A strategic plan requires a strong commitment from management and employees to be successful. This is great for companies who have a solid plan to drive them but unfortunately the ones that don't could lose everything they have. As an owner, you bet your company's future on a strategic plan. If you haven't gotten the details right or shaped it from the proper perspective, you could be directing your business towards trouble. This article has good examples of small business strategies that are leading to success.
Ticket City, an Austin based ticket broker,was just laying off workers and cutting managers pay three years ago. Then the founder, Randy Cohen realized that he was playing too much defense. He decided to change his approach and be more aggressive by hiring 10 more employees and increasing his investment in marketing. The outcome? He boosted revenue by 33% in 2010 to $40 million. Ticket City even sponsors a nationally televised college bowl game. Sometimes leaders just need to be confident and try to be bold to establish a brand image.
Another suggestion is to listen to customers when thinking about redeveloping a strategic plan. Ask yourself what customers are missing in their experience, what value can you add? Coastal Contacts sells contanct-lens online and is doing well for themselves but the CEO was looking to rev up growth. He was having trouble coming up with ideas so he decided to turn to customers for ideas. Customer Service reps called customers and asked for feedback and management found a trend in their responses; many wanted their lenses the next day. So the organization began shipping everything overnight and the result has been phenomenal, sales in the U.S have jumped up over 40%. Customer responsiveness was the key to their boost in business but this should be done with caution. Sometimes customers can also steer you into making bad decisions. This company also developed a program based off of customer suggestions for their eye-glass business. Coastal Contacts sent four frames to their customers to give them a choice and then return the testers after making a decision. Soon after implementing this strategy the company realized that customers were just as likely to return purchases as before. Furthermore, the costs of this service weren't offset by the additional sales.
The article provided other suggestions that I generalize as tips. What I took out of this article was that big decisions require proper analysis to reduce the risk of failure. It's a good idea to look at problems from different perspectives. If you can't look at a situation from different angles, get input and communicate with others. The important thing is that the leader of an organization is capable of noticing trouble and can adapt. When strategies aren't working, they need to be the ones to not only recognize it but to step up and recognize the need for change.
Article: http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/05/smallbusiness/small_business_strategy.fortune/index.htm
Team Three
Sunny Shah
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Communication is the key. We learned this in the textbook, classroom discussions, and through our every day life. This same phrase applies to the business world. As a small business owner, it is easy to get caught up on the thousands of tasks that you feel you have to do simultaneously. Sometimes it can become hard to actually stop, take a breath, and notice the things that are going on around you. Small business owners frequently get caught up with looking ahead that they don't take the time to look around.It is important to see how your business is running and be there for your customers, as well as your employees. Happy employees leads to greater productivity and happier customers.
The article I found on businessweek.com discusses this topic. Although the business may be small and you frequently see each and every employee, it is still important to set time aside for each person and speak with them for about 15-30 minutes. This will allow you to stay informed and let your employees know that they are valued. This can also increase motivation and increase quality of work. These meeting times are not only beneficial for employees to express their feelings and concerns but also beneficial for the owner to go over goals for the upcoming term.
"Offering people a voice and an ear is the most motivating, nonfinancial incentive you can give. And it helps you build a stronger team, one person at a time" I think this quote tells it all. Humans by nature want to know that people care; that people are listening to them and value their work. Something as simple as setting time aside will not cost you nearly as much as you will gain in the outcome.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/tips/archives/2011/04/spend_time_with_your_staff.html
Danielle Trasatti
The article I found on businessweek.com discusses this topic. Although the business may be small and you frequently see each and every employee, it is still important to set time aside for each person and speak with them for about 15-30 minutes. This will allow you to stay informed and let your employees know that they are valued. This can also increase motivation and increase quality of work. These meeting times are not only beneficial for employees to express their feelings and concerns but also beneficial for the owner to go over goals for the upcoming term.
"Offering people a voice and an ear is the most motivating, nonfinancial incentive you can give. And it helps you build a stronger team, one person at a time" I think this quote tells it all. Humans by nature want to know that people care; that people are listening to them and value their work. Something as simple as setting time aside will not cost you nearly as much as you will gain in the outcome.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/tips/archives/2011/04/spend_time_with_your_staff.html
Danielle Trasatti
Scary Questions?
