American Executive
Where Leadership Begins
Managing Passion
I am hesitant to refer to passion as a management tool because I don’t want to advocate manipulation in its most negative form. Instead, I want you to approach this as a form of booster rocket that you can adapt and use to get to where you want to go faster.
We Don't Read Minds
I’ll address one shortcoming in this article: not publicizing a list of corporate goals and objectives in priority order. Without a public list like this, people at every level of the organization are forced to guess at the most important criteria for making decisions.
The Upside of Upside Down
Whether they refer to them as raving fans, zealots for their business, loyal customers, or long-term clients, most executives today are trying to ensure their companies get and keep profitable customers.
Turnaround Thinking
How would we be operating our enterprise if we were going through a turnaround right now? That led me to think about achieving transformation by thinking differently— without going through the massive pain and suffering a turnaround typically involves.
Are You Engaging?
Employee engagement doesn’t have to be relegated to some soft-headed, everybody-feelgood- and-sing-Kumbaya moments. It can deliver pragmatic outcomes that most execs would die for.
Utility and Transportation Contractor Articles
It Is Never Too Late To Learn
Charles Darwin said, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one most adaptable to change." If ever in the past fifty years a business owner must learn to adapt to change, it is today!
PIA Magazine Articles
Understanding the Strategic Planning Process
Baseball legend Yogi Berra once said, "If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else." What a simple statement, yet really quite profound.
Client Loyalty
While we have just come through one of the biggest financial meltdowns in U.S. history, almost every industry has been forced to rethink its position in the marketplace and how its "go-to-market" strategies have been affected.
Are You Maximizing Your Present?
In many cases, the often-used phase, "It is not what we know that hurts us; but, rather, it is what we think we know that we do not, that gets in our way," still is appropriate.
Satisfying Clients Isn't Good Enough
Suspend your disbelief for a moment and imagine an agency that never seems to lose many clients.
Article Archives
American Executive Articles (click to expand)
The Self-Deluded Leadership Trap
It doesn’t matter whether you look at elected officials like Sanford, Blagojevich, Clinton, or Nixon or famous individuals such as Falwell, King, Jackson, Skilling, or Madoff, the underlying behavior is identical. What led to their public dressing down was their apparent belief that the rules of conduct that apply to other people somehow don’t apply to them.
Own Your Customers
For example, when I ask executives, “What is your unique differentiation in the marketplace?” or "What does your organization really excel at?" they often reply, "It has to be our customer service." Almost no one will admit to being lousy in customer service, anymore than they will talk about living in an average town with average kids.
Capitalizing on the Change Curve
Imagine there was a relatively simple tool that could help you understand and predict how members of your teamand organization would likely performover a period of time. Youmay already know it as the universal change curve or the forming, storming, norming, and performing curve, a variation on the work of B.W. Tuckman that originally appeared in 1965.
Utility and Transportation Contractor Articles (click to expand)
Change Now or Die Later
Should you add a VP of CHANGE to your staff? Nutsy you say. Well let's take a closer look. Ten years ago would you have considered a comptroller, HR Officer, IT Director, etc? Leaders must do the right things so managers can do things right that will have positive impact on positive results.
PIA Articles (click to expand)
An Enterpreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm
Starting with the most basic premise, entrepreneurs can face either the initial challenges surrounding creating a new venture from scratch, or building up a recent acquisition.
Part 1 on An Entrepreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm
An Enterpreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm
In this issue we will identify and help you better understand the six key organizational development tasks.
Part 2 on An Entrepreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm
Surviving Major Changes
In this issue, we will identify and help you better understand the four major stages that an agency/organization must pass through on its way to greatness as well as the typical characteristics of those stages.
Part 3 on An Entrepreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm
Surviving Major Changes
In this installment, we discuss the tactical transitions that must be successfully executed.
Part 4 on An Entrepreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm
Perpetuation Plan, Retirement Plan, Exit Strategy
Click individual pages to view the article.
Build and Strengthen Your Agency-Carrier Relationships
What is reasonable for agencies and companies to expect from each other? What advice or requests do insurance industry executives and former industry executives have for the agency owners today?
How come no one ever washes a rental car?
We all know the answer to the question in the title; we don't wash a rental car because we don't own it.
It's all about getting it done
Having a solid strategy doesn't get "it" done in and of itself. In the current challenging business environment a solid execution plan rarely is a plan to do "it" faster, better and cheaper.
Keep That Smile On Your Clients Face
Click to view the article.
Why have a marketing plan?
Simply put, it’s everything a business does to attract customers, keep them coming back and refer others to your business.
An enterpreneurship to a professionally managed firm
In this issue we will identify and help you better understand the six key organizational development tasks.
New Products-Do they expand your book or dilute it?
Click to view the article.
Why Would Anyone Want to Hire a Consultant
There is no doubt that we in the USA are being bombarded with new challenges on an ongoing basis. Failure to adapt will become a death sentence for many organizations.