Business Strategies | Karri Levens

Category Archives for Business Strategies

Tips To Become A Strategic Freelancer

The Sims 2: Open for Business Expansion PackSet your Sims up in their own businesses. Build trendy boutiques, bustling bakeries, hip salons, thriving cafes and countless other businesses. Hire a staff to stock the shop and sell goods to a variety of customers. Will they build the favorite neighborhood shop or the next entrepreneurial empire? The Sims™ 2 Open For Business is loaded with over 125 new objects to help your Sims get down to business.

Executive DecisionIn this re-release of a classic from the 1960s, players become presidents of manufacturing companies. Each player makes executive decisions about manufacturing and advertising that will make or break the company. Easy to learn -- yet strategic and fun for groups. Invented by Sid Sackson. For 2-6 players.

Business Survival Tips- The Sales Strategy HandbookThis business survival guide is a compilation of sales tips and entertaining experiences from a forty-year veteran of retail sales. The book presents the reader with unique and unorthodox solutions to today's evolving business challenges, every one tried and tested by the author himself. Engaging and thought-provoking, the author has organized this book specifically for e-readers, easily searched and cross-referenced to make it a work you can refer back to again and again. Just one of the dozens of business ideas contained within is worth the purchase price, many times over. Mixed with homespun humor and real-life experiences, it's a book you won't want to put down.

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy"HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further.

HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever-changing business environment.

Classic ideas, enduring advice, the best thinkers: HBR's 10 Must Reads.

Is your company spending too much time on strategy development--with too little to show for it?

If you read nothing else on strategy, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you catalyze your organization's strategy development and execution.

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy will inspire you to:

• Distinguish your company from rivals
• Clarify what your company will and won't do
• Craft a vision for an uncertain future
• Create blue oceans of uncontested market space
• Use the Balanced Scorecard to measure your strategy
• Capture your strategy in a memorable phrase
• Make priorities explicit
• Allocate resources early
• Clarify decision rights for faster decision making"

Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the CompetitionIf you've been let down by the undelivered promises of marketing, this book is for you. Launch reveals a new way to grow your business that involves focusing on the needs of others, giving gifts, working with outsiders, and restraining your marketing messages. These principles are precisely the opposite of traditional marketing. Yet they work. And they are the future. If you follow the formula outlined in this book, you can attract countless customers and prospects, resulting in amazing business growth.

This book will show you how to:

Create highly sharable content that meets people's needs
Identify and work with outside experts, many of whom will gladly promote your content
Attract and retain raving fans that will help your business grow
Creatively market and sell to people who will gladly purchase your products and services

Launch isn't like other marketing books. Rather than making keen observations about others who've achieved success, the ideas and principles in this book were developed, refined, and practiced by the author to great success. Pick up a copy for yourself and one for a friend.

Freelancers have an image of being people who earn a lot while doing the kinds of jobs that they love. That certainly is a very positive image, and one that has no doubt attracted many people who have gotten sick of corporate life and the rat race and want to break into something new and different. Freelancing gives you, well, freedom to do whatever kind of job you like, at your own pace, and on your own hours, without being tied to set office hours or a company.

However, it’s freedom that comes with a price for other people who don’t have a clear strategy in place for their career. Some freelancers tend to take on jobs only as they come, living from paycheck to paycheck, and they think that’s enough for them to be able to get by. This is definitely not a good tactic, since you will just end up doing random projects without really establishing yourself as a specialist. If you are a freelancer, you shouldn’t just see freelancing as a way to make money and set yourself apart from other professionals in your field.

Whatever industry you are in, you have to establish the right path for your career, and you need to know how you can map out a good career path for yourself. This starts by making strategic decisions and picking only the right projects. Doing this helps you set your ideas more firmly on how you want your freelance career to go. Think of the possible career progression you should be going through, and remember that you shouldn’t just think of yourself as someone who works for your clients; in other words, stop thinking of yourself as an employee. Instead, think of yourself as a business owner establishing a partnership with other companies.

One strategy to strengthen your freelance career is by building and establishing a good network. This shouldn’t just be composed of your clients, but a network of every professional contact you have had. This keeps you in the loop about any opportunities that you could benefit from, and be valuable to other people you are in touch with. You can also add value to yourself by constantly learning and developing your skills.

