Disaster Preparedness | Safeguarding Your Most Valuable Assets - Company Knowledge
Nobody likes to have to think about disaster preparedness, and
many do not give thought to safeguarding 'company knowledge',
but among other tangible catastrophic losses, it can mean the
difference between your business making it or going under when a
disastrous event occurs.
We all ensure that we have adequate insurance to cover physical
property loss - but what about safeguarding your company
knowledge?
The Most Commonly Overlooked Consideration That Impacts the Cost of Faxing Services
World-wide commerce continues to rely heavily on the use of
facsimile transmissions. To be certain, the use of email has
substantially reduced the use of fax machines and fax servers,
but the use of fax continues to be widespread. And faxing
technology continues to evolve to meet the increasingly
sophisticated needs of organizations today. At the same time,
however, many companies are under mounting pressure to cut
capital investments - including new technology spending.
Delivering Effective Performance Feedback - Simple Steps for Success
Does anyone really like giving or receiving feedback? Probably
not; especially if it is considered constructive feedback. Yet,
providing feedback is an essential part of managing performance.
You cannot do one without the other so making feedback simple and
direct might be one way to ease some of that dislike or
discomfort we all feel when participating in feedback
discussions. Having a straightforward process to do this is a key
to successfully managing your team and your workforce.
Impactful Talent Management: The Five Essential Dos
Talent Management Programs can seem daunting and cumbersome to
leaders and HR inside organizations. Yet, when you refer to the "talent" of the company, you are referring to the most precious
commodity within an organization. Companies do not exist without
people and when you think of and plan for the appropriate
development of these precious commodities, things can get
complicated and seem complex. However, if you keep in mind that
people are people and we are all one of them, it really can
simplify what often seems to be quite complex.
A False Economy I NO LONGER Practice Do You?
Many of us go out and buy some of the best software and hardware
tools available. We read about some tool that could easily DOUBLE
our business, or TRIPLE our productivity, so we wisely purchase
it.
Many of us realize that we lack certain skills in critical areas
of our businesses, so we register for online classes.
Many of us realize that we don't really know how to use those
whiz-bang pieces of hardware or software mentioned above, so we
track down and register for in-depth tutorials.
Conducting Effective Career Aspiration Discussions with Employees
One of the key steps to having impactful talent management and
development solutions is to ensure that the talent within the
organization is aware of what is being done to manage and develop
them; as well, it is vital that company leaders are aware of the
employee's individual career aspirations. This can be
accomplished through a Career Aspiration discussion.
Business Turnaround: Reorganize Your Company and Focus on Its Profitable Areas
After you have determined the root cause of your company's
problems, you must now reorganize to make your company
profitable. All companies have strengths and weaknesses, and it
would be wise to recognize which areas are assets to you and
which need improvement.
Obama Tells the Banks to Lend!
Any kind of real recovery and job creation is impossible without
access to credit by small to mid-sized businesses.
A newsletter from the Small Business Administration dated
September 2008 provides the following interesting figures about
U.S. small businesses.
Can Acquisitions Work?
With annual merger and acquisition activity in the United States
averaging about 1.5 trillion dollars that may seem to be
uninformed strange question. Yet according to a number of recent
academic studies, between 55 percent and 83 percent of mergers
and acquisitions fail to add value to the acquirers.
Companies look to mergers and acquisitions for a number of sound
business reasons.
Are Bottlenecks Holding You Back?
Over the last couple of months I've been reading a book called "The Goal" after having it referred to me by my friend and
colleague, Aaron Parsons.
Now "The Goal" is actually a book about the manufacturing
industry which is written like a novel.
But it has had a huge impact on my thinking around business.
Why?
Because it talks about bottlenecks.
Why Your Business Needs A Telecom Audit
There is a very clear reason that so many new technologies appear
every year - new technologies help keep businesses competitive
and successful. As computers grow ever more capable and
inexpensive, businesses continue to take advantage of them. This
causes the tech industry to continually come up with new models,
in an incredibly profitable feedback loop.
The same phenomenon has begun in the world of business
communication.
Telecom Expense Management - Spotting Telecom Billing Errors
Whether a business has only ten employees making a few long
distance calls a day, or is a burgeoning enterprise with hundreds
of employees conducting thousands of calls and data transfers
every hour, it is important for that business to carefully manage
their telecommunication costs.
Telecom Expense Management, or TEM, involves the constant
monitoring of telecom expenses that accrue monthly.
Indispensable Employee Management Tools for a Dental Practice
Many dentists are not equipped to deal with employee performance
issues. Managing performance requires a systematic approach in
which the employee clearly understands what is expected of him or
her, with a process in place to monitor performance.
