Posted by Marty O'Neill on Thu, Sep 10, 2009 @ 02:43 PM
Virtually every midmarket leader I know is a great doer. They may have made their mark in business by being a great engineer, sales person, designer or consultant. At some point in their business life they were probably recognized as being a leader in their field.
But virtually every midmarket company I know that has not found a way to leverage the competencies, skills and qualities of these doers begins to flounder and places an artificial cap on their potential business value.
Not many of us get very excited when we begin to talk about process, but if implemented with thought and foresight, business processes can build more business value than all the doers combined.
The trick is thinking through the process creation and implementation.
Identify the areas of your business that should work like clockwork for your company to become a market leader. Whether its product development, sales, service delivery, recruiting, financial management or business development, identify the key areas of your business.
Building process allows you to build capacity and ensures quality along the way. Your doers and heroes will be free to open new markets, discover new ways of delivering your service and inventing new products.
Doesn't that sound better than continually reinventing the wheel each time you face what should be a routine business issue?
Posted by Marty O'Neill on Mon, Aug 24, 2009 @ 02:23 PM
We received some good news over the weekend. Our blog has been added to the Business Intelligence area on
Alltop.com. Why is this such a big deal?
If you're like most of us, you may find it difficult to keep up with all the terrific online content. I subscribe to a few blogs and read their email versions on my iPhone while traveling (but never while driving!). When I do have to time to catch up on my online reading, I find myself bouncing around in an unproductive search for something that catches my eye.
The folks at Alltop have now made our lives much easier.
Guy Kawasaki,
Will Mayall and
Kathryn Henkens created Alltop as an "online magazine rack" where you can get stories on your area of interest.
Dan Roam, author of
Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems with Pictures illustrates how it works with a few
Roam-like drawings. Basically, you customize a view of the topics you are interested in and then Alltop does the work for you. My interests center around Leadership, Business Intelligence, Sales, Marketing and Executive Coaching and that's just on the business side.
So how does Alltop build business value? If you are a leader of a midmarket company and are not sharpening your leadership saw on a regular basis, you are having a negative impact on your company value. Aristotle said "an unexamined life is not worth living". You and your leadership team must continue to examine your ability to lead and manage and staying current with the latest online content can help you do just that.