What are the right questions to ask your customers? Scott Messer says it is key for small businesses to ask the hard questions to their customers. Most people tend to avoid asking hard questions, but it is a must to really know what the customers are thinking. Messer says that asking the scary questions helps entrepreneurs develop lasting, personal relationships with their customers that ultimately improve sales. Sometimes people are nervous to ask questions, because of the chance that they will not get the answer they want. Some questions that Messer says needs to be asked are “If you were giving us a report card, what grade would we get?”, “If we lose your business in 2010, why would that happen, other than price?” Also, a problem with asking hard questions is getting people to be completely honest with you. The business owner needs to say that even if I may not like your answer I want you to be completely honest with me. Both parties in conversation need to realize that being completely honest well help out each other in the long run.
Communication is how businesses coordinate actions and achieve goals. Our textbook stats that communication is vital to an organizations success, which I agree 100 percent. Just like the article stats, if business owners are not able to get the right and honest information then they will be in trouble. Poor communication costs money and wastes time. A study from the textbook found that 14 percent of each workweek is wasted on poor communication. To me I think this problem is not too hard to fix. The more people talk and discuss ideas the more success a business will have. Also, it is just not enough just to communicate, but need to communicate effectively. This means asking the right questions and getting the right answers.
Have you ever avoided asking a hard or scary question, because you were scared of what the answer maybe? Also, why do you think businesses have so many problems with the communication process?
Article:http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/dec2009/sb20091210_589383.htm
Team 3
Jeff Blankenship
Communication is how businesses coordinate actions and achieve goals. Our textbook stats that communication is vital to an organizations success, which I agree 100 percent. Just like the article stats, if business owners are not able to get the right and honest information then they will be in trouble. Poor communication costs money and wastes time. A study from the textbook found that 14 percent of each workweek is wasted on poor communication. To me I think this problem is not too hard to fix. The more people talk and discuss ideas the more success a business will have. Also, it is just not enough just to communicate, but need to communicate effectively. This means asking the right questions and getting the right answers.
Have you ever avoided asking a hard or scary question, because you were scared of what the answer maybe? Also, why do you think businesses have so many problems with the communication process?
Article:http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/dec2009/sb20091210_589383.htm
Team 3
Jeff Blankenship
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Training to Quit
Who would have ever thought of such a thing as training your employees to quit? On first read, this seemed like a crazy idea to me; why would a small business owner want to invest even more money into an employee that is just going to leave them for another company? As I read this article though, the whole idea seemed much more logical.
Derek Christian, the owner of a small business called My Maid Service, determined that although their company was making a respectable profit, the only factor keeping the company from reaching the next level was the staff turnover. As we have learned throughout the semester, staff turnover leads to a considerable amount of job dissatisfaction resulting in poor customer service. Let’s face it, most people don’t aspire to be maids and therefore it is hard to keep employees and even harder to keep them happy enough to please customers.
Christian, through the help of a consultant, determined that it would serve the company best to train his employees to move onto a better career after working for him. The only stipulation was that they had to stay at My Maid Service for at least two years. He will then pay for any training necessary to get his employees where they want to be in their career. This change resulted in zero staff turnovers in 2009. This concept ties directly to two very important concepts that we have continued to learn about throughout the semester: motivation and job satisfaction.
I believe that Christian is attempting to motivate his employees through empowerment. As chapter 6 in the textbook describes, there are two types of empowerment, structural and felt. Structural empowerment can be achieved through decision authority, leadership style, organizational structure, access to information, and organizational climate. In this case, the owner is achieving structural empowerment mainly through organizational structure and climate. He formed organizational structure by employing centralized management while still allowing employees to do their job without being micromanaged. This structure also included a policy that required an employee to work the full two years before completing their “training to quit” program, so in that regard My Maid Service was a fairly formal organization. The biggest part of structural empowerment displayed at this company though was organizational climate. The owner motivated the entire work force by offering the training free of charge to the employees. Therefore, employees were more motivated to work hard and go after the opportunities that were placed in front of them, instead of being stuck in the same job for years or quitting after a few weeks. The owner really inspired a belief in his employees that they could be anything they wanted to be after they did good work for him.
According to the textbook, felt empowerment includes: the need for work to be meaningful, employees to feel confident that they can perform the job, employees having discretion and autonomy at work, and for employees’ abilities to be allowed to influence how the company operates. At My Maid Service, Derek Christian is trying to instill felt empowerment in his employees because it will cause them to do a better job while they still work there. In this way, he makes maid service work meaningful; employees are not just cleaning houses, they are cleaning houses while taking classes at a community college or getting training in a different field. There is constantly a deeper reason as to why they are performing at their best, which is an incredibly motivating ideal.
