Sat.Sep 09, 2017 - Fri.Sep 15, 2017

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When to Say “No” vs. “Yes I Can” to Consulting Opportunities

David A Fields

Barnstable Balderdally, EVP at Ghoti Corporation (a.k.a. FishCo) asks whether you can help with his plasma node leadership challenge. Two options: “Yes I can!” you confidently pronounce. Although plasma node leadership isn’t your consulting firm’s focus, you feel great about the lucrative project you’re about to capture.

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Five Reasons Why You Don't See Lean in the Office (Much)

Markovitz Consulting

I’m leading a one-day discussion for a group of companies in Denmark later this month, and in preparation I surveyed them about the state of their lean efforts. It seems that most of them are struggling to bring lean to the office/admin areas, even when they’ve made good progress in their manufacturing areas. I’ve seen this pattern at most of my clients, and at the companies I meet at various lean conferences.

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The Entrepreneurial Expert: Lessons from The Business of Expertise

Tsavo Neal

What makes your expertise valuable to your clients and target market? How can you effectively market and sell your expertise? Which ways can you position your expertise to create more value for both you and your clients? These questions are critical to independent consultants and small firms — whose product is their expertise. Independent consultants and small firms are at the center of the small overlap between entrepreneurs and experts.

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Mythbusters: The Management Consultant Edition

Tom Spencer

So you’re interested in being a management consultant? Great! But what is it that they actually do? If you’re still not sure of the answer then read on, as I bust the myths and reveal the realities of what it truly means to be a “management consultant”. 1. Consulting only pertains to the business sector- … Continue reading "Mythbusters: The Management Consultant Edition".

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PowerPoint Best Practices for Creating Stellar Presentations

Mastering data visualization in PowerPoint will help accelerate your career because it positions you as someone who can present data that drives business decisions forward. think-cell's PowerPoint Best Practices eBook was created specifically for professionals aiming to master the art and science of data-driven storytelling. What’s inside: Practical Insights: Uncover valuable tips for crafting engaging and persuasive presentations.

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4 Simple Steps to Productivity

Women in Consulting

Improving Productivity Feels GREAT. :: Did you know that achieving more productivity is pretty simple? So explained Josh Zerkel, Director of Global Community, Channels and Training at Evernote, and Productivity Consultant, and Certified Professional Organizer® at the recent WIC General Meeting. Here are his four steps to improve your productivity: Step 1 – Write down your task.

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We Remain Powerless…

Chad Barr

Last week I devoted my article to the reality that we can’t always control a situation and need to have backup plans. As hard as we try and as prepared as we think we may be, the bottom line is that many situations and events are out of our hands and beyond our control. We witnessed the devastation that hurricane Harvey unleashed on Texas and its residents only to have Mother Nature’s wrath rein down days later on Florida and run its way northward through the southern US.

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Battle of The Central Banks: China Declares ICOs Illegal

Tom Spencer

As I have been writing in this space of late, the days of the Wild West for cryptocurrency are absolutely at an end. The writing has been on the wall all summer. The latest news to hammer the point home? As September dawned last week, six more major banks joined a UBS-led effort to create … Continue reading "Battle of The Central Banks: China Declares ICOs Illegal".

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Take a moment! Manage your Emotions

Consultants' Consultant

Consultants Consultant: This piece of insight doesn’t surprise any of us at first glance, and it’s quite an interesting read. Taking advice or making decisions when angry doesn’t work according to Wharton Researchers. Available as an article or a podcast. Other posts on managing your emotions in the workplace: Emotions are not built-in, we build them Chief […].

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Taming the Distraction Habit

Actionable

If we allow the stimuli we’re exposed to every day whisk us into a state of distraction—we may be putting our health, productivity, and humanity at risk. The post Taming the Distraction Habit appeared first on Actionable.co.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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Alternatives for Agile and Lean Roadmapping: Part 5, the Product Value Team

Johanna Rothman

If you need to plan more often than once a quarter, how do you know how to replan? Instead of incurring the time and cost when you bring everyone together, consider the Product Value Team. (In past writing and presentations, I’ve called this the Product Owner Value Team. I am trying to change my term to the Product Value Team.). The product value team is a different kind of a team.

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Real Male Earnings Below 1973 Level: Median Household Income Improvement Entirely Due to Rising Female Earnings

MishTalk

The Census Bureau report Income and Poverty in the US 2016 shows real household income in the US hit a new record high of $59,039 in 2016 thanks to a methodology change and rising incomes of women. Real, inflation adjusted, earnings of men are below where they were in 1973. (more…).

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Persuading people

Consultants' Consultant

Consultants Consultant: Coaching women in business I find that part of every woman’s job is persuading others to take on her ideas, do what she asks them to or even buy what she’s selling. If that’s you, then you need to know Robert Cialdini’s six influence principles (Commitment and Consistency, Reciprocity, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, Scarcity).

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How to Motivate Employees to Go Beyond Their Jobs

Harvard Business

Marion Barraud for HBR. Every day, employees make decisions about whether they are willing to go the extra mile in ways that contribute to their organization’s success. These are important decisions because research shows that when employees are willing to go beyond their formal roles by helping out coworkers, volunteering to take on special assignments, introducing new ideas and work practices, attending non-mandatory meetings, putting in extra hours to complete important projects, and so

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Savings Consultants Are Needed in Today's Market More Than Ever

Savings Consultants are needed in today’s market more than ever. With an increase in expenses, businesses are looking for opportunities to save. Often unknown to businesses are savings in expense reduction, specialized tax savings, specialized savings including medical underpayments, health benefits cost reduction, zero cost processing, and more. Blue Coast Savings, with over 20 years in business, assists Savings Consultants in helping these companies move toward more profitable businesses.

