Casual Articles - Business

The Freight Forwarding Industry Cleans Up Its Act
A freight forwarding best practice charter will be signed in Paris this June committing the signatories to sustainable logistics methods. This is part of the new freight forwarding programme that Paris has been developing over the last five years. The city wants to develop its logistics services and use cleaner ways of transporting freight.The underlying aim of the programme is to both improve the environmental impact of freight forwarding whilst at the same time meeting the needs of the freight forwarding industry.The programme was deemed necessary owing to the amount of pollution produced by freight forwarding. Freight forwarding

his CEO’s picture of culture? She hasn’t really thought about it but is comfortable that the organization is making great progress against its goals for the year. What’s reality? This organization has a strong, performance-based culture and a great shot at success.

If you’ve been around awhile, you’ve experienced or witnessed companies like these.

In the work I do, I work hard to focus leaders on causes, not symptoms. From my perspective, there is only one cause for most of the problems that ail organizations – poor leadership.

Unproductive culture is merely a symptom of poor leadership.

So is high turnover, ineffective teamwork, disappointing results, and much more.<

Why a Written Business Plan
Many people starting a new business have the idea that putting their business plan on paper plan is an unnecessary exercise in mental gymnastics. The typical attitude seems to be: OK, I may have to write one, but after it’s finished I’ll get on with the real business of starting my business. That’s not true. Never was. Never will be.The reason you owe it to yourself to prepare a written business plan is similar to why blueprints are used to build a house. Always on paper, blueprints spell out where every stick of lumber is to go, including details on their dimensions. Every electrical outlet appears on the blueprint. So does every window, every door, even

A common concern of new CEO’s is how to create a positive organization culture. In simple terms, culture is the personality of the organization – and if you’re the CEO you want to be leading a confident star, not a disorganized slob.

To develop their star, most organizations resort to gimmicks. We’ve all seen them: lunch and learns, staff BBQ’s, movie nights, theme parties, etc. I’ve even seen company’s define their culture in writing: “XYZ Company will be a high performing organization that is concerned about it customers, people and the environment.”

There’s nothing wrong with any of these – except that they’re useless in the absence of leadership by the CEO. That’s right, when it comes to culture, the CEO is either the hero or the bum – culture starts at the top and flows down through the organization like water. CEO’s concerned about the organization’s culture need only look at themselves for fixes.

Picture this #1: 2 year old technology company with leading edge software and a huge market opportunity. CEO/owner. Flush with cash from outside investors. He shows up for work every morning at 9:00. He’s usually gone by 4:30. A control freak, he’s never met an e-mail question or major decision that he didn’t have the answer for. He spends most of the day in the office with the co-owner, or on the phone. Door closed. Weekly management meetings are used to harangue staff on performance. He has serious trouble making decisions and that leads his staff do lots of firefighting. Cognizant of culture, he agreed to let a group of unhappy employees define the statement on culture (above). It’s posted over reception. Every 2nd Friday he invites the staff out to local bar to relieve stress. So what’s the CEO’s picture of the organization’s culture? He’d really like to see more performance and is concerned that maybe the Friday beer nights aren’t working. What’s reality? This organization is a few investor dollars away from serious trouble.

Picture this #2. 2 year old technology company with leading edge software and a huge market opportunity. Self-funded. The CEO is experienced. There’s a tight strategic plan for the company. Everyone’s roles are well defined. During the day the CEO spends a lot of time walking the organization coaching employees and helping them with problems. She maintains an open door policy. Recognizing the company’s early stage, she’s clear that product development, sales and cash are THE priorities. Each week she spends an hour with the development, finance and sales teams assessing progress and tweaking execution. Seven days of every month are spent on the road meeting with customers and prospects. Every month or so, she brings in some beer on Friday after work and those that want to stay can. Everyone does. What’s this CEO’s picture of culture? She hasn’t really thought about it but is comfortable that the organization is making great progress against its goals for the year. What’s reality? This organization has a strong, performance-based culture and a great shot at success.

If you’ve been around awhile, you’ve experienced or witnessed companies like these.

In the work I do, I work hard to focus leaders on causes, not symptoms. From my perspective, there is only one cause for most of the problems that ail organizations – poor leadership.

Unproductive culture is merely a symptom of poor leadership.

So is high turnover, ineffective teamwork, disappointing results, and much more. The Balance Between Long Term and Short Term Focus
Whether you are working for a corporate organization or you are manager of a small business – in that case you are closer to being an entrepreneur – we all deal with the topic of short term versus long term focus.Sales activities are known to be short term focused, for the simple reason that you cannot sell something that doesn't exist. There are a few exceptions, for example, the new Airbus is sold when there was only a prototype and in the construction area, apartments these are first sold, before the complete building is finished.Yet in most cases, there is a clear line between the two. Product development or new business development are activities tha