Management
The Top Twenty Reasons Business Start-ups Fail
Failure may be the necessary prerequisite of success that everyone wants to avoid. According to both Forbes and Bloomberg, 8 out 10 entrepreneurs who start a business will fail within the first 18 months. Failure seems to be almost a rite of passage. In the famous words of Thomas Edison, reflecting on his many experiments […]
Employer Penalty Alert For Reimbursing Employee Health Coverage
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) established a number of so-called “market reform” restrictions on employer-provided group health plans, starting with plan years beginning in 2014. These restrictions generally apply to all employer-provided group health plans — including those furnished by small employers with less than 50 workers. Even worse, there’s a punitive penalty for running […]
The Recommendation Age — The Law of Ratings and Reviews
Bob Hutchins, President of Buzzplant and the Keynote Speaker at the Christian Professional Network Conference in October, 2014, has Five Laws for Success in The Recommendation Age of Business. The first four laws concern Consumer Confidence, Authenticity, Transparency, and Responsiveness. This article concerns Law #5 – Ratings and Reviews. Remember the first time your company […]
The Recommendation Age – The Law of Responsiveness
Bob Hutchins, President of Buzzplant and the Keynote Speaker at the Christian Professional Network Conference in October, 2014, has Five Laws for Success in The Recommendation Age of Business. The first three laws concern Consumer Confidence, Authenticity, and Transparency. This article concerns Law #4 – the Law of Responsiveness. When I’m asked what I like […]
The New Age of Blended Media
The Shepherd’s Guide has for 36 years been America’s leading directory of local Christian owned businesses, where consumers have found businesses and professionals committed to Biblical values and the words of Christ to “do unto others as you would have them do to you”. Today, in the greatest period of media transformation in modern history, […]
Culture or Strategy? Five Rules to Make Sure You Have It Right
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is the famous mantra of the celebrated management consultant Peter Drucker (author, educator, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and “the man who invented management”). Yet many business leaders spend most of their time trying to get their strategy right, and much less time developing the culture that will […]
Hiring On Potential: Is This The New Most Important Characteristic?
The phrase “Hire Slow Fire Fast” has become an accepted and standard operating procedures for businesses. But in the process of hiring slow, what is the most important thing to look for to find the right candidate? Many characteristics are necessary and basic – among them honesty, work ethic, and compatibility. But after the basics, […]
Going Lean — Five Principals to an Efficient, Value-Driven Business
The “lean movement” is the management theory that business should eliminate waste, use less capital and fewer resources – but it is not about cost reduction. While cost reduction looks at the business’ resources and asks “what I can cut?”; lean management focuses on customer value and works backwards from there to ask “what is […]
Six Steps to Delegate Effectively: Lessons from Exodus 18
It has been said that all entrepreneurs live and die by their ability to prioritize, to focus on the most important, mission-critical tasks every day. Everything else should be delegated. But the decision of what and how to delegate can be hard. In Exodus 18, Israel had just started its journey through the wilderness. Moses […]
The Recommendation Age (Part Three): Law of Transparency
The Recommendation Age is the natural follow-up to the Information Age. Instead of letting brands tell them what to think and choose, consumers are going to friends, family, online reviewers, social media, and thousands of other outlets for a recommendation. Past articles have covered the Law of Consumer Confidence and the Law of Authenticity. The […]