Freelancing is certainly a good option for many people, although others find that they can’t survive on the kind of money they make from freelancing. Don’t go into it without having a strategy and expect that you will have a lot of work on your plate right off the bat. Plan which clients you should target, think of how you will market yourself, and don’t forget to map out your career path.

The impact of strategy on your business should be positive and far-reaching. Be future-ready today by planning strategies that can help you cope with changes in your field.

Items To Consider When Investing In An IPO: Reducing The Risks

Duct Tape Marketing - Practical Small Business Marketing Strategies

Create highly sharable content that meets people's needs
Identify and work with outside experts, many of whom will gladly promote your content
Attract and retain raving fans that will help your business grow
Creatively market and sell to people who will gladly purchase your products and services

Small Business Management Strategies, Instructional Video, Show Me How VideosSMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SERIES:STRA - DVD Movie

Wallmonkeys Peel and Stick Wall Decals - Business Strategy - 24"W x 14"H Removable GraphicWallMonkeys wall graphics are printed on the highest quality re-positionable, self-adhesive fabric paper. Each order is printed in-house and on-demand. WallMonkeys uses premium materials & state-of-the-art production technologies. Our white fabric material is superior to vinyl decals. You can literally see and feel the difference. Our wall graphics apply in minutes and won't damage your paint or leave any mess. PLEASE double check the size of the image you are ordering prior to clicking the 'ADD TO CART' button. Our graphics are offered in a variety of sizes and prices.

WallMonkeys are intended for indoor use only.

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Our catalog of over 10 million images is perfect for virtually any use: school projects, trade shows, teachers classrooms, colleges, nurseries, college dorms, event planners, and corporations of all size.

IPOs or Initial Public Offers are means by which a company can raise debt free capital through sharing the ownership and profits. There have been many companies opting for the IPO route over the last two decades. There have also been many big success stories with people making decent profits through these investment tools. However, there are always some items to consider when investing in an IPO that can reduce the risk in this.

IPO Basics

As the company starts growing, there is a time when it needs huge capital to take it to the next level of growth. Some companies decide to raise debt to get this capital; others opt for profit sharing without adding to the debt. The second option is the IPO route. In effect, when you invest in an IPO your are opting for part of its profits and losses too! So you need to be very selective on which companies you want invest in.

Studying the Company

A good starting point for your IPO analysis is to look at the IPO prospectus, and the financial reports of the company for as many years as possible. One thing that every company must publish is its total debt and total asset value. As long as the asset value is more than the debt, you know that enterprise can pay off its debts so it would survive. Also look at the difference in the assets value and debt which in effect is like the company value. Check what is the effective company value based on the IPO price and number of shares. If the IPO price is less than this value you are in for good profits on listing.

Besides value, another good indicator is the company growth seen in the profits it has made over the past few years. Some times the enterprise is new so its current value is less, but a strong growth pattern would be that its value is going to increase in future so it is a good longer term investment.

Third important thing to look at is whether the company is stuck in some legal tangles. Typically, if the verdict goes against it, it would affect its finances and more importantly the stock price in the market. You could lose lot of money, in that case. So study these aspects well before investing.

Lastly, analyse its market standing among the peers. If you use its products, you know it is a good company and you can invest with lesser risk. But if it is an unheard commodity, you need to be cautious.

Besides these points, other items that could affect the IPO price on listing are market sentiments, the economic outlook, general industry news, etc. These are so dynamic that they cannot be used a guidelines, and you need to go with the market flow.

In short, investing in an IPO in Canada is risky, but with careful analysis you can reduce the risk. For this there are some items to consider when investing in an IPO. As long as you do your homework, the risks are limited.

For more information about making an initial public offering, be sure to consult with the professionals. There are many things to consider on how to IPO properly and legally.

Written on 20 June 2010 by Adriana Noton under Business Strategies with Comments Off
Tagged with business, Business Strategies, Finance, initial public offering, Investment, ipo, money

Strategy Consulting For Business Success

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strategy consulting is a worthwhile endeavor for every forward-thinking business. Companies hire consultancies to gain expert advice on issues that affect the success of their business. Not only can these experts analyze high-level organizational issues, but they can help implement an effective plan of action.

Strategy consulting services are particularly beneficial to senior executives who are responsible for leading teams. Consultants can provide professional coaching skills for executives. They can also help executives find and keep top talent. When it comes to business operations, consultants can identify ways to carry out tasks more effectively.

In this volatile economy, a growing number of businesses are concerned about sustainability. How can a company secure long-term profitability? What is the best way for a particular business expand its customer base? Would it be more advantageous for a company to acquire a small competitor – or form a partnership with them? With the assistance of a strategic consultant, a business can obtain an expert analysis of growth opportunities and determine those that are feasible.

A business strategy is the component that drives continued growth of an organization. If a company desires to success, it should create a plan that include information such as a competitive analysis, a plan for customer satisfaction, and growth strategies and technology plan. Consultancies help their customers navigate through these critical issues, and assist with development of deployment of a strategic plan.

The environment is another area of concern for businesses. Consumers around the world are increasingly concerned about environmental issues. Likewise, customers expect the companies they do business with to support a cleaner environment. To remain competitive, companies must find ways to incorporate green initiatives into their overall business strategy. Because they stay abreast of best practices, strategic consultants can play a major role in helping companies implement green initiatives and reduce their carbon footprint.

Companies large and small alike are reaching out to new global markets. As they expand their businesses, companies need strategic consultants to provide expertise on outsourcing, and a variety of other critical initiatives related to global strategy.

Advances in technology have opened the door to a variety of new services offered by consulting firms. For instance, some firms offer IT strategy consulting to help information technology leaders address their challenges. New and improved technologies are released every day. A strategic consultant can help IT executives navigate this ever-changing arena, and help them invest in technologies that will support their business goals.

Strategic consulting is a worthwhile undertaking for any that endeavors to succeed in business. While the cost may be considered high for smaller businesses, they mind find that the investment is well worth it.

Looking to find the single source of helpful information on strategy consulting?

Written on 16 June 2010 by Sam Patrolio under Business Strategies with Comments Off
Tagged with business, Business Strategies, consulting

Think Long Term When Investing In An IPO

Duct Tape Marketing - Practical Small Business Marketing Strategies

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Create highly sharable content that meets people's needs
Identify and work with outside experts, many of whom will gladly promote your content
Attract and retain raving fans that will help your business grow
Creatively market and sell to people who will gladly purchase your products and services

Small Business Management Strategies; Series 2

When increasing your diversity concerning your stocks portfolio many options look very appealing. However, as any astute investor knows, one must be ever vigilant when if comes to where to trust your hard earned money. Initial public offerings can be an exciting lure, so it is wise to pay close attention to any IPO prospectus you may find. The key idea is to always think long term when investing in an IPO.

It is always a good idea to try and determine why a company is offering shares in the first place. Some initial offerings are made by young companies looking to increase their available capital quickly. Will this be for future growth or immediate gain? This is the type of question that is wise to find an answer to. Look for startups that have an eye toward the long run, and are avoiding any type of get rich quick idealism.

Some older companies may be looking to become publicly traded for a variety of reasons. Do the research necessary to determine why. Is it a plan to enrich major shareholders at the risk to minor ones? Is the company in financial straits and seeking impetus to quick growth? Will the sale of common shares be a boon or a bust to the established firm? These are difficult questions to find answers for, but should surely be sought.

All stock ventures can be risky, this much is obviously true. But how can you minimize that obvious risk? There are some ways that remain valid in all economies. First of all, only trade with stocks for products that you yourself endorse. Having trust in a company not only provides one with a sense of security, but will also increase the attention you pay to it, providing opportunities for more informed decision making tasks.

Look to peers and advisors for solid advice. Seek out others who have gone before, or that are already invested in the concerns that are interesting to you. Friends and colleagues are often invaluable for information based on prior experiences. Be location aware, if you live or have experience with Canada for example, review an ipo from Canada.

Follow your hunches, if you can do so without too much risk. Many traders have made fortunes on instinct, and sometimes the best laid plans fall apart before they can even be implemented. If you are compelled by good feelings about certain prospects, indulge them as safely as possible, but learn to trust yourself.

Read trade journals incessantly in order to determine trends and fads, and to discern what is a lasting pattern as opposed to a flash in the pan. There is a wealth of information for the investor, some for a fee others for free, that can help guide you to safe practices all along the way. Investment experts abound in the market place and some should be sought with care. Research if of the utmost importance when placing your money on the line.

