

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:35:07-06:00October 10th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Go-Giver Coach|

There is a basic economic reality to business. Every great and successful business follows it.

Your business must follow it as well; or eventually perish.

It is the Law.

In "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg and John David Mann, state the "The Law of Value" as:

"Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment."

Value

Like beauty, value is in the eye of the beholder.

Value is perceived.

It can include the raw cost of producing something… materials and labor. If that part is appreciated.

But unless someone wants what you are selling (think […]

23 Sep 2012

Accountability Starts at the Top

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T15:41:12-06:00September 23rd, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Go-Giver Coach|

In my last post I talked about finding a business coach (or adviser or consultant).

Once you seriously commit to the process of having a coach something happens.

Have you ever heard how people will hire a maid or clearing service and then just before they arrive, they clean the house from top to bottom because “I don’t want them to think I am a slob”.

Well just the act of hiring a coach works something like that if you are serious. You immediately start thinking about the things that you want to improve and do better because “someone” will be […]