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Transform Your Business With Minor Changes

  I just read a great article in Fast Company about the importance of making  very minor changes within your company.  Small changes can transform your business and its culture.  Minor changes and also transform your business by changing its direction and levels of success.  All it takes is one or two small changes in behavior.  Lisa Earle McLeod, the author, related a story about her family delivering their college-aged daughter to Boston University to begin her college experience.   It's Easy to Transform a Business The family was standing at one of those large public maps of the campus - [...]

By |2016-12-27T23:34:28-05:00December 17th, 2012|Customer Experience, Customer Relationships, Strategic Management|
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Know What Business You Are In – Then Tell Your Customers

Some time ago, I read a posting in the Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers)  blog that really impressed me.  It impressed me enough to bookmark it in my laptop to review from time to time.   The post was written by Liz Strauss, a well-known business strategist.  Liz related the story of a businessman who owned businesses in the fields of newspapers, magazines and books.  She was hired to develop strategy to turn the book business around and refocus it on success. Several months into her assignment, one of those great 'Ah-ha!' moments occurred.  She reminded the owner that while his three businesses are similar, they are clearly not exactly [...]

By |2016-12-28T00:01:35-05:00May 23rd, 2012|Strategic Management, Strategic Planning|
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Succession and Exit Strategy at Startup

As strange as it might sound to someone starting a new business, the beginning is when you need to plan for the end.  OK, you might be thinking: 'What is this dim-wit talking about?  I want to know what to do today, tomorrow, next week and next month to get my new business off the ground.  I'll worry about the end part later - much later.'   There is no time like the present to get to work on your ideas for succession and exit strategy -- before you need them.   Waiting to develop key management concepts in the midst of a leadership [...]

By |2020-09-23T02:12:04-04:00April 2nd, 2012|Strategic Management, Strategic Planning|
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Strategic Management: Surfing Is Not a Business Model

I was channel surfing (no pun intended) last weekend and ran across an old movie about a women's surfing competition.  I watched for a while.  Time and time again, young competitors would paddle their surfboards out into the ocean, sit straddled over the boards, and wait.  They looked out over the ocean for what they hoped would be a good wave.  Not just a good wave to ride, mind you, but a big, great wave to ride into shore. The better the wave, the more opportunity to score higher points for their surfing prowess.   Sit - Wait - Hope; over and over.  From [...]

By |2016-12-28T00:51:16-05:00March 13th, 2012|Strategic Management, Strategy|
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Focused Strategy or Bright, Shiny Objects?

In today’s world, business owners and leaders are inundated with information from all sides:  newspapers, magazines, Internet sites, social media, blogs, white papers, news reports, e-mail marketing.  It all seems endless – distracting and terribly confusing.  Someone is constantly touting their next bright shiny object idea, in most cases guaranteed to distract you from a focused strategy that will take you and your firm where you want to be. These distractions can take many forms.  The bright, shiny object might be a new software application, promises of doubling  traffic to your website, a new marketing miracle, an expensive seminar or [...]

By |2016-12-28T01:12:46-05:00January 25th, 2012|Strategic Management, Strategic Planning|
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Plan for Bad Times – Look For Opportunities

                   'Designing Strategies' Newsletter      January - February, 2012                                                Volume 9 - Issue 45   Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda...   “Coulda, shoulda, woulda...” That’s the usual response we get from my husband whenever someone in the family looks in retrospect.   Normally, that means something didn’t turn out quite the way we hoped it would. If we had studied harder, we could have received a better grade. If we had waited just a little longer, that suit, television, snow blower, or computer would have gone on sale and saved us money. If we had handled [...]

By |2017-01-03T03:36:12-05:00January 18th, 2012|Newsletter, Strategic Management, Strategic Planning, Strategy|
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Mission Statements Bring Clarity and Direction to Your Small Business

'Designing Strategies' Newsletter January - February, 2011                      Volume 8 - Issue 38   In a recent blog post, we addressed short, succinct mission statements and their importance to your business.  It would be good to expand on that topic in this issue of Designing Strategies. A mission statement is the most important part of your business and strategic planning process. Mission statements define the reason that you are in business.   Simple, right?  Without one, you have no core, no center, no defining direction. In short, you do not have a clear grasp on [...]

By |2017-01-11T12:44:18-05:00January 21st, 2011|Leadership, Newsletter, Strategic Management, Strategic Planning|
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Small Business Lessons from ‘The Miracle Pie’

We have a log cabin  in northwest Pennsylvania, about a three hour drive from home.  It has been a work in progress for quite some time now and still not completed.   But, my husband tries to get up there weekends or takes some vacation time to drive up and continue work on his project.  Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, he decided to sleep off his holiday feasting and hit the road for PA early Friday  morning for a few days of work on the cabin. True to his word, our SUV, the family 4 x 4 'truck', pulled into our driveway just before 8 PM Sunday [...]

By |2016-12-29T23:51:12-05:00December 14th, 2010|Strategic Management, Strategy|
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Analyze Your Systems From Right in the Trenches

'Designing Strategies' eNewsletter November-December 2010                     Volume 7 --  Issue 37 Welcome to our new newsletter! Welcome to the new, electronic version of the 'Designing Strategies' newsletter brought to you bi-monthly by Maurer Consulting Group. Our newsletter came to your Inbox as an e-mail attachment for the past five years. We decided it was time for us to get with the times and create a better mousetrap to better serve you, our readers. The publication will continue as a one-page, bi-monthly piece with content on topics ranging from strategic planning to business [...]

By |2017-02-03T02:16:50-05:00November 20th, 2010|Employees, Leadership, Newsletter, Strategic Management|
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High Quality Employees: Trends in Hiring Policies and Practices

'Designing Strategies' eNewsletter September - October  2010                       Volume 7  -  Issue 35   Remember not long ago when job candidates were in control and employers were on the more challenging side of the equation?  Candidates could play a number of potential employers against each other, trying to get the best deal. That was the norm then, but not so much now.  The pendulum seems to have swung back to favoring those doing the hiring.  Things have really changed in a short period of time, haven't they?  One thing that has not changed [...]

By |2017-01-31T01:51:34-05:00September 25th, 2010|Employees, Newsletter, Strategic Management, Trends|
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