In managing employee performance, you need to consider four
separate issues:
How to Be in Charge (without Being a Jerk)
Earlier this year, I was working at a sales training seminar and
we were on the topic of handling customer objections.
A participant who owns a massage therapy practice was asking how
to best address a prospective client who didn't want to follow
his recommended course of treatment.
We then asked other audience members to share their experience. A
couple people spoke up and their advice, however well-intended,
felt off to me.
Keep Employees Motivated with Continuing Education
How often have you seen people experience burnout because they
have been in the same job for too long? They may have good
qualities and work habits, but need to develop other skills in
order to be promoted. However, the employee has no idea how to
go about acquiring the needed skills to move forward in his or her
career. This leads to higher turnover rates and a decreased
ability to promote from within.
Project Management Basics for Telecom
Telecom projects, like any other project, need special attention
if you want the project to be successful and done on a schedule.
One way to proceed on a telecom project is to hire a telecom
management professional to oversee the project. Another way is to
use a project management software program.
Negotiation - Basic Techniques for Telecom Expense Management
Everyone has to negotiate at one stage or another. These
negotiations could be in the form of promotions, sales calls,
hiring, and more. For companies, negotiations are in the form of
contracts, business deals and cost management. The rule of thumb
for most negotiations remains the same although the situation,
process, and result may be different.
Tame Your Telecom Spending
Telecom spending can be a very large part of a company's
operating costs. Companies are always looking to keep their costs
under control and telecom spending is one of the more difficult
areas to manage.
How To Perfect Your Telecom Audit Process
Telecom audit is an important process for any organization. Human
error, failure to pay close attention to details, constraint of
time in checking long telecom bills, and insufficient knowledge
of new technology and regulations - these mistakes can take a
toll on the revenue of a company. Avoiding all these potential
problems is an integral part of the expense management of an
organization.
Ten Questions Every Leader Ought to Be Asking
If I read another article that starts with, "during these tough
times," I am going to scream. Let's get with it, leaders, these
times are why we exist. The more we talk about how the times are
tough, the greater the likelihood that we will approach our work
as victims.
An Overview of Telecom Expense Management (TEM)
What is TEM?
Telecom Expense Management (TEM) is a term used to define an
approach to managing all telecommunication service expenses such
as voice, data and wireless with a combination of software tools
and manual auditing. In managing all these services and related
processes, its goal is to minimize costs and maximize process
efficiency.
Strategies to Maximize Productivity and Fuel Innovation
Whether you work for a dot.com start-up, a Fortune 500 company
or somewhere in between, chances are you are busier than ever --
busy driving projects, motivating teams, and minding the bottom
line, all while managing your workload and striving to meet
increasingly higher success benchmarks. So how do you stay on
top of it all and do productive work on the things that count?
How To Develop Organizational Culture With Outsource Staff?
Today's businesses - even small ones - are complex organizations
made up of in-house and outsourced or virtual assistance staff.
The in-house staff might meet in a single office location, but
the outsourced staff could be anywhere.
Risk Management Options
Risk management as a shared or centralized activity must accomplish the
following tasks: identity concerns; identify risks & risk owners – evaluate
the risks as to likelihood and consequences;
Top 10 tips for handling difficult employees
It has been said that there is no such thing as difficult employees,
only ineffective managers, but I've yet to meet anyone who believes
that's true. In the end, if people want to be difficult that's there
choice, but recognizing that
the way we manage such people is part of the mix here's a selection of tried
and tested techniques:
How To Manage the Older Employee
The work force has several different generations functioning side by side. Each
generation has diverse needs which means you will have to manage them differently.
So not only do you have individual styles to deal with, you also have the employee's
generation to include in motivating the employee.
A Manager's PR Paradigm
If you manage a department, division or subsidiary for a business,
non-profit or association, your primary public relations model probably
should read this way: people act on their own perception of the facts
before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something
can be done.
Managers, Got a Grip on Your PR?
What are you trying to do with your business, non-profit or association public
relations program? Get a little publicity for a service or product? Or, perhaps,
you're doing what you really should do, persuade your key external stakeholders
to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that lead to the success
of your department, division or subsidiary.
Does the PR Blueprint Work?
Managers, please take a minute and read two sentences: People act on their own
perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about
which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion
by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors
affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished.
Break the Golden Rule: How to Retain Your Best People
It seems so simple, doesn't it? "Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you." The Golden Rule seems so universal that it should be a panacea
for all human relations.
Million Dollar Considerations (5)
Examining the global workplace in two interesting sessions, my team
of management students and I came to some conclusions that might be
worth sharing:
