Effective project management has become cornerstone to business performance. Although we are largely in a recovery, none of my clients have gone back to the days of having more than the required resources “just in case” yet project demands are ever-increasing as profitable growth is key to success. In [...]
To celebrate my 100th Profit Through People(TM) newsletter, I wanted to share 100 of my favorite tips, best practices and strategies with you. I've covered many of these over the 10 years I have had my consulting business and it is my hope that they will give you and [...]
Rushing forward without pertinent tools and processes can hinder your business goals. A systems pragmatist will gain traction by strengthening fundamental areas. As I've been going through my hundreds of articles to put together the 100 tips, it's become obvious as to which topics resonated with me as essential [...]
As the holidays come to a close work looms depressingly larger for some. Business leaders have to step in to hike motivation levels and bring goals back into focus so that 2015 starts on a strong productive note. Published in ProjectTimes, January 8, 2014 Often, the holiday aftermath can [...]
Technological innovations are abundant, even overwhelming. Rather than trying to modernize at every turn seek to leverage your I.T. department to provide maximum efficiency without non-value added work. We hear a lot about lean, Toyota Production System and the like; however, I rarely hear about Lean I.T. A friend [...]
Collecting lots of data isn’t enough to improve service levels. A successful manager tracks relevant metric trends and puts the information into action. One of the keys to success for any business is to watch metrics trends. In my experience, if a client watches key trends, they tend to [...]
Success begins and ends with your customers. I recently was the subject of what's called a "member spotlight" Q&A (question and answer) session about my business. Knowing my business centers on the supply chain, my interviewer asked me to draw a picture of a supply chain. It's always a [...]
Extract the right data at the right time in a meaningful format for decision-making. Almost every company I work with seems to get caught up in the bells and whistles of their new or upgraded software; however, when push comes to shove, the bells and whistles mean nothing if [...]
Although I've been mentioning the Amazon effect a lot lately, I thought it deserved it's own priority. It's become the phrase that means "exceptional service" (Sunday deliveries, no-hassle refunds), rapid delivery (same day shipping is becoming commonplace) and the latest technology (drones). It syncs up 100% with what I'm [...]
With an increasingly complex business environment, businesses need to know how to resolve skill gaps in their workplace The skills gap is a rapidly growing issue for manufacturers and distributors. Almost every day that I go into a client, go to a trade association meeting or talk with colleagues, [...]
