You might be focused on growing your business, but what do you have planned after that? Maybe it’s time for you to start an exit strategy the BraveHeart way with Randy and Ellen Long to teach you how. Randy is CEO of Long Business Advisors, LLC, creator of the BraveHeart Planning Process, and author of the book, The BraveHeart Exit: 7 Steps to Creating Your Family Business Legacy. Ellen is a mentor at TekMountain and. MORE

Before we dive into why AI is the solution for the banking sector, let’s first explore what big tech companies have in common, how many of them have grown successfully, and what banks can learn. MORE

Juanmonino/Getty Images. I’d known Jeff (not his real name) for many years, as a client and as a friend, but I’d never seen him so thrown. I could feel his fear, his sense of uncertainty. And it was with good reason. Jeff was the head of sales for a company whose product was, more or less, impossible to sell. His company, Golden Global (also not its real name), is an active fund manager. MORE

In this episode of the Leadership Vision Podcast, Brian Schubring and Nathan Freeburg talk about the discipline of interpreting and understanding Strengths. MORE

OLI SCARFF/Getty Images. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs approached AT&T about partnering on a new kind of mobile phone — a touchscreen computer that would fit in your pocket — Apple had no expertise in the mobile market. Yet AT&T executives quickly came to believe so strongly in Job’s vision that they skipped internal process protocols to land the deal. Randall Stephenson, then CEO of AT&T, famously said , “I told people you weren’t betting on a device. MORE

We are almost halfway through the year and it is a good time to ask yourself, ”How have you grown in the first half of this year?” What have you learned that you did not know at the beginning of the year?” MORE

Andy Roberts/Getty Images. It takes time for a big idea to make its way into business practice. Six years ago, Harvard’s Michael Porter and FSG’s Mark Kramer made the bold statement that shared value — the idea that the purpose of a company is to achieve both shareholder profit and social purpose — would “reinvent capitalism.” MORE

baranozdemir/Getty Images. Having a great boss is a potentially life-changing gift. On the other hand, many of us know firsthand that having a bad boss can cause a lot of drama, headaches, and stress. While it’s easy to love the great bosses and flee the bad ones, there’s one kind of boss that’s much less straightforward to navigate: the boss who doesn’t advocate for you. You might not even know that you have one. MORE

Kai-Fu Lee shares his perspectives on developing and adopting artificial intelligence in China and the United States with McKinsey Global Institute partner Michael Chui. Artificial Intelligence MORE

Building advanced analytics such as dynamic deal scoring into the core commercial process helps software sales organizations price smarter, streamline the approval process, and win more deals. High Tech Insights MORE

Unsure where or how AI applies to your company? McKinsey Global Institute found over 400 real-life examples where AI can improve longstanding business challenges. Artificial Intelligence MORE

Agus D. Martowardojo discusses the strategies and culture changes he implemented to set a new path for Bank Indonesia. Public Sector Insights MORE

“Which one do you want?” ” There were 100 quarts of strawberries at the farmer’s market yesterday. In answer to the farmer’s question, the person ahead of me in line spent a full minute looking them all over before picking one. MORE

Jaak Peeters, head of global public health at Johnson & Johnson, discusses the role pharma can play in addressing big challenges, such as fighting diseases like HIV and tuberculosis. Insights on Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products MORE

Should you give up? There are people who have read far more books than you have, and you will certainly never catch up. Your website began with lousy traffic stats, in fact, they all do. Should you even bother? The course you’re in–you’re a few lessons behind the leaders. Time to call it quits? Quitting merely because you’re behind is a trap, a form of hiding that feels safe, but isn’t. MORE

In recent years, a host of legal changes have afforded more protection for people who call out wrongdoing in their organizations MORE

Rapid Advances in Technology Are Changing the Way We Live and Work. The exciting and sometimes scary growth and application of technology to enable innovation and development appears to be here to stay. Kids are growing up with it, and entire industries are being disrupted by it. So, is leadership still important? Does leadership EQ beat AI? On a macro scale, the World Economic Forum reports that a 10% increase in broadband penetration is associated with a 1.4% MORE

Conversation between business buyer and business broker: Buyer – “I have a few questions about the financial statements, especially the few items related to the owner’s “other company?”. Broker – “I’m not sure we can get answers. The financial statements are “cloudy.”. Buyer – “What do you mean “cloudy?”. Broker – “I’m not sure they’re accurate.”. Buyer – “Well, the bank needs the answers.”. Broker – “I’m not sure you’ll be able to get a bank loan given these statements.”. Really? MORE