All of the aforementioned components of working for My Maid Service lead to job satisfaction. Through this model of business, the employees will feel valued and will have a sense of responsibility for the work that they do. Also, through Christian’s way of hiring, he is more likely to find those with a strong person-organization fit; in other words, they are the employees that want to work for a business run in this fashion.
So what do you think, is it really an owner’s responsibility to get their workers trained to discover better futures? Or is this really just senseless in terms of costs to the business?
Article: http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/01/smallbusiness/staff_training/index.htm
Posted By:
Brittany Meredith
Derek Christian, the owner of a small business called My Maid Service, determined that although their company was making a respectable profit, the only factor keeping the company from reaching the next level was the staff turnover. As we have learned throughout the semester, staff turnover leads to a considerable amount of job dissatisfaction resulting in poor customer service. Let’s face it, most people don’t aspire to be maids and therefore it is hard to keep employees and even harder to keep them happy enough to please customers.
Christian, through the help of a consultant, determined that it would serve the company best to train his employees to move onto a better career after working for him. The only stipulation was that they had to stay at My Maid Service for at least two years. He will then pay for any training necessary to get his employees where they want to be in their career. This change resulted in zero staff turnovers in 2009. This concept ties directly to two very important concepts that we have continued to learn about throughout the semester: motivation and job satisfaction.
I believe that Christian is attempting to motivate his employees through empowerment. As chapter 6 in the textbook describes, there are two types of empowerment, structural and felt. Structural empowerment can be achieved through decision authority, leadership style, organizational structure, access to information, and organizational climate. In this case, the owner is achieving structural empowerment mainly through organizational structure and climate. He formed organizational structure by employing centralized management while still allowing employees to do their job without being micromanaged. This structure also included a policy that required an employee to work the full two years before completing their “training to quit” program, so in that regard My Maid Service was a fairly formal organization. The biggest part of structural empowerment displayed at this company though was organizational climate. The owner motivated the entire work force by offering the training free of charge to the employees. Therefore, employees were more motivated to work hard and go after the opportunities that were placed in front of them, instead of being stuck in the same job for years or quitting after a few weeks. The owner really inspired a belief in his employees that they could be anything they wanted to be after they did good work for him.
According to the textbook, felt empowerment includes: the need for work to be meaningful, employees to feel confident that they can perform the job, employees having discretion and autonomy at work, and for employees’ abilities to be allowed to influence how the company operates. At My Maid Service, Derek Christian is trying to instill felt empowerment in his employees because it will cause them to do a better job while they still work there. In this way, he makes maid service work meaningful; employees are not just cleaning houses, they are cleaning houses while taking classes at a community college or getting training in a different field. There is constantly a deeper reason as to why they are performing at their best, which is an incredibly motivating ideal.
All of the aforementioned components of working for My Maid Service lead to job satisfaction. Through this model of business, the employees will feel valued and will have a sense of responsibility for the work that they do. Also, through Christian’s way of hiring, he is more likely to find those with a strong person-organization fit; in other words, they are the employees that want to work for a business run in this fashion.
So what do you think, is it really an owner’s responsibility to get their workers trained to discover better futures? Or is this really just senseless in terms of costs to the business?
Article: http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/01/smallbusiness/staff_training/index.htm
Posted By:
Brittany Meredith
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Marketing to the right crowd
One large problem that small businesses face is getting the word out about their company. Who care about it, right? If it is not a top name commonly known, what is its significance to me? That is the thought of many consumers. One woman from Phoenix expressed her hardships with getting her name out there via the internet. She had trouble advertising on various search engines and was not able to be successful on any avenue she pursued.
Small businesses should concentrate on defining their market and knowing who it is they need to advertise to. Larger corporations are able to extend their market over a larger region. It is important for small businesses to use their recourses wisely and ensure that they are directing their products or services to the right market. Small businesses can not afford to make the mistake of advertising to the wrong market. This would lead to a loss in expenses and thus a loss in profits with no customers wanting their product. Building demand for your small business is essential.
