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Profitability FAQ

The SearchLogix Group — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:13:16 +0000

A year ago, my new book, Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink, was published. Since then, it was named a best book of 2010 by Inc, and many companies have purchased copies for their top management team. Here are fifteen key questions – with brief answers – that managers have asked me.

Why is 40% of most businesses unprofitable?

All of our management information and processes were developed in a prior business era. Our accounting categories are too broad to see which accounts and products are profitable and which aren’t – so people simply assume that more revenues equals more profits. Some revenues are very profitable, and a surprising portion produce big losses. In virtually all companies, no one is responsible for monitoring and managing the interaction of revenues and costs at the grass-roots level to maximize profits.

How do top managers react to this?

They strongly agree. In years of writing about this in Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge e-newsletter and website, no one has disagreed. When I speak to top managers about this at MIT and in my consulting clients, no one disagrees. The problem is that they don’t know what to do about it, and they are rightly concerned that just “firing bad customers” (wrong thing to do) will hurt their stock price.

DO-OVERS

The SearchLogix Group — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:31:21 +0000

Even if you’re not from Washington D.C. you may have heard of former Mayor Anthony Williams. He has a remarkable story. Williams was born to an unwed teen who gave him up. He was known as a “problem child” in foster care. By age three, little Anthony had still never spoken a word. It seemed that a pattern for his life was set, that is, until two warm and caring people took a chance on him.

Anthony was taken in by an opera-singing postal clerk and her equally generous-hearted husband. He soon began to speak and eventually thrived in their home. He excelled academically and later attended both Harvard and Yale Universities.

In 1998, he came from obscurity to win 66% of the vote to become mayor in one of the world’s major cities. In his inaugural address, Williams said: “Forty-four years ago, my parents adopted me and gave
me a second chance. I feel this city has now adopted me and I will give to it everything my parents taught me about love, service, commitment.”

Business Etiquette Resolutions

The SearchLogix Group — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:48:39 +0000

Do you want to grow your business this year, attract more customers, keep your current ones and increase your bottom line? If you answered “yes” to any of those, here are my top ten business etiquette recommendations for you.

1. Be on time for meetings, presentations, workshops and networking events. People who habitually arrive late send a clear message that their time is more important than everyone else’s. They develop a poor reputation, and they miss out on information and opportunity. Keep in mind that if you are not five minutes early, you’re late.

2. Pay more attention to your professional attire. Resolve to dress like the polished business person you are. People do judge you by your appearance. Your 9-5 wardrobe should be different from your after five clothing.

3. Send more handwritten notes. Take a few extra minutes when someone does something nice for you and write a thank you note. You can send an email message of appreciation, but follow it with the written one. You’ll stand out from the crowd of your competitors.

Seven Steps To Work-at-Home Success in 2012

The SearchLogix Group — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:38:48 +0000

The other day a woman said to me that her family was trying to put her off from working at home because it doesn’t exist. When I hear stories like this I don’t know whether to cry or scream. I want to cry because I’m thinking of the dream that is being snuffed out. I want to scream because people do work at home. In fact, it’s so prevalent now, you can’t go anywhere without meeting one of us. We’re your friends on Facebook, the person sitting next to you in the coffee cafe, and the owner of the business you just bought something from.

Today working at home is possible for anyone, but it’s not fast, immediate or automatic. It requires research, planning, implementation and diligence. If you’re willing to put in the effort, you can work at home in 2012.

Step One: Decide what you want. That sounds pretty easy. More money. Better house. More time. But, these are vague goals and don’t inspire action. Be clear about what you want. Be specific including what color, what size, what shape, what brand…etc. Do you want to be home with the kids every day? How much money would that take? What size and style house exactly do you want? Where is it located? On how much land? The more specific you are with your goals, the easier it is to focus on them and be inspired by them. In fact, these desires are the fuel that will keep you moving forward when a part of you wants to give up.

