Archive for management

Business ethics, take the high road, it’s easier to spot trouble.

By Bob Holdsworth · Comments (0)

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Is it me or does it seem like there is another news story about a corporate scandal or political ethics probe about once a week? It makes me wonder how any consumer can trust any of us business owners.

I know that I’m subjected to lots of business scams every week ranging from the Nigerian bank account scam to people posing as suppliers trying to trick a staff member in to ‘placing an order’ for inflated supplies.

I also see competitors trying to cut corners, leaving out information that their clients should be told and everybody seems to be trying to be so politically correct, making sure that they don’t offend someone that their ethics actually has be called into question. What do you or I as business owners stand for, how are we different from the homogenized masses? Read More→

The fight for the NURDLE

By Bob Holdsworth · Comments (0)

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

I was reading the Wall Street Journal the other day and was astounded, well actually these days nothing surprises me anymore, that two toothpaste manufacturers are going to war over a graphic picture of a squirt of toothpaste.

Now I’m all about protecting intellectual property, I have plenty of copyrights and trademarks of my own, but this seems insane even to me, a professional marketer.

For the uninitiated, a NURDLE is the apparently correct name for the tiny little perfectly shaped glob of toothpaste shown on the box. In this picture the red, white and blue thingy.

nurdle

n. a grain, pellet, granule, or other small piece of a material, especially as part of a large quantity (such as foam kernels used as packing material); (in pronunciation-based spellings) a nodule; a quantity of a gel or semi-solid; a thing of unknown name (doodad, thingamajig, etc.). Also nerdle. Read More→

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Your competition is copying your best ideas while you’re sleeping.

By Bob Holdsworth · Comments (0)

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

If you’ve got a great product or service, you’re going to be copied, challenged, reversed engineered or outright pirated, it’s a fact of business life.

When I first entered the medical billing business back in 1989, there were no other companies in my niche (ambulance billing) in my state. Fast forward 23 years and there are now ten companies that are directly competing with my firm for some part of the ambulance billing business in my home state.

Now the interesting thing is that only one competitor has opted to match service levels and they are the latest entry into the game. They have only 5 clients, none of them of substantial size or volume.

This poaching of clients, ideas or advertising offers and methods is simply part of business and it took me a while to both realize and to not to get angry about it. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but not when the flattery costs me money to get. Now all of this said, it doesn’t mean you should simply accept this as a fact of life and take it lying down. Read More→

I’m sorry to break it to you, but you don’t know it all.

By Bob Holdsworth · Comments (0)

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Ever run across one of those people who believes that they know everybody and everything? They are constantly trying to one-up anything you say. They routinely speak up at meetings, not to contribute but more to just be heard by the group and feel good about themselves. If you’re in leadership…don’t be one of those people. As a matter of fact if you’re in leadership, counsel those people after the meeting about their behavior.

Of course, if counseling doesn’t work, the next time they speak up about something, assign them the task as project team leader to come up with workable solutions for an issue. They will quickly realize that they need other people to accomplish the task. I’ve used the ‘task assignment’ approach with success several times.

With all of the advances in technology, the speed at which information is disseminated around the world and each individual’s capacity for learning…no one, not even you, can know it all. Read More→

How to get twice the work done…in half the time.

By Bob Holdsworth · Comments (1)

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Time is money

I don’t know about you, but my ‘IN’ box never seems to get close to empty. Voice mail, email, snail mail, periodicals, industry journals, client projects, travel schedules, kids on vacation, family time, the operational demands of running three different companies and of course writing, writing and more writing.

People routinely ask me how I manage to get it all done. I work only about 45 hours a week, I’m typically able to take about 6-8 weeks of vacation every year, I’m able attend the majority of my kid’s school events and still manage to build the profitability of each business on pace, each year.

I’m not the smartest guy in the world, I don’t have 26 hours in a day, but I do have very well developed delegation skills and I’m developing a greater ability to sort, prioritize and say no to distracting offers. I also make it a point to surround myself with people who can think through problems, follow through on projects, accept responsibility for their efforts and then I LEAVE THEM ALONE. The word micro-management is not in my vocabulary.

Training, mentoring, coaching, developing and responsibility are and I’m willing to take the time with a person to do the first four so that in very short order they can take on the fifth.

The keys to delegation are as follows: Read More→