Chapter 11 in the textbook describes the different levels of decision making that individuals, companies, etc. must go through. They can be strategical in deciding if their product or service is the best option for them,tactical in deciding who the target market should be, and operational in deciding how to maintain their relationship with their consumers. Making the right decisions is extremely important for a small business's longevity.
article :http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2011/sb2011045_253677.htm
by: Danielle Trasatti
Small businesses should concentrate on defining their market and knowing who it is they need to advertise to. Larger corporations are able to extend their market over a larger region. It is important for small businesses to use their recourses wisely and ensure that they are directing their products or services to the right market. Small businesses can not afford to make the mistake of advertising to the wrong market. This would lead to a loss in expenses and thus a loss in profits with no customers wanting their product. Building demand for your small business is essential.
Chapter 11 in the textbook describes the different levels of decision making that individuals, companies, etc. must go through. They can be strategical in deciding if their product or service is the best option for them,tactical in deciding who the target market should be, and operational in deciding how to maintain their relationship with their consumers. Making the right decisions is extremely important for a small business's longevity.
article :http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2011/sb2011045_253677.htm
by: Danielle Trasatti
Friday, April 15, 2011
Seven Ways to Retain Top Employees
I found an article that discusses the challenges small business faces in retaining high level employees. It is easy for large corporations to offer incentives to employees whereas there is much more of a challenge for a small business. The prime example of a corporation that offers amazing incentives is Google, they have beyond belief things for their employees doing on the job and perks offered to them.
The article offers seven pieces ways to help retain the top performers:
1) Revisit old promises
2) Take Action
3) Have Fun
4) Keep Talking
5) Be Transparent
6) Address inequities
7) Be realistic
This article closely relates to chapter four: individual attitudes and behaviors.
First, an individual needs to have a high organizational commitment otherwise it would not be in the interest of a company to retain them. An employer and employee are going to have a psychological contract with each other and it's important that each of their needs are met, otherwise a psychological contract breach takes place. A breach is going to lead to low job satisfaction and commitment as stated by our textbook.
Some of the suggestions provided by the text that cause a positive work environment include a person's personality, person-environment fit, job characteristics, organizational justice, relationships at work, stress, and work-life balance. If a small business addresses these factors, it should provide a positive environment for employees. If a company decides to ignore some or all of these factors it will result in turnover, which is an employee leaving an organization. The text also states employee turnover has potentially harmful consequences, such as poor customer service and poor company-wide performance. Then the company needs to invest time and money into finding a replacement, both of which are scarce resources and cannot be afforded to be wasted. It's going to cost more money to find a replacement, when in the long-run it's in the best interest in the company to look after employees' well-being. Other problem that can occur is employee absenteeism, which is an unscheduled absence from work. Absenteeism can be very costly as well, just like employee turnover. According to our text absenteeism costs organizations $74 billion or about 15% of payroll is related to absenteeism.
If a company is unsure if they are meeting the needs of their employees they should consider conducting attitude surveys, which is defined as surveys that are given to employees periodically to track their work attitudes.
Have you ever worked for a company where it seems they are more interested in the bottom-line than they are in the well-being and satisfaction of their employees? I know I have unfortunately.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217482
Zachary Long
The article offers seven pieces ways to help retain the top performers:
1) Revisit old promises
2) Take Action
3) Have Fun
4) Keep Talking
5) Be Transparent
6) Address inequities
7) Be realistic
This article closely relates to chapter four: individual attitudes and behaviors.
First, an individual needs to have a high organizational commitment otherwise it would not be in the interest of a company to retain them. An employer and employee are going to have a psychological contract with each other and it's important that each of their needs are met, otherwise a psychological contract breach takes place. A breach is going to lead to low job satisfaction and commitment as stated by our textbook.
Some of the suggestions provided by the text that cause a positive work environment include a person's personality, person-environment fit, job characteristics, organizational justice, relationships at work, stress, and work-life balance. If a small business addresses these factors, it should provide a positive environment for employees. If a company decides to ignore some or all of these factors it will result in turnover, which is an employee leaving an organization. The text also states employee turnover has potentially harmful consequences, such as poor customer service and poor company-wide performance. Then the company needs to invest time and money into finding a replacement, both of which are scarce resources and cannot be afforded to be wasted. It's going to cost more money to find a replacement, when in the long-run it's in the best interest in the company to look after employees' well-being. Other problem that can occur is employee absenteeism, which is an unscheduled absence from work. Absenteeism can be very costly as well, just like employee turnover. According to our text absenteeism costs organizations $74 billion or about 15% of payroll is related to absenteeism.