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How to Succeed in the Booming Business of Medicare Advantage

Strategy+Business

Medicare Advantage, the program through which Medicare recipients purchase private insurance for out-of-pocket costs, is poised for significant growth. But given structural changes in the market -- in particular a rising focus by the government on reimbursing for the quality of care and consumer preference for plans with high quality ratings -- only a small number of payors will benefit from this growth.

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Three Massive Bubbles in 17 Years: When Will This One Bust? A 60% Decline Coming?

MishTalk

John Hussman’s presents a message no one wants to hear because nearly everyone is too busy believing for the third time in 17 years that “It’s different this time” Last week Hussman wrote about Valuations, Sufficient Statistics, and Breathtaking Risks. This week it’s more of the same with his post Behind the Potemkin Village.

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Impossible, unlikely or difficult?

Seth Godin Blog

Difficult tasks have a road map. With effort, we can get from here to there. It might surprise you to realize that difficult is easy once you have the resources and commitment. Paving a road is difficult, so is customer service and fixing software bugs. But impossible and unlikely are where we get hung up. On Tuesday, Apple launched a thousand dollar phone.

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What Your Innovation Process Should Look Like

Harvard Business

Companies and government agencies often make the mistake of viewing innovation as a set of unconstrained activities with no discipline. In reality, for innovation to contribute to a company or government agency, it needs to be designed as a process from start to deployment. When organizations lack a formal innovation pipeline process, project approvals tend to be based on who has the best demo or slides, or who lobbies the hardest.

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TOOLS and METHODOLOGIES for developing DECISION SUPPORT PACKAGES

This White Paper targets opportunities for Management to develop proficiency in the Decision Framing and Analyses element of input to Decision, & Risk Analyses for Major Project Funding Decisions.

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Deceit

Martinka Consulting

It’s a game, a deceitful game. According to a July 7, 2017 Wall Street Journal article, television networks play a game to disguise possible poor ratings. Here’s an excerpt from the article: “In a game largely sanctioned by TV-ratings firm Nielsen, television networks try to hide their shows’ poor performances on any given night by forgetting how to spell.

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Mexican Congress Debates the Monetization of the ‘Libertad’ Silver Ounce

MishTalk

Guillermo Barba shares his post on a debate in the Mexican Congress to monetize the ‘Libertad’ silver ounce coin. The original article is in Spanish. What follows below is Barba’s post in English, as it appeared on Hugo Salinas Price’s Plata website. (more…).

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Burn Your Rule Book and Unlock the Power of Principles

Strategy+Business

Clear and simple shared objectives nurture employee energy, ideas, and commitment.

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The musclebound baby

Seth Godin Blog

That's pretty unlikely. When we see someone with well developed abs, we don't say, "oh sure, he was born that way." Instead, we realize that a lot of effort went into it. The same thing ought to be true for people who understand science, or make good decisions, or are capable of emotional labor. You don't get to let yourself off the hook by pointing out that it doesn't come easy to you.

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Why You Need to Use Case Studies in Sales and Marketing (and How to Start Now)

Case studies are proof of successful client relations and a verifiable product or service. They persuade buyers by highlighting your customers' experiences with your company and its solution. In sales, case studies are crucial pieces of content that can be tailored to prospects' pain points and used throughout the buyer's journey. In marketing, case studies are versatile assets for generating business, providing reusable elements for ad and social media content, website material, and marketing c

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Scaling Customer Service as Your Startup Grows

Harvard Business

As your startup grows, what your customers expect from you will change and the volume of their requests will change. You’ll shift from the reactive mode of supporting requests as they happen to the proactive mode of fixing issues before they ever become a problem. I’ve spent the last seven years building the customer success function at HubSpot.

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Bitcoin Silliness, Myths, and Fatal Flaws

MishTalk

Over the past months or so I accumulated a number of articles regarding Bitcoin ICOs (initial Coin Offerings) myths and hype. Let’s also take a look at what I consider to be fatal flaws, one I have not seen discussed yet in articles, but the idea is easily understood. (more…).

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Companies Move Out of Their Geographic Comfort Zone

Strategy+Business

With skilled employees in high demand, some firms are extending their footprint into areas where workers are underutilized.

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Optimized or maximized?

Seth Godin Blog

I once drove home from college at 100 miles an hour. It saved two hours. My old car barely made it, and I was hardly able to speak once I peeled myself out of the car. That was maximum speed, but it wasn't optimum. Systems have an optimum level of performance. It's the output that permits the elements (including the humans) to do their best work, to persist at it, to avoid disasters, bad decisions and burnout.  One definition of maximization is: A short-term output level of hig

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ABM Evolution: How Top Marketers Are Using Account-Based Strategies

In times of economic uncertainty, account-based strategies are essential. According to several business analysts and practitioners, ABM is a necessity for creating more predictable revenue. Research shows that nearly three-quarters of marketers (74%) already have the resources needed to build successful ABM programs.