Customer Service: Reducing Damaged Deliveries

I saw this article and thought I’d share it with you. As you are building your business, getting the purchased product to your customers is a large part of your customer service practices and it doesn’t matter if you get your customers’ shipments delivered on time if they arrive at the dock unusable. It is [...]

Worst PR Disaster of All Time: Who is Doing Your Company’s Marketing and Customer Service?

In my many years of starting and building companies, I have learned the importance of building a solid team with people who share your vision and values. In the current internet environment, one of the critical pieces of your management puzzle is marketing and customer service. If you do this well, the customers will spread [...]

Steve Jobs: 7 Rules of Success

I was a big fan of Steve Jobs. I think his entrepreneurial drive and focus makes for great study.  Jobs was a rebel and a misfit and he imparted a sense of purpose and belonging for all the other rebels and misfits out there. Instead of brushing them aside or pointing at them for being [...]

The New Heroes: Social Entrepreneurs

I love this new series on PBS about ordinary folks who have a passion to make a difference in the world.  The New Heroes series tells the dramatic stories of 14 daring people from all corners of the globe who, against all odds, are successfully alleviating poverty and illness, combating unemployment and violence, and bringing [...]

Three Critical Traits To Be a Successful CEO

Leaders today need to be at home navigating a ship through 40-foot waves — oceans that will never again be serene — and still be able to guide their crew safely from port to port. They must remain highly effective in an environment of extraordinary, ongoing stress.  In researching their new book, Better Under Pressure, [...]

The Need for Relational Skills in the C-Level Suite

Just read a great article from CFO Coach about a recent survey by Accountemps that is indicative of a growing trend in finance. CFOs not only want people with people skills working for them, they themselves bring higher value when they bring relational skills sets to the table. The Accountemps survey shows a dramatic increase [...]

Questions About God

This is the kind of questions that Park Community Church answers head on in their teaching and classes.  I love it! Alpha Promo Fix from Jason Widney on Vimeo.

McKinsey’s Top 10 Articles of 2Q-2009

As an entrepreneur, I am always looking to learn more about strategy, trends, etc so I came across the top ten articles from McKinsey Consulting in the second quarter of 2009. Represenative topics include:

1. STRATEGY

Strategic planning: Three tips for 2009<
Even in these tumultuous times, strategic planning doesn’t have to be an exercise in anxiety—or futility.

2. CORPORATE FINANCE
Timing is key as companies weigh whether to make strategic investments now or wait for clear signs of recovery. Scenario analysis can expose the risks of moving too quickly or slowly.

3. STRATEGY
In this interactive presentation—one in a series of multimedia frameworks—McKinsey director Rob Latoff offers insight into the industry cost curve, a business school classic for understanding pricing. By bringing discipline and a practical set of definitions to bear, this framework can be applied to real-world, competitive markets.

4. ECONOMIC STUDIES
Surveying the economic horizon: A conversation with Robert ShillerIn this video interview, the noted economist explains and explores the downturn’s root causes—and possible ways forward.

5. CORPORATE FINANCE
What next? Ten questions for CFOs
As companies shift their attention from fighting the crisis to getting the most from the recovery, CFOs must keep executives focused.

Friday Free Things: Kids & Kites

The entire family is invited for a free Chicago event on May 2 to Montrose Harbor in Lincoln Park for Mayor Daley’s Kids and Kites Festival.

Chicago Free Fridays 2: How to Score Free Oprah Tickets

We tell you how to get free tickets for one of the most popular free things to do in Chicago — an Oprah taping in the West Loop at her Harpo Studios. Audience reservations for The Oprah Winfrey Show are available almost exclusively by phone. As you can imagine, demand for free Oprah tickets far exceeds supply.

Piper and Carson Tonight at Park

Tonight, Thursday, April 23, 2009, at Park Community Church in Chicago, IL, the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School will host an evening of free lectures and discussion with Dr. John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church and Dr. D. A. Carson of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. The event [...]

5 Christians: What Type are You?

With the changing church landscape in America, Christianity Today (CT) conducted attitudinal and behavioral research of U.S. Christians. More than 1,000 self-identified Christians 18 years of age and older were surveyed on their religious beliefs and practices. The results reveal a number of significant differences. In fact, portraits of five distinct segments emerged from the [...]

Are You Ready to Be a “Bridger”?

Occasionally, I like to highlight folks who have had great success in the marketplace but then move into the non-profit sector to use their skills and abilities to make a more significant impact on people.  They are sometimes called Bridgers—individuals whose professional experience comes wholly or primarily from for-profit companies prior to entering the nonprofit [...]

Politics as Usual with $900 Billion Stimulus Bill — Take a Look; It’s Your Money

I want CHANGE but it looks like Washington is just to big for Obama to make a dent. As the new Obama government begins to look at how to get the economy going, many of our legislative leaders are using the bill to spend YOUR money on non-stimulus items and the truth is, our kids [...]

Solar Cells Get to 20% Conversion Efficiency

I am becoming a big fan of solar power as it begins the long march toward parity with current power supplies — I would love to get off the Commonwealth Edison grid and not have to pay that big electricity bill every month. So I was excited to see today that Suniva Inc. announced that [...]

Solar as Alternative?

I am beginning to look into solar options but I live in Illinois (never really known as the land of the uninterrupted sun) so I wanted to find out how to calculate whether an investment in solar makes sense in Chicago.  I learned that the total solar energy available to the earth is approximately 3850 [...]

Global…..Cooling?

This past April, the USA had an average temperature of 51 degrees, which was one of the coolest in the last 114 years — where is the global warming? Look at the data here.

Which Choice Do You Make? Food or Fuel?

Look at this article and then reflect on which choice you would make — it is obvious what choice Al Gore would make but what would you do if you were the country’s policymaker? NEW YORK SUN – The campaign against climate change could be set back by the global food crisis, as foreign populations [...]

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