If a company is unsure if they are meeting the needs of their employees they should consider conducting attitude surveys, which is defined as surveys that are given to employees periodically to track their work attitudes.
Have you ever worked for a company where it seems they are more interested in the bottom-line than they are in the well-being and satisfaction of their employees? I know I have unfortunately.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217482
Zachary Long
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Innovation and Creativity in Small Business
Small businesses rely largely on the “next big thing” in order for their business to grow a customer base. Therefore, the small businesses must be innovative in their thinking in order to come up with new ideas. The article, “How to innovate: A step-by-step guide,” starts out by talking about a funeral home director who started up his business by finding out from the customers how their loved ones would like to be honored. In response to this, the funeral home specializes services with anything from transporting the dearly departed person’s Harley Davidson motorcycle to the funeral home or entirely moving the services to places such as golf courses. The article addresses five steps for innovation which I believe go hand-in-hand with the creative decision-making model which I will discuss later. The first step is to “look behind you” meaning that small business owners should take into consideration what those that came before them did to become successful and what the company has done to be successful in the past. The second step is to “lose the routine,” meaning that management and their employees need to live life and have experiences that will open their minds up to new ideas. The third step is to “use the brains you hired”; employees are a huge part of coming up with the ideas for the company and they should be encouraged to do so. The fourth step is to “get cozy with your customers” which means that a small business’ management and employees should develop close relationships with their customers in order to really understand what their needs and wants are. The last two steps include possibly finding a partner to gain ideas and investments from and also learning how to fail quickly. Those two steps allow small businesses to try out more of their ideas without taking on all of the financial pressure that could come with such decisions.
In order for companies to come up with new and exciting ideas that will aid in continued growth, they must use a creative decision-making model. As displayed in Chapter 11 of our textbook, the creative decision-making process has five steps: problem recognition, immersion, incubation, illumination, and verification (and application). The steps of innovation discussed previously come into play with the immersion, incubation, and illumination steps of the creative decision-making process. During immersion, the small business must step out of their normal routine of doing things, look at the history of their company, and gain an understanding of their customers. This process will allow the small business to gain the information they need to solve the problem of dwindling business or the need for a new idea. During illumination, when the problem’s solution comes to light, a small business could use a partner or other outsiders to bounce their ideas off of. The end stage, when verification and application occurs, companies need to be sure to speed up the process in order to “fail quickly.” Spending too much time on an idea that just will not work is a waste of time and extra resources. The small business should quickly move onto starting the process over again.
As far as “using the brains you hired,” employee creativity can be used and improved by methods such as brainstorming, idea quotas, and wildstorming. Most people know what brainstorming is but wildstorming is an interesting method because it allows employees to take the ideas that seem next to impossible and think of ways to make them possible. I also think idea quotas are a good idea because they encourage employees and groups of employees to come up with a large number of ideas before ending the brainstorming process.
I thought all of these ideas for innovation were very interesting and should definitely be taken into consideration when delving into the creative decision-making process. Would you agree? What might you add to make the creative process even better?
Posted By: Brittany Meredith
In order for companies to come up with new and exciting ideas that will aid in continued growth, they must use a creative decision-making model. As displayed in Chapter 11 of our textbook, the creative decision-making process has five steps: problem recognition, immersion, incubation, illumination, and verification (and application). The steps of innovation discussed previously come into play with the immersion, incubation, and illumination steps of the creative decision-making process. During immersion, the small business must step out of their normal routine of doing things, look at the history of their company, and gain an understanding of their customers. This process will allow the small business to gain the information they need to solve the problem of dwindling business or the need for a new idea. During illumination, when the problem’s solution comes to light, a small business could use a partner or other outsiders to bounce their ideas off of. The end stage, when verification and application occurs, companies need to be sure to speed up the process in order to “fail quickly.” Spending too much time on an idea that just will not work is a waste of time and extra resources. The small business should quickly move onto starting the process over again.
As far as “using the brains you hired,” employee creativity can be used and improved by methods such as brainstorming, idea quotas, and wildstorming. Most people know what brainstorming is but wildstorming is an interesting method because it allows employees to take the ideas that seem next to impossible and think of ways to make them possible. I also think idea quotas are a good idea because they encourage employees and groups of employees to come up with a large number of ideas before ending the brainstorming process.
I thought all of these ideas for innovation were very interesting and should definitely be taken into consideration when delving into the creative decision-making process. Would you agree? What might you add to make the creative process even better?
Posted By: Brittany Meredith
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