Always, when considering any IPO prospectus, think long term when investing in an IPO. Long term potential is the key to creating wealth in the market, and essential to a solid portfolio. While quick cash is not unheard of, true gains are made over time, providing the sage investor with long lasting returns.

Figuring out how to IPO can be tricky. Before taking your company public through an Initial Public Offering, be sure to learn about IPO valuation, the IPO market, and the how IPO process is conducted by professionals who know it best.

Written on 03 June 2010 by Adriana Noton under Business Strategies with Comments Off
Tagged with business, Business Strategies, Finance, initial public offering, Investment, ipo, money

Leadership Strategy For 2011

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Identify and work with outside experts, many of whom will gladly promote your content
Attract and retain raving fans that will help your business grow
Creatively market and sell to people who will gladly purchase your products and services

Small Business Management Strategies, Instructional Video, Show Me How VideosSMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SERIES:STRA - DVD Movie

2010 – The Euro is in free-fall, and the global uncertainty continues. After battling through 2009, with your business bruised, but intact, you consider yourself amongst the fortunate ones, having survived the “perfect storm”. But now, the uncertainty continues, resulting in more nervous investors, more caution and more doubts about how we position our businesses to meet the challenges of 2011.

Q3 – No time for Caution!

This article argues that this is a not a time for timidity, and one that requires truly creative vision and strategy, and truly aggressive action.

Q3 2010 – strategic planning time… and time to get really creative! Consider these suggestions – they may be painful, and they may not be for you…. BUT…..

Get Blue Ocean

How cautious were you in 2010? Did you attempt significant revenue growth, or were you content to ‘survive’? Did you consider any new major acquisitions? or developing new products and services? Did no opportunities in emerging markets present themselves?

Think BLUE OCEAN – there is no better time than now:
* un-served market segments – locate them and act;
* search for leading edge technologies;
* review your supply chain – challenge the value-cost trade-off;
* Break through market boundaries – Create market space in which you are uncontested.

An Example of Blue Ocean in Action

TATA built the NANO, focusing on an un-served market segment in India of potential car owners who can only afford $2500 – building modest unit level profits, but enormous market presence. TATA applied Blue Ocean thinking to its supply line.; building partnerships with a limited number of suppliers and putting everyone in the same room to work through problems and innovate- thereby delivering a unique value proposition, which makes the NANO viable.

Organization Re-Alignment

Did the recession require you to combine business units, re-align teams, and divest layers of management? Or did you simply tighten your belt?

In this turbulent environment, how will you maintain your competitiveness? How will you meet your earnings targets, while retaining the same structure? Winning companies see the challenges as an opportunity to consolidate, merge entities, and invest now in differentiation

To position for success in 2010, companies need to take portfolio decisions which:
1. Exploit their core and ideally, unique competencies;
2. Build on core competencies through acquisition of complimentary businesses, and
3. Divest complex, or ill-fitting businesses which require additional management resources, and drive up costs in times of uncertainty.

Our experiences in 2010 to date have demonstrated that volatility may be here for the foreseeable future, and that there will remain a potential for discontinuous change into the next 3 years at least. Successful companies will adapt to this discontinuous change, seeking out the opportunities that is brings. These opportunities are likely to be visible in your market space right now.

Senior Executives need to ask:
* Is this business core to your company’s future value?
* Can you envision it as the basis for a sustaining stream of growth opportunities?
* Does it offer a path to building financial performance that is greater than what investors can earn elsewhere in their equity portfolios?

Instinctively, we react cautiously to any surgery in the portfolio fearing the loss of a revenue stream now, which cannot ever be recovered. More likely however, the disappearance of poorly performing assets, will mean an opportunity to focus on growing more promising lines of business, or facilities at a faster rate.

Tweak your Organization Culture

Fear permeated all workforces in 2009. Fear crushes motivation and energy. Creativity and innovation are inextricably linked to energy, and motivation. The creative spirit is essential to drive your organization out of the current economic and emotional malaise.

Organizational behavior therapist will claim that by applying “engagement”, motivational stimuli” and engendering “discretionary effort” etc. we will be able to extract more out of our demotivated and diffident workforces.

