The Business Brickyard

Tom Peters dropped a little idea into a short post a while back that really made a lasting impression on me.

"If Drucker and Bennis and Collins and Peters and Co. (charter members of Guru Nation) are/were so damn smart-wise, why is corporate performance so shabby in general? Hint: "'They' [biz leaders] don't listen" is no kind of answer. If "they" don't listen, then the "solutions" were not actionable by "real people" under stress.

The Four Seasons Hotel group is always at the top of the best companies to work for in Fortune Magazine Some interesting snips...

Found this great gem buried in the back of"Buzzmarketing:Get People to Talk About Your Stuff" by Mark Hughes.

We all have a lot of great ideas.

We all would like to get all of them done.

Business becomes a lot less fun to run when the idea/wish list gets loaded up but never gets done.

You and your business feel stuck.

I work with a lot of businesses in a whole variety of industries. What they have in common is that they always tell me a lot of new/innovative things they would like to do that are then followed by the infamous "If Only..."

Do you want to find new ways to to communicate with your customers and prospects?

How many businesses would answer yes to that question? My sense is that it would be a vast majority.

Businesses hesitate to try new ways to solve tough problems because they perceive the solutions too difficult to implement. Who has the time to devote to these new tools. Who indeed.

We have been here before. Economic downturns are not new, or, for this one, even that old. And while what we now face may be more severe, the reactions and behaviors of businesses feel all too familiar. One of the most insidious by-products of times like these, after the waves of belt tightening and budget/staff cutting, are the long and painful late payments. When business slows, payments to vendors get stretched.  If this has not started happening to you yet, it soon will if you do not make it part of your focus to avoid it.

This great post from Hugh about his current work and thinking about Dell Computers reminded me of the below post I wrote back in 2005. Despite their new challenges, I still find it relevant to their future (and every business).

The deeper I go into the development of my Brickyard ideas, the more valuable (and crucial) I believe it is to sustained bottom line growth of business.

Just because I thought it was a fun video to watch. The ultimate sports fan experience... times 10.

The commentary/banter from Daman Wayans at the end is a total crack up.  

Henry Kissinger once said that "What will come out eventually must come out immediately," he added... "The implication being, it's the striptease that kills you."
Or as they say in the UK:

"The Truth Will Out."

People can sense when they are not getting the real truth. They may nod their head, but something is not right in their gut.

When you speak from truth... a connection is made.
From trust comes not only new clients but... lasting relationships.

Truth = Power = Cash