A Mixed Bag: Detroit’s Small Business Market
For the past few years, Detroit has been touting its friendliness toward entrepreneurs and small businesses. But recent data shows that the city could be doing a better job at attracting new industries into the region.
Thumbtack.com partnered with the Kauffman Foundation and just released their annual study on small business friendliness. The rankings are based on a survey of more than 7,700 small business owners nationwide, like photographers, plumbers, and graphic designers.
Here is how Detroit and Michigan fared:
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Detroit received higher marks in almost every category compared to 2012's results. However, the city still struggled in some areas.
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Detroit earned an ...
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It’s Lonely (and Scary) at the Top
Being a leader has always been a difficult role. The very nature of leadership demands that you guide others along a path that is often uncharted, risky, and rife with unseen pitfalls. In today’s business climate, leaders are faced with even more uncertainty and change.
Stacy Philpot, a senior partner at Pivot, a leadership consultancy, noted that:
“Most companies now struggle to deal with technological innovations that are putting the foundation of their industries at risk. Technology, media, and retail are only the beginning. The reality is that the shelf life of any business model is shorter than ever before… Disruption, change, and uncertainty demand strong emotional connections between leaders and followers. Yet today ...
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The Waiting Game is Killing Us
Across many industries, you can see and feel the pace of business picking up. The biggest challenge faced by many employers is that there’s so much work to do and not enough workers to do it. Companies are slowly but surely hiring again to address these needs.
OK, so what’s the hold up?
You would think that with the economy on the upswing that companies would be quick about hiring talented people. Well think again. The interviewing process has extended out even further as businesses sift through a deep and talented pool of candidates. Some companies are going through five or six rounds of interviews to find the right person.
Consider what The Wall Street Journal reported on this time-consuming trend:
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The Self-Made Worker in the 21st Century
A century ago, successful business people came from three different places. You were either born into success, went to school to learn how to become successful or figured it out for yourself in the “School of Hard Knocks.” Society referred to successful people without a college education or a rich endowment as “Self-Made” men and women. This is a term you don’t hear much anymore.
In a famous lecture given more than 100 years ago, Frederick Douglass that the self-made man or woman achieved success with very little assistance from birth right, formal education or luck:
“Self-made men […] are the men who owe little or nothing to birth, relationship, friendly surroundings; to wealth inherited or to early ...
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How Stuff Gets Made and Things Get Done
In business, making stuff and getting things done requires collaboration and creativity. Not all ideas are good ideas and many great ideas are never brought to fruition. For an idea to be made real, it takes a creative, collaborative effort by a diverse team of people. It also takes two kinds of thinking as a part of the development process — divergent and convergent.
For an effective, creative process, there needs to be both uninhibited brainstorm thinking and critical thinking. Divergent thinking allows you to let loose and encourages wild ideas.Then in the convergent phase, you activate critical thinking to figure out if an idea is relevant, adds value and is worth pursuing any further.
This is how stuff gets made and things get done. ...
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People: The Pivot Point Between Success and Failure
On most weekday mornings, I find myself in the same coffee shop, checking email, preparing documents, and scheduling the rest of my day. Kevin is the manager of the coffee house and he always has a kind word, funny story, and some great advice at the ready. Kevin has created a warm, welcoming culture to everyone who comes into the shop.
The idea that people are the lifeblood of every business is not new. It actually seems to be almost cliché, as so many companies advertise this concept as a part of their core cultural values.
But this standard really hit home for me when Kevin went on vacation for a week. After the first day, I noticed that the entire feeling in the coffee house had changed. The staff was still friendly but the little ...
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What Success Really Looks Like
When I’m meeting with a client for the first time and we are discussing project scope and potential outcomes, I usually ask, “So, what does success look like?”
The responses I get vary greatly. Some clients pause for a moment and ask me why I would ask such a thing. Other clients tell me that no one had ever asked them that before. But whatever the response is, it always sparks a conversation around how we can design a solution that will meet the needs of their business, their clients, and their employees.
The reason I ask this question in the beginning of a project is that it draws out the real goals and objectives that the client is trying to meet. Sometimes, we discover that the client can’t articulate what success looks ...
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Don’t Call Us, We Won’t Call You
If you’ve been looking for a job over the past few years, you’ve probably felt the deep frustration of never hearing back from your prospective employer. If it’s any comfort, you are definitely not alone. Recent research points to the following:
“A new survey finds that 75 percent of employed people who applied for a job in the past year never heard from at least one potential employer.
The results were part of a broad survey of more than 3,900 workers conducted last November by Harris Interactive for jobs website CareerBuilder. Of the 1,083 workers who said they ...
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Check the Expiration Date: The Shelf Life of Thought Leadership
Smart shoppers know how to check expiration dates. At the grocery store, you can look on the time/date stamps of various products to ensure that they are fresh before you buy them. Unfortunately, thought leadership doesn’t have an indicator to tell others when that new, fresh idea has grown old and stale.
In order to determine the ongoing impact and value of good thought leadership, it’s important to keep an eye on a thought leader. A strong thought leader is someone who doesn’t just come up with a good idea and then implement it over and over again. No, thought leaders are people who identify a good idea or strategy (whether it’s theirs or not). Great leaders are able to collaborate and execute upon a great thought, working within a ...
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The Art of Storytelling Means Big Business
What is it about a good story that gets our attention?
In his article about the science of storytelling, Leo Widrich points out that,
“When we are being told a story, things change dramatically. Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too.
When we tell stories to others that have really helped us shape our thinking and way of life, we can have the same effect on them too. The brains of the ...
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Who Needs Formal Education?
My high school-aged son recently put forth the proposition that we really don’t need schools anymore. His teen logic pointed out that, “You can teach yourself anything, just go to the library or go online.”