Reality however is often painful: you will need to rebuild goodwill in your workforce, particularly if engaging in any aggressive re-alignment, and asset divestment (human or other).

First – understand your culture….is it cohesive, is it participative? Does you workforce feel aligned with your values and your vision? (Affiliation). Or is it overtly performance focused? Failure to deliver bites hard in times of downturn. Performance – focused cultures feel this pain the most.

We suggest you survey your culture to learn what you have, and know what you need. Then align organizational development initiatives with your strategic growth priorities.

Take Leadership Develop Seriously

Very often your very best staff will be the most skeptical of simplistic approaches to improving organizational cultures. The terms ‘shared cultural values’ is sadly over-used, and most will be turned off by superficial efforts at cultural re-engineering. Most importantly, your high performers will be most skeptical of ineffective leadership.

The cost of poor leadership is often considered hard to quantify, although we know if can be very costly. Just how costly can be seen with the litter of what were once giants alongside the economic highway today. Much of the blame must lie with the poorly trained, and often short-sighted leadership of many of these organizations.

Leaders are expected to reassure, to provide an anchor in uncertain times. However, as we can see, certainty in global business is illusory. Leaders must enable their organizations to adapt to the continually changing market conditions we face in the years ahead.

Your leaders need to acquire the ability to adapt, to manage change, and to think strategically. Investing in your leadership is in most respects and investment in survival.

Web 2 – Why you must embrace it

Web2 – not just having a web site. or an intranet. How much is your ERP costing you? How much is your CRM system costing?… what is the real ROI? what is the true cost of ownership – did it cost 5 times the original price of the software (the normal projected Total Cost of Ownership)? What are the alternatives?

Today, SaaS (Software as a Service) offers vastly lower Total cost of ownership, and delivers much, if not all the functionally of conventional locally hosted software – at a fraction of the price. (Salesforce.com etc).

Do you use Web2 communications? How often do you use wen-conferences for Quarterly Performance Reviews, or do you fly managers in from remote locations? Does the organization enable collaboration on projects through virtual networks? Do you create channels for employees to collaborate across time zones, and physical locations with having to leave their offices?

Today, Web 2 technologies enable us to manage major parts of our businesses offshore. Take technical drawing for example – why keep in in-house when it can be done offshore and managed fully effectively at a fraction of the cost on local services?

Don’t forget Marketing – Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo and many more.

Make 2011 your Year!

To learn more about aboutbusiness coaching, visit www.global-cn.com to access free advice on Leadership Development how to develop your potential for growth.

Written on 02 June 2010 by James Johnston under Business Strategies with Comments Off
Tagged with Business Planning, Business Strategies, competitive, executives, leadership, leadership development, leadership strategy, organization culture, planning, strategic planning, strategy

Items To Consider When Investing In An IPO: De Risking The Investment

Small Business Management Strategies; Series 2

Duct Tape Marketing - Practical Small Business Marketing Strategies

Create highly sharable content that meets people's needs
Identify and work with outside experts, many of whom will gladly promote your content
Attract and retain raving fans that will help your business grow
Creatively market and sell to people who will gladly purchase your products and services

IPO stands for Initial Public Offer. Any company that wants to enter into the market can do so through an IPO. There are always new companies that keep showing up on the horizon through such IPOs. Also, given that in any stock markets IPOs are potentially the investment avenues that can give you huge returns in relatively less time, they are always an attractive proposition. But before you start jumping into the IPO market and burning your fingers, you must focus on items to consider when investing in an IPO

What are IPOs?

Any company that is growing requires capital for expansion. It can get this either by raising debts and bonds or through IPO. In case of debt tools, the company ownership is not affected, it is quite similar to the loan we take for various needs. On the other hand, with an IPO company will share the ownership and hence the profits and losses. Hence, when you invest in an IPO you are going to share the ownership of the company in a sense. So you need to be careful in picking your target company.

Important factors on Company Performance

The first point that you must check is the company assets to debt ratio. Logically, it should be positive. You can get this information in its financial reports. If the difference between the assets value and the debt is positive and more than its share value, you are bound to make decent profits and it is a good share to invest in.

