Business Blogs: Trends, tips, and real-life anecdotes from industry experts.

My prediction? Some of the most exciting businesses of the next few years are going to be born in 2009 and grown from 2008 toil. It’s my strong view that the economic duress we’re all under as entrepreneurs is going to make us smarter, scrappier, more effective and ultimately far more successful.
To help you along [...]

Late last year (as if it was so long ago) I attended a keynote presentation featuring Larry Brilliant of Google.org and Malcolm Gladwell author of The Tipping Point. Larry Brilliant shared his inspirational story of leading the first organization of doctors to rid the world of smallpox and how it eventually lead him to his [...]

As an example of systems-thinking, and at the risk of an awful pun, reaching for a piece of toilet paper is the bottom line. �
Toilet paper is a mandatory accessory. It may be the one thing that all of us have used daily for all our lives. As an illustration of a system that is ubiquitous, [...]

Have you ever been frustrated by employee’s who love to spread rumors and create “noise”?  In a fast growth business where you learn things everyday you need to make changes quickly.�
The noise can really get in your way if you don’t get in front of it.  We have been trying to execute on this every [...]

When the “Shall I do it now or later?” question comes up for a new Centratel staff member, their not-yet-disciplined internal dialogue goes something like this: “What’s the difference if I do this task now or later? I just don’t feel like doing it right now. I’ll do it later because my guess is I [...]

Several years ago we had our house remodeled. Immediately after, we “flipped” another house. In both cases, numerous subcontractors, both experienced and inexperienced, did the work.�
Linda was the interior designer. I was the general contractor.�
In this world of framers, plumbers, electricians, roofers, and concrete specialists, there is an interesting commonality among inexperienced subcontractors: It is [...]

Here is an evaluation system, albeit waggish. It’s about tipping in restaurants, and I’ll preface things by saying I don’t believe a tip is a diner’s obligation. It’s a tip—something extra that one earns if the service he or she delivers is at least good.�
Linda and I sit down for a meal in a restaurant. [...]

Here’s a remove-the-system-altogether scenario. It’s the ultimate in simplifying things. My staff and I take delight in chucking unnecessary Centratel protocols. System-elimination is great to see in personal life, too.�
The cardio room at the gym where I work out is equipped with dozens of treadmills, step climbers, and stationary bikes. It’s a busy place, so [...]

In my small business, Centratel, each of our half-dozen key management people has had several years of on-the-job experience. Training managers to operate a telephone answering service is a long, drawn-out affair because it is necessary to understand a myriad of technical details and random facts. The introduction of documentation speeds up this training process, but [...]

Sometimes we install a system and it doesn’t do much. We achieve the desired effect by the mere existence of it.

At Centratel, we knew a few of our employees spent time “cruising the net” on company time. It was impossible to track these sleight-of-hand excursions and the closest we could get to managing the problem [...]