There is some truth to this perspective. More and more, schools, universities, and corporations are putting the onus of learning on the student and the employee. As technology grows and budgets remain tight, we will continue to see more of this growing trend toward self-study. Some of the greatest contributing factors to this growth are cost savings and bandwidth. With self-study learning technology, you can reach a global audience more quickly and inexpensively than traditional classroom training and instruction.
So, why do ...
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What is Expertise Worth?
There’s an old story about industrialist Henry Ford. The generator in his automobile plant shut down. None of his engineers could fix it, so Ford called his old friend Charlie Steinmetz, a gifted electrical engineer. With a few tools Steinmetz tinkered with the generator and in no time it was working again. When Ford got a bill from his friend for $10,000, he questioned the huge fee. Steinmetz sent him back a simple, itemized invoice, which stated:
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$10 for new part
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$9,990 for knowing where to put it.
Henry Ford paid the bill without question.
As a consultant, I’m often confronted with clients who wonder about fee structures and the cost of the services I provide. I have been asked, “Why ...
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2013 – A Year of Disruption and Opportunity
Posted By Joseph Bastian, 01/02/13 at
10:58 AM
Over the past few months, I have been hearing the term “disruption” being used more and more to describe the increasing changes in our economy, society and workforces. Even though we were all spared from the Mayan apocalypse, it’s clear that 2012 was a year of great change and disruption. All social and economic indicators are predicting that 2013 will provide us with more of the same.
In his book, The Laws of Disruption: Harnessing the New Forces That Govern Life and Business in the Digital Age, Larry Downes points out that “technology changes exponentially but social, economic and legal systems change incrementally.” This means that the change that is happening around us is taking place much faster than the processes, ...
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Lessons from the Carpet Guy
I don’t know if you have ever had ripples in your carpet. These are the lines and ridges that often form in high traffic areas of your home, where the carpet become loose and bumpy.
No, it’s not a big deal, but it’s one of those things that bugged me every day that I looked at it. It’s also one of those things that if I tried to fix it myself, I’d probably screw up. I knew how much the repair would cost - $120.00. For that amount of money, I was willing to live with the ripples in my carpet. So, for months and months, I talked myself out of calling the carpet guy.
Once the cold weather set in, I saw that stupid bump multiple times a day. So, I caved in and called the carpet guy. His fee was $120.00 an hour ...
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Disruptions in the Way We Learn
Recently, I attended The Alliance for Excellence in Online Education Fall 2012 Symposium. This annual conference is dedicated to best practices in online learning for K-12, higher education, and the business community.
One of the major themes that came out of the symposium was the reality that the use of learning technology is growing rapidly in both the private and public sectors. This fact is accompanied by the inherent complexities associated with interactive learning.
As I listened to the speakers and presentations, I couldn’t help feeling a sense of frustration that these changes aren’t happening faster. But along with these feelings came the real-world knowledge that fundamental changes in education comes slowly and often with ...
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Upping Your Game: Transforming from an SME into a Thought Leader
In my line of work, I run into a lot of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). These are people who have been practicing in the field of study for a long time and have gained deep knowledge about their craft.
In business, SMEs are critical to the success of any organization. They can be found throughout a company, whether it be on the assembly plant floor, the finance office, or in the sales showroom. They are the keepers of the business intelligence that is the lifeblood of every company.
The irony behind being a Subject Matter Expert is that many SMEs go along in their jobs with little recognition or acknowledgement of their skills. Internally, these people know that they ...
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Where Am I? Awareness and Navigating Your Career Path
Have you ever gotten lost at the mall and had to refer to one of the big location maps posted throughout the building?
No matter where you’re standing in the mall, there is a spot on the map that says, “You Are Here.” This big dot helps you determine your location and navigate to where you need to go.
Recently, James Citrin, a business expert, co-chair of the North American Board, and CEO of Practice at Spencer Stuart, published an article that surveyed thousands of business professionals regarding the different phases that occur throughout a career. Citrin breaks up the standard professional career into three phases:
The Promise Phase — The first 5-7 years of a career, where your value is ...
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Are Corporations Evil?
Lately, a lot has been written about evil and greedy corporations. We’ve seen what happens when the business environment becomes conducive for making bigger and bigger profits, while taking larger and larger risks — the bottom will eventually fall out.
People want to believe that this phenomenon was caused by evil and greedy corporations who made bad choices and did the wrong things.
But I think there’s more to it than just that.
There is a book by Charles MacKay (over 150 years old) that is part of the financier’s canon entitled, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Maddening of Crowds.” This book reviews famous cases of crazy investment schemes and crashes throughout history. The common theme ...
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Thriving in Ambiguity: A Change of Mindset
Most people prefer to work in an environment where expectations about their roles and responsibilities are clearly stated. Generally, people feel more confident and comfortable when they know what is expected of them.
But in these uncertain times, clarity and direction seem to be two luxuries that many businesses just don’t have.
That is why many companies are looking to their new leaders to establish order and set a course for growth and prosperity. The types of leaders that are being hired are those who thrive in ambiguous environments. These are people that seem to be very comfortable with discomfort.
Research done recently by the Executive Development Group suggests,
“That the ability to positively manage ...
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Expectations Out of Whack in Education and Business
I think that our expectations regarding a college education and finding a job or advancing a career have grown increasingly out of whack.
Last week, I participated in a meeting that drew together people from both higher education and various business sectors. The meeting was called to discuss a collaborative effort to design and develop a leadership institute. This institute would serve to educate both current college students and business professionals in the art of successful leadership.
Unfortunately, things did not go as everyone had hoped. It seemed that the chasm between what business expected from higher education and what higher education could deliver was deep and wide.
Much has been written about the disconnect between higher ...
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