Why I Hate Plan B, And What's A Better Alternative

The SearchLogix Group — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:24:31 +0000

Choosing the Honors to Highlight on Your Resume

The SearchLogix Group — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:07:15 +0000

Making your resume is often a highly straightforward affair. You list out your educational background and the degrees you’ve received. You provide bullet points regarding previous employment history. You then add some contact information at the top, perhaps some personal and proficiency data at the bottom, and deem that your resume is complete.

But many people struggle when it comes to past honors and awards received, particularly those that are from your distant past and have little bearing on your current line of work. People also struggle determining what constitutes an honor in the first place. Sure, a Nobel Chemistry Prize would probably do the trick. But what if you were once a motivational speaker for conferences? Does that fit the bill?

How to Dress for an Interview

The SearchLogix Group — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:09:05 +0000

By Alison Doyle, About.com Guide

The first impression you make on a potential employer is the most important one. The first judgment an interviewer makes is going to be based on how you look and what you are wearing. That’s why it’s always important to dress professionally for a job interview, even if the work environment is casual.

What’s the appropriate dress code for an interview? You’ll want that first impression to be not just a good one, but, a great one. The candidate dressed in a suit and tie is going to make a much better impression than the candidate dressed in scruffy jeans and a t-shirt.

Executive Resume Services Should Include Social Media

The SearchLogix Group — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:53:01 +0000

Executive resume services need to continually update and match the technological developments the business world is embracing, otherwise executives may find themselves left in the dust by executives who are staying ahead of the technology curve.

An executive resume services firm should do more than just list your experiences and accomplishments on paper. Today, corporations are embracing social media, and while they still expect paper resumes, many of them are going online to find out additional information about their candidates. Here are four social media tools your executive resume services provider should recommend for you.

Your Executive Resume Services Provider Should Know LinkedIn

This is the gold standard for online job searching, as far as we’re concerned, and your executive resume services firm should embrace it rather than be afraid of it. If they are against social networks like LinkedIn, chances are they still don’t understand social media or new media.

Seven Insights To Use For Getting Your Next Job

The SearchLogix Group — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:35:59 +0000

Regardless of your educational background, degrees, work experience or accomplishments, your future employment depends on one thing: how well you can sell. I’m not talking about selling a specific product or service. I mean selling yourself and your ideas. Your ability to do this will determine whether or not you get the job. Selling is simply effective communication, and the first rule in communication is that people prefer talking to listening.

So, success in a job interview is determined by your ability to get the interviewer talking. It’s her job to get information from you, but that isn’t what will get you the job.

That’s because, in a typical job interview, the interviewer asks all the questions and you do all the talking. Sure, she needs to know about your background, education and experience. But as you’re rambling on and on saying the same things every other job applicant says, she’s wondering how quickly she can terminate the interview so she can get on to more important things.

Using some principles, you can gain control of the conversation, get the interviewer talking and glean the information you need to succeed in the interview and get the job.

Heavy Metal Is Back: The Best Cities For Manufacturing

The SearchLogix Group — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:33:53 +0000

For a generation American manufacturing has been widely seen as a “declining sport.” Yet its demise has been largely overplayed. Despite the many jobs this sector has lost in the past generation, manufacturing remains remarkably resilient, with a global market share similar to that of the 1970s.

More recently, the U.S. industrial base has been on a powerful upswing, with employment climbing steadily since 2009. Boosted by productivity gains and higher costs in competitors, including China, U.S. manufacturing exports have grown at their fastest rate since the late 1980s. In 2011 American manufacturing continued to expand, while Germany, Japan and Brazil all weakened in this vital sector.

To determine the best cities for manufacturing my colleague Mark Schill at Praxis Strategy Group measured the 51 largest regions in the country in terms of how they expanded their “heavy metal” sector — think automobiles, farm and energy equipment, aircraft, metal work and machine shops. We averaged absolute growth rate and momentum in 148 heavy metal manufacturing industries over ten-, five-, two-, and one-year time frames.