How to Successfully Manage a Digital Business in an Economic
DownturnBy: Mike Myatt
Mike Myatt is Managing Director and Chief Strategy Officer at WorldClass Strategy, LLC., a total business solution provider with an emphasis on strategic planning and tactical implementation of e-business initiatives. Mr. Myatt can be reached toll free @866-476-9764 or by e-mail at mmyatt@WorldClassStrategy.com
The two main topics of conversation at most of the trade shows, conferences and meetings I have attended over the last few quarters have been centered around the fallout in the technology sector (more specifically the Internet/.com micro-vertical), the economic downturn, and their corresponding effect on business.
It is not uncommon to hear savvy business veterans utter statements such as:
"With all the "dot-gones" and recent Internet failures of late, I'm concerned about the stability of the Internet and want to wait and see how everything shakes out over the next few months before I make any decisions", or "I'm cutting back on technology expenditures until I see how bad the economy is really going to get".
7 Ways to Improve the Chances of Your Strategy Succeeding
By: Brian Ward
Brian Ward is a principal in Affinity Consulting. He helps leaders, teams and individuals acquire new knowledge and wisdom through their consulting and educational work. He can be reached at t info@affinitymc.com.
Like most strategic maps, yours is probably missing some important details. But then that 'cool' project team that your manager kindly volunteered you for last week will soon fill in the missing details...or will it? Most strategic project teams learn early on in their work that "the map is not the territory" or as one executive we know was fond of saying "never confuse a memo with reality!"
But it needn't be that way...
There are some simple approaches to planning and implementing strategy, that once followed will dramatically increase the chances of success for you and your organization.
Here are seven ways for you to improve the chances of your strategy succeeding...
1.Always explain why the strategy is being pursued...and let people know clearly what's at stake. You'd be amazed at how little attention this gets.
Benchmarking Overview:
In 1912, Henry Ford of The Ford Motor Company watched men cut meat during a tour of a Chicago slaughter house. The carcasses were hanging on hooks mounted on a monorail. After each man performed his job he would push the carcass to the next station. Less than six months later, the worlds first assembly line started producing Magnetos in the Ford Highland Park Plant. In other words the idea that revolutionized modern manufacturing and automotive history was imported from another industry.
•Benchmarking is simple as a concept but much more involved as a process. The ultimate payoff is that you can become the best of what you do, and continuously improve upon that superiority.
ادامه مطلب ...The Human Factor
by Gerard M Blair
In the management of a small team, the human factor is crucial to success. This article considers possible motivators and a simple framework for dealing with people.
When you are struggling with a deadline or dealing with delicate decisions, the last thing you want to deal with is "people". When the fight is really on and the battle is undecided, you want your team to act co-operatively, quickly, rationally; you do not want a disgruntled employee bitching about life, you do not want a worker who avoids work, you do not want your key engineer being tired all day because the baby cries all night. But this is what happens, and as a manager you have to deal with it. Few "people problems" can be solved quickly, some are totally beyond your control and can only be contained; but you do have influence over many factors which affect your people and so it is your responsibility to ensure that your influence is a positive one.
Lee Branstetter and Nicholas Lardy
NBER Working Paper No. 12373
July 200
ABSTRAC
As China has become an increasingly important part of the global trading system over the past two decades, interest in the country and its international economic policies has increased among international economists who are not China specialists. This paper represents an attemptto provide the international economics community with a succinct summary of the major steps in the evolution of Chinese policy toward international trade and foreign direct investment and their consequences since the late 1970s. In doing so, we draw upon and update a number of more comprehensive book-length treatments of the subject. It is our hope that this paper will prove to be a useful resource for the growing numbers of international economists who are exploring China-related issues, either
in the classroom or in their own research.
The Cluster as Market Organization
by
Peter Maskell and Mark Lorenzen
Abstract
The many competing schools of thought concerning themselves with industrial clusters have at least one thing in common: they all agree that clusters are real life phenomena
characterized by the co-localization of separate economic entities, which are in some sense related, but not joined together by any common ownership or management. So hierarchies they are certainly not
Download This Paper ==> http://www3.druid.dk/wp/20030014.pdf
Working Papers on International
Economics and Finance
September 2010
Lourdes Moreno
Diego Rodrígue
Abstract
This paper tests the pro-competitive effect of imports on product and labour markets for Spanish manufacturing firms in the period 1990-2005. In doing so, it takes into account the type of imported products: final vs intermediate. Markups are estimated following the procedure suggested by Roegerand including an efficient bargaining model. The observed heterogeneity among(1995) firms isparameterized to consider additional product standardization and market concentrationThe resultssupport the Imports as Market Discipline hypothesis for importers of final goods, while firms that offshore intermediate inputs show similar markups to non-importers. Additionally, the union bargaining
power is smaller the more final-goods oriented imports are and the more homogeneous is the type of goods elaborated by firms.
Customer Feedback: How a failed PPC campaign led to an improved product
by David Kirkpatrick, Reporter
SUMMARY: Not every marketing campaign succeeds. But, even a "failed" campaign can provide benefits and learnings, as long as you are willing to take the time and effort to look for them.
Today’s case study looks at a Software-as-a-Service company that killed a PPC ad campaign after only two weeks, due to dramatically poor performance. At the same time, the campaign led to a company-initiated dialogue with its customers that ended with an improved product. Find out how this marketing failure ended up as a "win" for the company
ادامه مطلب ...
A Primer Developed by NCCED
I. ELEMENTS OF A MARKETING PLAN
Marketing involves a myriad of creative promotional campaigns—all designed specifically to push your products [or services]. Advertising means paying for space in a newspaper or magazine, or buying time on a radio station, television station, or website.
Today, many non-profit organizations are still making the operational transition to conducting business more like a small business. Yet increased competition among non-profit organizations for public, foundation and private dollars, and calls for higher levels of accountability, demand that community development corporations (CDCs) and community based organizations (CBOs) increase their presence among their funders, clients, competitors and the community at large. Your marketing plan is, therefore, an integral part of your business plan—the two are interrelated.
Knowledge Management & Transfer Model
{Techniques and Forms}
Division of Personnel
Department of Administrative Service
State of New Hampshire
Introduction
This document is intended to help state agencies retain critical organizational knowledge. The goal of Knowledge Management is not to capture all knowledge, but rather manage the knowledge that is most important to the organization. It involves applying the collective knowledge and abilities of the entire workforce to achieve specific organizational objectives.
State agencies should feel free to adapt and use information and tools on the following pages as necessary within their organization. It is provided to be a starting point for sharing knowledge and experience, allowing those who remain with the organization to continue providing quality service.
Capturing and sharing critical knowledge and expertise should be occurring continuously among employees. In many cases, however, it is not and this need becomes pressing when a valued employee is preparing to retire or change positions. When an organization is considering implementing a knowledge transfer plan it is important to answer several
ادامه مطلب ...