by CoachKevin | May 7th, 2012
Here’s something for you to think about today: Being generous with your customers. I’m sure you already are generous with your customers in many ways but I’d like you to think about generosity differently. Remember that the sole reason a business exists is to fill the unmet needs of a particular customer (ideally a large group of customers). If a business does not take care of customers’ needs – then the business really has no reason to exist and likely will not exist in the near future.
I see three categories when it comes to how businesses (and their owners and leaders) meet customer needs (the same applies to any relationship).
- Do as little as we can get away with
- Do just enough; or
- Always do something extra
We’re all customers in one form or another, so I’m sure you’ve experienced interactions dealt in each of these…
by CoachKevin | March 30th, 2012
Technology Entrepreneurs in Kelowna/Okanagan Area,
Accelerate Okanagan is hosting a Rockefeller Habits One Day Strategic Plan Workshop for Tech Companies in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley. If you are a Tech company and want to know more, contact Accelerate Okanagan at www.accelerateokanagan.com.
by CoachKevin | March 28th, 2012
Are you on track to grow your business in 2012?
This one-day Mastering the Rockefeller Habits™ / Four Decisions™ Executive Workshop on May 23 in Vancouver, B.C. is for CEOs and leadership teams who need to create alignment along with an action-oriented strategic plan for profitable growth in 2012.
In my coaching practice, I have had the opportunity to use many different tools to help companies improve their performance; yet, I have voluntarily chosen the Rockefeller Habits Four Decisions methodology, created by Verne Harnish, because it is by far the best set of tools and techniques available to help businesses sustain positive and profitable growth. The One-Page Strategic Plan is also, in my opinion, the most effective way to plan and get plans executed in a way that improves a company’s performance.
During this one-day Mastering the Rockefeller…
by CoachKevin | February 25th, 2012
The 2012 Fortune Leadership Summit supported by Gazelles is taking place May 15 and 16, 2012 at the Atlanta Marriot Marquis in Atlanta, Georgia.
This is an exciting two-day conference that will inspire you with the insight and tools to make sure you are on track to achieve growth and success in 2012. It’s a great conference and definitely one where I do my best learning every year. I also gain tremendous value from the experience and insight shared from the speakers, which this year includes:
- Jim Collins, author of Great By Choice and Good to Great
- Jim Stengel, Former Global Marketing Officer at P & G and author of Grow How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies
- Verne Harish, Founder and CEO of Gazelles Inc. and author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits
These are just three…
by CoachKevin | September 12th, 2011
Are you ready to ignite your company’s growth in 2012?
Then come to this Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Four Decisions™ Executive Workshop on November 2 in Vancouver, B.C.
This one-day workshop is for CEOs and their leadership teams who want to align their team and create an action-oriented strategic plan for profitable growth in the year ahead.
In my coaching practice, I have had the opportunity to use many different tools to help companies improve their performance; yet, I have voluntarily chosen the Rockefeller Habits methodology, created by Verne Harnish, because it is by far the best set of tools and techniques available to help businesses sustain positive and profitable growth. The One-Page Strategic Plan is also, in my opinion, the most effective way to plan and get plans executed in a way that improves a company’s performance.
During this one-day Mastering…
by CoachKevin | September 12th, 2011
Entrepreneurs spend years building their business, investing considerable money, time and effort to make it a success. But what happens when it’s time to step down? This Wall Street Journal article: Disney, Walton, Ford, Gates: Tales of When Legends Leave profiles four different visions of succession and what happened at Disney, Wal-Mart, Ford and Microsoft.
Coach Kevin’s Challenge:
- Do you have a succession plan in place for when you step down? If you’re thinking about stepping down in less than five years, it’s time to develop a plan.
- Identify the top five most important aspects of your business that need to live on when you step down. Use them to choose and groom your successor.
by CoachKevin | July 27th, 2011
by CoachKevin | June 13th, 2011
I recently read a quote that was shared in a newsletter from strategy expert, Kaihan Krippendorff:
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than 5 minutes.” – Albert Einstein
Kaihan was explaining the difference between force and power and shared the following:
Force is sweat and effort and anger and passion. Force has a payoff – it rallies – but it usually comes at overwhelming cost…
Power, on the other hand, is more delicate to handle. It involves cold calculation, patience and precision. Power is being willing to sit and plan through passion that screams at you to get up and do something….
Whatever you are up to in this world – building a…
by CoachKevin | June 6th, 2011
I
participated in a monthly meeting for a client and the CFO, who was running the meeting, did a simple, brilliant thing: he put the Rules of Engagement (guidelines they had developed to define the expected conduct in the meeting) on the screen at the start of the meeting to set the tone of the meeting.
The important point here is that we had developed these a few quarters back but somehow they had slipped into the background as many policies do. They had them, but they were not top of mind, so now they are permanently point #1 on their monthly agenda. Simple and powerful system.
Coach Kevin’s Challenge:
- Have you defined your “Rules of Engagement” or “Code of Conduct” (I think the first one sounds better) for your executive team and/or the rest of your company? If you have, excellent – if not, this may be a good discussion…
by CoachKevin | June 1st, 2011
McKinsey is featuring Google chairman, Eric Schmidt in a video series worth watching. You’ll have to register on the McKinsey site if you are not already registered. In the first clip titled: Hiring and Recruiting, you’ll hear Google’s perspective on hiring the best and brightest in the industry. Interestingly, they were conducting between eight to ten interviews with candidates and then not hiring them. So they analyzed the situation and determined that they could make a hiring decision in five interviews. Schmidt also shares how there must be “discord plus deadline” in meetings for them to be effective and to drive business results.
Check out the video on Hiring and Recruiting and then I would love to hear your thoughts. Would these concepts be useful in your business?
