I don’t know about you but this drives me absolutely nuts. You’re in a meeting, you come up with a good idea but before you finish getting your idea out there, this guy across from you. You know the one, he graduated from the Dilbert School of discouraging new ideas jumps in with that smart […]
Jack Ma Says It’s All About The Customer
Ali Baba Founder always puts the customer first Watching the Bloomberg Station last Friday, I caught Charlie Rose interviewing Ali Baba’s founder and Chairman Jack Ma. What Mr. Ma had to say was fascinating not only for his wisdom but yes for his common sense as well. Mr. Ma stated the reason for the phenomenal […]
The High Cost Of Cheap PCBs
I have written in the past about the pride some of our customers have in buying the cheapest products available on the market today, and we talked about how for some reason some companies feel that they can buy the cheapest parts they can get their hands on and then turn around and tell their […]
Do You Have Enough Courage To Be A Great Leader?
Courage. To be great leader, you have to have courage. The courage to do what needs to be done. The courage to take that giant leap forward when you know the time is right. The courage to fire someone when that person is no longer right for the job. The courage to sacrifice one person […]
Sales Managers Have To Visit Customers
Yes, sales managers have to visit customers. In fact General Managers and Presidents and Quality Managers and yes, even owners need to visit customers whenever they get the opportunity. Why are we happy to just sit back and have our sales people do customer translations for us? Why are we happy or often unhappy with […]
Be Curious. Hire Curious People
Albert Einstein once said that being curious is much more important than being smart. If you’re curious about something you are going to spend a lot of time and effort finding out everything you can about it. You are going to focus as much as you can on that subject. You are going to read […]
Create A Simple Plan And Just Be Tenacious
It’s amazing how much can get done when you decide to stick with it Another year another strategic plan…or worse yet another month another strategic plan. Does this sound familiar to you? Well it does to me. The most difficult thing to do when you’re a strategic consultant like I am is to make sure […]
Where Did All The PCB Salespeople Go?
Where are all the PCB salespeople? A few years ago there were all kinds of sales people on the street. Good sales people; seasoned veterans with proven track records who had been victimized by first the stream of mergers that left them high and dry when the conquering company went with their sales force and […]
Don’t Be Afraid, Have Courage!
They say that courage is the number one quality of all successful companies. You have to have courage to get anything done. Because it is a big scary world out there and if you don’t have the guts, think courage, to face it you will not survive. The more I work with companies the more […]
Putting Together Your Team
What do the Boston Red Sox, The New England Patriots, and the Chicago Cubs all have in common? Besides all being winners (and my three favorite teams) they have won by building teams synergistically. By that I mean they build teams by putting the team in front of individual players that way making the team […]