While they were strangers in the past, it seems to me that bricks and mortar commerce and the e-commerce experience are coming closer together, two strangers no more. I’m convinced that before long, a combination of the two experiences will just be “retail.” A few years ago, everyone was “shorting the stock,” counting the demise …
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with several senior advisors to the National Economic Council in Washington DC. Our “Gang of Nine” business leaders from the South included people involved in construction, agriculture and the food industry. We were invited to the Capital to discuss immigration reform. Interestingly, we all found fairly common ground. After …
Retirement is a strange word to me, as it seems few people ever really stop working. Perhaps we just shift our interests a bit. Last week, I was talking with the recently “retired” Mike Prior, who formerly managed a mortgage loan investment portfolio of $5-6 billion for a major life insurance company. Mike now offices in our quiet …
There are a zillion books out there on business that we all think we need to read to be successful. To me, the standouts are those that help us in business and in life, like Good to Great by Jim Collins and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Who can ever forget the impact of fixing broken …
It’s been interesting to see our garden take shape over the five years we’ve been here on Overton Road. We started with a small tomato area in 2009. Two years later, we had more than 10 types of plants and herbs just outside our offices. In 2012, we hired a recent college graduate as a part time gardener …
Last week, I was with a customer in Phoenix who shared how integral colored polished concrete is saving them about 75% in annual maintenance costs. While all customers are different with their experiences and needs, when I got back, I asked our team the best ways to ensure good integral colored floors. They shared a few …
The purpose of any businesses is to grow. The last few years have been tough in this department, but remember how it was in the good ole days of last decade? We saw speed, revenue, market share and profit. Most business owners are wired with a desire to get “back to the future.” Not so fast. For …
This week, the tech world got some bad news. Google Reader, a favorite syndication system for personalized web content, will go dark on July 1. Here is Google’s official statement, from their Spring Cleaning blog update: We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite …
To me, baseball spring training season has always been a time of new beginnings, when teams have a chance to remake themselves, and to change their culture if needed. Why can companies and organizations not treat the coming season in the same way? I recently, I found a good starting point. The former CEO of …
“If you dislike change, you’re going to dislike irrelevance even more,” General Eric Shinseki, former Chief of Staff of the Army. To me, this quote sums up my takeaways from the OAC conference I attended this week. The conference limits itself to 400 attendees, mainly from the C suites and upper management of the country’s …
A few weeks ago, I was the guest of a customer (and friend) for a Robert Burns dinner in Nashville. As you recall, Robert Burns was a talented Scottish poet who wrote about love, his own shared experiences of growing up poor and learning dignity. Often considered the national poet of Scotland, he inspired many during …
Do you know about the Raving Fans concept? It says that because of the poor service received in the past, customer expectation is often low. To me, if one’s business goes above and beyond to satisfy, you will not only gain customer for life, but an advocate in the community. A truly gratified customer will go out of …