Courting the Millenials
Courting the Millenials Recruitment of top notch young talent who can enter your work force and provide that kind of long term growth potential and can only come from a smart and productive staff is always a challenge. One of the big reasons any business works to keep its public image high and to project the concept that they are an employer of choice is to recruit the best and the brightest from the youth ranks. Young employees bring a lot to a business that can compliment an older work force and make the business much more vital. Younger employees [...]
Going Retail in Riyadh
Going Retail in Riyadh Much has been said and written about the globalization of the marketplace in the new century. More and more, business no longer sees their markets as limited to their community, state or even this country. To be successful in the new world economies, we have to see our markets as international if for no other reason than that our competition and our customers are seeing these markets. The press likes to make a fuss about the effect of international trade on the national workforce. While that is a concern, the old axiom that every problem represents [...]
When Banks Explode
When Banks Explode The proliferation of branches of banks in most American cities has become so epidemic that it is hard not to notice the dominance of this kind of business on any street corner in your town. In many cases, a busy intersection which might be used for retail operations such as fast food restaurants, cleaners, gas stations and quick stop stores has been taken over by banks. In some cases you will see three of the four corners of a popular intersection in town occupied by different bank branches. It makes you wonder, just how many banks do [...]
Employee Retention in the Twenty First Century
Employee Retention in the Twenty First Century The business paradigm in virtually every department of the modern business has been undergoing continuous change in the last ten years to such an extent that it becomes necessary to step back and review how we do business in all aspects of corporate life in light of new markets and new ways even our employees do business. This is as much true in our Human Resource Department as it is in Marketing. The labor pool is changing and the impact on the bottom line of the business can see be serious if we [...]
Courting Public Favor
Courting Public Favor At first glance, it is a bit surprising when you see how much some powerful and prominent businesses in every community bend every effort to court public favor. Almost any community of significant size in the country has a business section in the paper. And subscribers to the local news see their ability to stay in touch with what the strongest and up and coming businesses in town are doing as an important part of their business awareness. Sometimes it’s good to read the business news in your local paper both for information and with an eye [...]
The Client Coworker
The Client Coworker The idea of being customer service and customer satisfaction oriented is not a new paradigm in the business world. Even in businesses that are not directly working with the public, the idea of structuring the company to satisfy the needs of the people that make it possible for the company to stay in business – it’s customers – is a core value for a large percentage of businesses, especially those that are successful. But there are segments of every business that have no contact with customers so it is difficult for them to develop a customer service [...]
Businesses Learn to Make SEO Work for Them
Businesses Learn to Make SEO Work for Them One of the most important talents any management team of a business can have is to be able to detect changes in the marketplace and adjust how the business operates to function in that new market. Some call it “thinking outside the box” and others refer to this talent as “working with a new paradigm”. Whatever the term of the day is, without the flexibility to change as the market changes, a business is destined to fade away. Of the many business and market trends that have changed the paradigm by which [...]
Management by Walking Around
Management by Walking Around The MBWA method is a management concept that has gotten a lot of “buzz” and popularity in the last decade or so because it is part of a business model for cultural change within the enterprise that has proven successful in a lot of businesses. The original concept was created by David Packard during the early days of the Hewlett Packard organization, a Silicon Valley company that was well known for its loyal and highly creative employee base that seemed to achieve levels of productivity and employee satisfaction far beyond the norm. “The HP Way” which [...]
The Minimum Wage
The Minimum Wage In January of 2007, the federal government raised the national minimum wage. This was old news in some states where the minimum wage had been raised months before congress took action. No matter how you look at the increase in the cost of labor, it is going to have an impact on the business climate and on how businesses will make key decisions in 2007 and going forward. In theory a raise in the minimum wage should be a nonevent economically. It should be a simple adjustment for inflation which the business has already adapted to. In [...]
Cyberspace on Aisle Five
Cyberspace on Aisle Five It doesn’t take a lot of research to find out that in this day and age, virtually every business of any real size has developed some form of internet presence. Now, for many businesses, that may mean little more than an online business card that can be used to get the phone number and store location of the business into the mind of the prospective customer. But in this new century, the idea of having a business without a corresponding web page to support it is pretty much out of the question. But if you look [...]