The top workplace etiquette complaint among office workers? Raiders of the lost lunch. A recent study found that a whopping 97.8 percent of office dwellers believed fridge thieves to be the worst offenders. The Lean Cuisine has left the building. The takeout has taken off. So...
It's not just big insurers who are sinking into the swamp these days -- hospitals are slipping as well. And while it's a little early to know for sure, the problems of health plans seem quite likely to make those of hospitals even worse. Yesterday, Tenet Healthcare...
Apple's CEO is the most charismatic pitchman in business today. Learn how to apply his secrets to your next presentation. Ignite Your Enthusiasm Goal: Engage your listeners’ passion by tapping into your own. ...
Want to give better presentations? Learn from the example of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the most charismatic pitchman in business today. Simple Secret: Ignite Your Enthusiasm Steve Jobs is passionate about designing cool, fun, and easy-to-use computers, digital music players, and now...
There are five red flags that signal when a CRM system is more bother than it's worth. If your CRM system has two or more of these flags, your sales team is in big trouble: RED FLAG #1: Management must force people...
Change, as they say, is the only certainty. Yet most people seek constancy, and struggle continuously to prevent, or adjust to change. At best, these people arrive at a place of “dynamic equilibrium” where the ebbs and flows of life do not result in radical change but allow them to...
PR Success After the New Kid on the Block Luster is GoneYou nailed it ...This is so true - yet so many start-ups have drunk their own Kool-Aid and will not accept anything less than the type of PR results they have enjoyed around a launch or something else of...
My whole life is deadlines. And you know what? I love 'em. Nothing gets the juices flowing like the knowledge that I've got two hours left to finish a 2,000-word feature or my editor will go ballistic. In fact, I often do my best work when the clock is ticking.Blogger...
Does your company have formal writing guidelines? Many companies do, just so everyone knows it's "e-mail" not "email," or vice versa. But what about general writing advice? Most companies leave you to your own devices when it comes to punctuation and grammar. Writing guru Dan Santow's Word Wise blog always...
Nothing is more strategic than having the personnel with the appropriate skills to execute whatever strategy executives devise. In our business this is made particularly difficult because of the rapid changes in available technologies and techniques. In this month's issue of Strategic Software Engineering, The author wants to talk about...
Legacy systems historically supported only individual tax types and business functions, making an integrated and holistic view of taxpayers and their obligations impossible. Maintaining these systems to support ever-changing legislation was also burden-some, and at times pressed systems to the breakpoint. Modernization programs attempt to respond by integrating systems across...
It's become commonplace for American companies to take a chance on someone from the outside when looking for an executive. UPS's policy of promoting from within seems as old-fashioned as lifetime employment and pension plans. Recruiting company Heidrick & Struggles says that nearly 60 percent of the Fortune 250 go...
The article talks about the employers who for decades have relied on pre-employment testing as a sieve to keep out bad applicants. However, even the authors of such tests acknowledge that they are only partially effective. Nothing is foolproof. Some people out there are very good at fooling everyone. The...
The article suggests various ways of increasing ones ad response rate. The process of writing every ad starts exactly the same way: Write your objective in the upper right-hand corner of a blank sheet of paper. Nothing kills an ad faster than having no objective. It should say one or...
From the executive summary: ‘Brand identity and package design are an increasingly important component of corporate branding strategies as they contribute significantly to marketing or branding successes. While marketing and advertising efforts seek to create need or demand for a product, only the package can tangibly deliver that product and...
Article explains a myth, "But we have to justify our prices to our customers!" One of the oldest tricks for a customer to demand that sellers justify their prices. Nothing is more absurd. The basic problem with trying to justify the prices is that the customer does not want...
It is not easy to master the art of selling. The people good at selling are the ones that have really worked day and night to prove their skills. Good selling calls for expertise in tackling the most specific questions posed by customers. A good salesperson ought to be instantaneous,...
Throughout the 1990s, the world's leading Private Equity firms consistently generated mouth-watering returns for their investors. The article depicts that the leading Private Equity companies systematically create a "performance culture" in the businesses they own. Management and employees come to work each day determined to do everything they can to...
Human resources often overlooks a key component of an effective training program: designing good training surveys. But if you don’t collect accurate data and feedback on the effectiveness of your training programs, you just may be throwing good money after bad. Nothing is more demoralizing for staff than sitting in...
From the executive summary: ‘Growing a business seems next to impossible in tough economic times. In the aforesaid scenario, customers do not buy as much or as frequently as they normally do, and the usual programs do not seem to work as well anymore. And that is frustrating, because the...
