Downton Abbey is a smash hit on PBS Classics. Downton Abbey is a series portaying the life and struggles of the Crawley Family in England before, during and after WWI. The show is a fantastic Venue to compare the lot and activities of the upper class and the working class. The show is a great classroom for studying the traits … Read More
” Who is my neighbor? I mean Co-worker?
In the Bible in Luke Chapter 10 a man who was an expert in the law asked Jesus the famous question that has inspired the Good Samaritan Laws all over the world two thousand years later. I submit the question to you in terms of the workplace? Who is my Co-worker? The story that Jesus told was about a … Read More
Managing Moments of Truth
Managing the Moments of Truth in your business is the key to success or failure, whether you believe it or not! Whether it is the Supply house with a pothole bigger than a truck, or a daycare with no one shoveling the ice and snow in a storm, or the promise of a delivery date they all are critical issues … Read More
Controlling Costs of Workers Comp and Unemployment Taxes
Controlling costs, two that most don’t and never knew how! Let’s talk about controling costs !!!!!! I have been calling on business owners for the last 16 years and have only had about 5 % who actually know what SUTA stands for and what their current tax rate is for it. SUTA is the acronym for State Unemployment Tax Act … Read More
Increase Productivity Now!
Increase Productivity Now! The Hawthorne Effect’s well-documented phenomenon that affects many research experiments in social sciences. It is the process where human subjects of an experiment change their behavior, simply because they are being studied. This is one of the hardest inbuilt biases to eliminate or factor into the design. When I was hired to manage a turnaround of … Read More
End of February Sales Decline! Guess why?
Courtesy of Drugwatch.com It is your responsibility to know the times and the seasons of your company’s sales cycle. Especially when it has a seasonal sales decline. You alone are responsible for knowing when business is going to be good when it’s not going to be good, then how many employees to put on staff for the day or not to. … Read More
Would your company have hired Young Mr. Lincoln???
Who is doing the hiring around here? the most powerful person in your company that’s who! And it’s probably not you!!!! This lesson really pertains more to small business that do not have a full time Professional Human Resource Manager. Now let me get clear on this when I say do the hiring I should Abraham Lincoln No College Degree! specify the fact … Read More
“Check Your Drawers, and Other Timely Advice for Managers”
THIS POST IS THE TITLE CHAPTER IN MY BOOK “Check Your Drawers, and Other Timely Advice For Managers” It is over 70 chapters of lessons like this one. All true life personal experiences and I tried to inject a humorous approach to learning from my experiences as a Manager moving up through the ranks, so here it is! Wheweeee! “Check Your Drawers” What’s that? … Read More
Paint the Picture
When I was managing a chain of automotive shops one of the things that I became aware of was that I constantly had to demonstrate to the manager that his performance was not up to our standards. Over time I decided that what we really needed was a way to demonstrate clearly our standards. For example what we thought was a clean … Read More