Second thing to focus on is the annual profits of the company. Certain companies probably are in an early stage and do not have a big assets to debt difference to boast of, however they have a very strong annual growth rate. This in a sense means that with time it would make bigger profits. This again is a good item to consider.

Another consideration could be the legal issues and other problems the company is currently facing. In most cases, it is difficult to judge how the legal problems could affect it, and even a small bad news could hammer the stock price badly. So you need to be cautious about these things.

Lastly, you must look at the market or domain of the company. If you have heard its name and have used their products, you have a good idea about it and you can think about investing. If you have no clue of what the company does and cannot get good information, it could still be an IPO worth investing, but it comes with bigger risk.

There are many other factors too that can determine whether you make money or lose by investing in an IPO like current market sentiments, economic outlook, interest rates, etc. But these are very difficult to standardize and you have to follow the markets in such cases.

In conclusion, there are several items to consider when investing in an IPO. First of all, an investor should understand the process of how to IPO. Also, investing in a new company without a proven track record in the stock market is always risky; however with some due diligence you can cut down the risks significantly.

Taking a business public is a big step for most companies. An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is a good way to raise capital based on an IPO valuation. However, when drafting an IPO prospectus, be sure to consult professionals.

Written on 15 May 2010 by Adriana Noton under Business Strategies with Comments Off
Tagged with business, Business Strategies, Finance, initial public offering, Investment, ipo, money

Open Innovation: A Definition

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strategy+business (1-year auto-renewal)

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Small Business Management Strategies; Series 2

What would you guess is the first position of management when you suggest you should license your patents to competitors, share your under-utilized trade secrets with threatening startups, and investigate the possibilities of collaboration with your cousins in aligned segments?

The most probable response is a quick “surely you are mad” as leaders look at you with that slight unnerving expression you get when you’ve committed a bad social faux-paux.

Emerging presently, however, there is a movement in the innovation space called Open Innovation whose core tenet is that you do just that.

The thinking is that if there is unused intellectual property or other uniqueness in your organization, the best economic results are obtained by licensing it to competitors who might make use of it, instead of letting it sit idle, and unprofitable. And, conversely, by actively seeking out competitors that have something valuable to your business and reaching accommodations with them to get you access.

Open Innovation is one of the ramifications of the Innovation Economy , which is based on the thought that competitive advantage is a result of how well you use know-how, rather than what know-how you have. The understanding of the ability to use know-how well in a particular problem space is a hard to copy advantage that requires investment, development, and in most cases, sustained effort over a long period of time. This, of course, is why it becomes a significant source of competitive advantage.

Open Innovation is the current de-rigor fashionable business model amongst innovators in many industries. It is especially popular in industries where products do not have very great levels of differentiation, like fast moving consumer goods. It is equally well adopted for industries where the products are very differentiated, like aerospace.

On the other hand, companies that have chosen not to pursue Open Innovation are tending to lag competitors. This is because they are forced to rely only on their own R&D efforts, rather than taking what’s best from industry around them. Failing to share is turning out to be a significant competitive dis-advantage.

Open Innovation is a technique that innovators are increasingly using to create new value in their businesses. To find out how you can use it it too, read James Gardner’s free, online innovation book.

Written on 08 May 2010 by James A Gardner under Business Strategies with Comments Off
Tagged with business, Business Strategies, economics, innovation, licences, new product development, open innovation, out of the box, patents, people, strategy

Elements Of The Most Viable Negotiations Strategy!

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Small Business Management Strategies; Series 2

Business activities are highly dependent upon interpersonal and negotiating skills of their managers or owners. It is through negotiation only, that the parties involved in the business activity can come to common grounds of interest. Hence, if you are unable to adopt a wise strategy to negotiate with the other party, the probability of failure is higher. Three most important elements of a useful negotiating strategy are commonly observed to include; the ability of building and maintaining trust between or amongst the parties involved, the timely decision making and using wise tactics to achieve your objective.

Trust is one factor which can make the parties involved get in comfortable stance while negotiating. If there is absence of trust, it will be quite difficult to come out as winner. Therefore, it is of vital importance for the parties involved to build and maintain trustworthy relationships. It is quite obvious that trust gets rooted with the passage of time. Interacting more with each other, sharing information which others might not know etc. can enable the parties to measure the quality of trust in their relationship. A note of caution is that you should never assume a party to be trustworthy based on hearsay. People might fake being honest and trustworthy which later on can make you face the music. In fact, trusting anyone blindly is a foolish act in any matter of life, let alone business dealings where people never miss a chance of exploiting someone’s weaker position or lack of knowledge etc.

