Business Strategy Archives – Page 25 of 38

7 Jan 2010

Who You Are – Consistency

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:03-06:00January 7th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Marketing, Sales|

Over the past few months, we've had a few clients approach us that had important work that needed to get done quickly; and they had limited options. You may be thinking…

Ka-Ching!

Wrong.

You may get the business once that way, but people will ultimately remember you hosed them.

That is not how things are done here. Here we value ethics, honesty and long-term relationships.

We believe we are entitled to fair compensation for our work including reasonable profit margins (every business needs this). But we don't believe in "between a rock and a hard place" pricing.

Sure, if costs are higher because of a rush […]

6 Jan 2010

The Ultimate Secret to Everything Revealed

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:08-06:00January 6th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

What is the ultimate meaning of life, the universe and everything?

How can I guarantee personal financial success?

What is the magic product or service that will guarantee success?

What is the secret to instant business success?

Where is that magic bullet?

We are all looking for answers in some ways; easy answers preferred. Low risk. There is a book for every subject and they all contradict each other to some degree. Who is right? Many of them are.

42 is an easy answer and the big joke in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But applying it is the trick.

The ultimate secret? There is […]

31 Dec 2009

Why Not Be Great?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:16-06:00December 31st, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

It is funny how the closing of a year brings reflection on the past… and a fleeting commitment to fix all the things you weren't happy with.

Sure, getting rid of some destructive bad habits is a good thing. But is spending your time dwelling on your mistakes and trying to fix your non-talents (weaknesses) the way to go?

In "First, Break all the Rules…" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, their research basically determined that you should focus on your talents and figure out ways to minimize the impact of your non-talents.

This is based on the science […]

21 Dec 2009

Dance in the New Year

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:30-06:00December 21st, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Paula Callihoo, the owner of Dance Through Life, is opening up the 2nd half of her studio (i.e. even more classes) in the New Year.

The New Year always brings out the resolve in people to change something and I can't think of a better time to:

Get off the couch and get some exercise,
Do something for yourself and not focus solely on your children (hey even Dr. Phil backs me on this),
Learn something new,
Do something fun,
Follow your dreams.

Hey, I am partial to the step dancing myself being it relates to the Celtic music I like playing and listening to (I am […]

14 Dec 2009

Blue Oceans, Red Oceans and Small Ponds

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:52-06:00December 14th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

I just recently finished reading Blue Ocean Strategy. I found the book to be quite informative with a lot of good concepts that can be put into practical application. In the book they talked about the convergence of competition in the bloody red oceans and the need to create blue oceans of value innovation to break out of the red ocean into the uncontested markets of the blue ocean (read bigger profits).

One premise of the book is that there a sort of formula (a process and tools) that can be applied to create blue oceans in a low risk fashion; sort […]

8 Dec 2009

Clear Window, Foggy Mirror… Honest Self-Reflection Is Harder

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:58-06:00December 8th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

As I mentioned the last post, we are in the middle of some cold weather. I was taking a shower this morning and the sun was shining through the window, warming up the room. The steam from the shower fogged up the mirror (which was in the shade) before it fogged up the window. This got me to thinking…

Have you ever seen someone in a bad relationship or pursuing destructive behaviour and thought to yourself, the answer is obvious on what needs to happen next. Same thing when looking at someone else's business issues, the answers are fairly clear to you. […]

5 Dec 2009

Black, White and Shades of Grey

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:05-06:00December 5th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

I have two border collies. They are black and white.

Friday it started snowing and really blowing; blizzard conditions. Falling snow is white. Blowing snow causes white-outs, even at night. Ice you don't see on the road is called black ice.

This morning we woke up and our snow was grey, not white. Not a light grey, a fairly dark grey.

The field to the north of us is bare soil. The wind was blowing from the north all night… strong enough to move a substantial portion of the field into our yard along with the drifting snow.

The dogs were outside playing […]

30 Nov 2009

200 Posts and a Little Wiser

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:11-06:00November 30th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Mindset and Motivation|

Over the last 18 months of blogging I have covered a wide variety of topics concerning business, business strategy, HR, demographics, personal development, software development, etc.

In fact, if you look at the pattern of articles you can see the things that are foremost in my mind over a period of time.

Over the last six months, I have moved a lot more focus onto what makes entrepreneurs succeed. Does this mean I don't care about software development?

Nope, in fact it means that the software I am now interested in building is comprised of tools to help entrepreneurs and businesses succeed. I […]

27 Nov 2009

Information Overload – Blink

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:16-06:00November 27th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation, Technology|

Your brain processes things at two levels: conscious and subconscious (not unconscious).

Conscious thought demands information, cost and benefit analysis, pros and cons. We demand more information. But more information does not equal understanding. Understanding vast amounts of information is very difficult. You can still draw the wrong conclusion, especially under stress.

Worst of all, decisions take a lot longer to make. What if we make a mistake? If I just had a little more information I could make a risk free decision. Analysis paralysis. You can also make a wrong conclusion and stick to it because that is what all the […]

18 Nov 2009

Becoming a Small Giant

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:25-06:00November 18th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

I recently finished reading "Small Giants – Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big" by Bo Burlington.

I enjoyed the book, though like most of these books, you need to determine how and what you will apply to yourself.

My basic take-aways include:

Find a product/service that the market needs and is willing to pay for,
Build a company that is great at delivering that product/service,
Determine what you really want from the company you are building,
Let your growth be a result of providing a great product/service and building a great company,
You have choices: you can be great and stay relatively small […]