Increase profit by supporting a nonprofit
Posted on April 23, 2009
Filed Under Business Ideas, Economy | Leave a Comment
We all know, we all talk and we all hear daily in the news or in conversations with our peers how bad is the economical situation worldwide and how worst it is going to become during the coming months. The data shown is not surprising anymore but is rather starting to become annoying, as if media would be trying to cause panic among masses by monopolizing all channels with catastrophic information. We have all heard that already, haven’t we?
Nevertheless, when we think about the current situation, it usually comes to mind the image of a big banker now unemployed willing to commit suicide, or a family unable to pay their mortgage but, are we considering those that were already living under poverty conditions? What is happening to them? Shall we start thinking about lowering the one dollar a day standard that marks the limit of extreme poverty?
Let’s now think about nonprofit organizations, those involved in giving without expecting to receive.
Although there are officially 27 types of tax-exempt organizations (e.g. nonprofits), including those engaged in civic, patriotic, recreational, political and social activities, I will focus here in those developing their work in order to benefit others’ lifes without creating any financial gain for their members (this does not include coaching your kids’ baseball team or organizing a cultural exchange in your city, for instance). Thus, this could be summarized in two main types of organizations.
MBA in time of cholera
Posted on April 10, 2009
Filed Under Education, Trends | 1 Comment
Studying an MBA is, again, becoming a trend. It doesn’t seem to matter what is the cost involved in such a course -typically between €40.000 and €60.000 a year-, the preparation candidates need or the forecast of a year -or two- going back to those times surrounded by exams-caused stress, lots of caffeine and some more lots of parties and few hours of sleep. And, well, we are not eighteen anymore. Thus, with this panorama in front of a potential MBA candidate, one could probably think something like:
Back to school? Nah… been there, done that.
In addition, business schools have it more and more difficult in order to provide their students with a suitable employment, due to the shrinking job market. As of today, no MBA school has been left untouched by the fact that companies are not hiring. The bad news came too late and even Top tier business schools are seeing a longer recruitment period, low average salaries (forget about those millionaire promises they used to promote a couple of years ago) and a new set of recruiters who would possibly have never been so sought-after in the past. This may lead one to think, why would someone do an MBA today?
Surprisingly, this is not the situation at all. The common idea behind it is, basically, “that while the economy has been slowing over the past two years, the current global financial situation indicates that it may be the ideal time for business executives to invest in their careers and strengthen their professional profile”. That is, in other words, “the equivalent of the get out of jail free card in Monopoly – a way of ducking out of the recession at its peak and, hopefully, coming back refreshed, reskilled and even more employable just as things start to pick up”, as Nic Paton describes it.
Push it up!
Posted on April 8, 2009
Filed Under Strategy, Trends | 2 Comments
With the economic turndown still spinning around our heads, creativity is today the golden rule, even more than what it used to be. In order to avoid those catastrophic consequences the whole media is warning us about, businesses must now think twice before starting a sales campaign or launching a loyalty program.
Thus, here you have twelve (online) ways of increasing profitability and customer awareness in your multinational business.
- Outsource, partly or in full. As discussed in previous posts, outsourcing your dispensable tasks to a third party will help your company concentrate on relevant matters. Why would you spend weeks of your time implementing a fancy website if someone (or something) can do it for you in few hours?
- Focus! Differentiation is critical, yes, but a manager should never forget what is all about, pointing at few products and prospect customers instead of trying to grab the whole cake with one hand. You don’t want to be the next Nortel!
- Track all prospective customers in a web-based CRM. Never forget about the importance of (clean) organization. Get rid of those post-its on your desktop, throw away the dozens of business cards you have been gathering through the years and delete all unnecessary e-mails. In exchange, transfer all that information to an online CRM so that your peers –and you!- can access to it with a sole click. You can check this link if you need some advice about this type of application.
Quickie: MBAs and Executive MBAs
Posted on March 29, 2009
Filed Under Education | Leave a Comment
As I read in Fast Company’s blog, MBAs and Lists are the only two things more efficient than fluorescent light bulbs. Here, then, a mixture of both:
- Businessweek rankings of Part-, Full-time and Executive MBAs (EMBAs);
- Financial Times rankings: Global (2008), Executive MBAs (2008) and European Business Schools (2007);
- Wall Street Journal, 2007 MBA ranking, US and international;
- The Economist, another ranking of MBAs, globally or by region;
- Recommendations when checking those (or other) rankings, from MBA.com;
- List of (all?) MBA programmes offered in Europe, with detailed explanations of each of them, as well as Executive Education;
More about Executive and Business Education soon.
How to fire a CEO
Posted on March 28, 2009
Filed Under Strategy | 1 Comment
You have created an above-average successful company that seems to be growing without showing any signs of recession, while most of your competitors are slowing down. In any case, you have the feeling that the growth is starting to become overwhelming, and that you cannot reach every member of your crew and have the need of postponing again and again the meetings with your subordinates in order to give priority to strategic decisions, something that you don’t really enjoy.
You have now reached a stage where you, as General Manager or founder, find the necessity of hiring someone that can cover the lack of managerial skills, or even track record, that you have. After a deep search using your close and not-so-close professional contacts, Headhunter agencies, Web 2.0 (or even 3.0!) tools and in-company staff, you seem to find the appropriate person, that one that will give the final push to the trajectory of the company and help it find a stable path.
After taking the decision and reposition yourself as a -for example- Marketing Director, the new guy starts getting involved with the daily responsibilities included in his job description and trying to adapt himself to the rhythm of your company.