Good negotiators try their optimum to have a clear idea about your available time frame. Primarily because, the more time a party has, the greater is its influence on the final decision. The less time availability dictates a business’s dire need of finalizing the negotiation so as to start with the actual project. Therefore, negotiators try to take an advantage of the other parties’ choked up time limit. It is in these situation when parties would agree to terms and conditions, which otherwise would have been less acceptable for them.

Tactics are considered as equally important because if a negotiator does not take wise and calculated steps, the party will have to bear its repercussions. These tactics are more defined as terms and conditions which negotiators set; in situations when they are not completely certain about trusting the other parties’ intentions or time does not allow them to prolong taking the final decision. Hence, good negotiators make sure that under any circumstances, they must not let the other parties exploit them.

A constructive aspect of negotiations regarding the three elements, trust, timeliness and tactics presents three situations, each being unique and demands different negotiating strategies. A perfect situation for successful negotiations is when the trust is maintained amongst the parties involved. In such situations, negotiators do not have to worry about time and tactics. Another situation that might come up is when the parties do not trust each other; hence negotiators will have to employ time and various tactics to make situations turn favorable for them. But the most adverse situation is when both, the trust and time are absent; this is when the role of negotiators becomes the toughest because all they are left with is, employing tactics very prudently to win the negotiations.

It can undoubtedly be said that out of all the three elements, trust is the most important and influential in making the negotiations go smooth. However, the other two elements must not be ignored and should have a significant place in your negotiating strategies. Precisely, because there can never be one universal negotiating strategy for all your customers. Hence, be a wise planner and devise strategies keeping all the elements in mind.

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Written on 05 May 2010 by Mat Davis under Business Strategies with Comments Off
Tagged with activities, business, Business Strategies, Negotiating, strategy

Diagnosing Companies Who Are Failing in the Innovation Economy

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There are many companies around who have yet to work out that in the emerging Innovation Economy, what you know is much less important than what you do with it. The capability to translate traditional assets – brand, knowledge and intellectual property – into value is increasingly the distinctive mark of companies that have unlocked the secrets of success.

For almost everyone else, corporate attitudes verge on the medieval. And the signs are obvious in management teams who fit in this category.

One sign is the constant checking on the external communication activity of your research and development (or innovation) team, no matter how insignificant. Usually, a sick company has people whose whole job it is – called Corporate Comms or similar – to control external messaging. Another sign is nervousness when it comes to innovators participating in conference programs. And still another is the elimination of collaboration technologies, or worse, a failure to provide them at all in the first place.

However, the most significant signal of all is when innovators cause outright panic when it is realized they are using social media outside the boundaries of their organizations. It is even worse when it is realized that this is occuring without the express permission of management.

Here, the issue is that innovation teams which share able to build synergies that regularly result in the ability to do “man-on-the-moon” type projects. And teams that don’t share at all are stuck with the glacially slow progress that is the result where you have to take every step yourself.

Reliance on trade-secrets and other protections makes each innovation group an island.

The result is that really big, really significant innovations are possible only from organizations which spectacular resources to commit to a category, and are able to fund everything themselves. In most markets, this approach means that superlative change can come only from one or two very larger players.

Sharing across organizational boundaries makes it possible to create much more significant innovations than would otherwise be practicable. It is more often than not the failure to share that causes company collapses in the Innovation Economy.

Collaboration, and more particularly its implementation formally in the disciplines of Open Innovation are the subject of James A Gardner’s freely available online innovation book. It contains a wealth of material on innovation management, and is a helpful resource for any innovation effort.

Written on 04 May 2010 by James A Gardner under Business Strategies with Comments Off
Tagged with business, Business Strategies, collaboration, company failure, economics, new product development, open innovation, strategy

Get Out of Debt – Effective Strategies

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Small Business Management Strategies; Series 2

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Get Out of Debt – Effective Strategies

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Written on 01 May 2010 by Daniel Akinson under Business Strategies with Comments Off
Tagged with Business Strategies, Effective

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