It seems to be getting more difficult to trust that someone is going to do what they say they said they were going to do. “It was a misunderstanding.” ” “That’s not what I said.” ” “So, sue me.” ” When local newspapers disappear and can’t keep a close watch on the government, it turns out that costs go up. When people need a lawyer to make an agreement and a lawyer to enforce an agreement, costs go up. MORE

I just wrote a new article for Industry Week on common failure modes in strategy deployment (hoshin kanri). Here are the key points: No, you’re not an army of one. Projects are not chocolate: more is not better. Fear the walking dead. And the zombie projects. Beware the Hemmingway rule of bankruptcy. For god’s sakes, not another email. Look through the windshield. Not the rear-view mirror. Intrigued? Read the full article here MORE

The U.S. soccer star's exhilarating commencement address at Barnard College puts the lessons she's learned on the field into perspective for women trying to get ahead in the business world MORE

Before attempting to execute new strategies, insurance companies need to reevaluate every dimension of their operating model. Here are some recommendations MORE

MirageC/Getty Images. One of the most recent automation technologies to emerge is robotic process automation , or RPA. RPA is a category of software tools that enable complex digital processes to be automated by performing them in the same way a human user might perform them, using the user interface and following a set of predefined rules. MORE

Your consulting firm has a hot lead with California-based, Death Valley Electrical (a.k.a. DVE), a surprisingly large company you’ve never worked with before. The project scope is modest, but you sense that a small engagement could lead to a long, profitable relationship. How should you proceed? MORE

Ten and one-half years of owning an iPhone and a freak accident gave me my first broken screen. I had the phone in my jacket pocket, put it over the back of an office chair with a fancy metal design around the back, got out of the meeting, grabbed my phone, and found a beautiful design radiating up my screen. Replacing an iPhone screen is not cheap. So I bought a tempered glass screen cover with a lifetime guarantee. Pretty cheap compared to this happening again. MORE

The ability of a small country to field a world-class soccer team can teach businesses about the power of good management for team building MORE

Retail customers may accept different prices on different channels. But are retailers ready to manage the complexities? Marketing & Sales Insights MORE

In a wide-ranging interview, Tim Armstrong, the CEO of Oath, which owns AOL, Yahoo, the Huffington Post, and other properties, discusses the future of digital advertising and marketing and the business case for a wireless giant like Verizon investing heavily in content. MORE

News and notes for independent professionals and their clients. This is the June 18, 2018 edition MORE

Michael was recently featured on Leaders in the Trenches Podcast, which you can listen to here: The Mindset of Success with Michael Zipursky In business, the way you think determines your actions — which determines how successful your business is. Successful consultants adopt the mindset which provides the foundation for their success. MORE

The financial services industry has seen drastic technology-driven change over the past few years, and digital has fundamentally reshaped consumer behaviour in banking. MORE

By: Ellen Grace Henson. :: Women In Consulting’s June 21 general meeting outlines the key findings of our latest Best Practices Survey, now in its 16th year. I’m pretty excited about this year’s results as there are new insights to share. MORE

Who are you going to call when you want to deliver a great customer experience with chat? Meet TTEC’s “Chat Avengers” – a super force of experts whose mission is to create amazing chat sales and service interactions for consumers and brands. MORE

That’s how we choose who to work with. We want someone who’s good at their job. And the ones we pass up are usually labeled as, “not good enough.” ” And we label ourselves as well. “I’d like to do that sort of work, but I’m not good enough.” ” This is obviously a trap. In almost every line of work, the truthful sentence is, “not good enough yet.” MORE

Key Questions for all Executives. In Executive Coaching, I often work with newly appointed executives. The job is to help them ‘scope’ what they are going to do and overcome the inevitable speed bumps which occur during the entry process. MORE

Successful CEOs combine winning strategies with compelling stories and constructive engagement with shareholders. Strategy & Corporate Finance Insights MORE

rawpixel/unsplash. First impressions in the workplace really matter — and not just to the employer. New employees can begin to formulate impressions about organizations from the get-go, influencing their decision to stay with the company in the long term. Poor onboarding experiences can lead to unnecessary and preventable turnover, the cost of which can be as much as twice the employee’s annual salary. MORE