Who Says People Are Not Buying?
Okay, the market is down 20% in a few short weeks. People are being laid off and companies are cutting back. So what! While business may not be booming like it was a couple of years ago, people are still buying. The world goes on. The question is are they buying from you? In markets where demand is down and supply is up, sellers need to concentrate on things they may not have had to worry about in robust conditions....
Finding Alternative Revenue Sources
If there is one group of professionals that are having a bad time these days, it is stock brokers. What do they sell in a down market? Just ask Harry Rudowitz, Sr. VP of Investments for the UBS/Paine Webber Private Client Group. He just sent me a letter describing how bonds (fixed income securities) are a great alternative to avoiding the massive risk all of us are facing today. As a leader, it is your job to help others unleash...
Omar Minaya – Montreal Expos
Omar Minaya General Manager - Montreal Expos Imagine being named General Manager of a professional baseball team that is scheduled to be eliminated in one year and only draws an average of 4,000 fans per game. What a great job? Omar Minaya thought just that. Being named the first Hispanic General Manager proved to be a great idea for everyone involved. For Omar, it provided an opportunity to get a monkey off of his back. He was considered a great...
No, No, No, No, No!
A friend of mine, Matt Gibble, just left for Lake Placid to run an Iron Man Race. That’s swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and running a marathon distance of 26.2 miles. Just the thought of thinking about this tires me out. In speaking to Matt before he left, he told me a story of a 30+ year old male who runs the Iron Man Race with his young son who has Cerebral Palsy. During the bike race, he puts...
3 People and a Corned Beef Sandwich
This Memorial Day Weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Bar Mitzvah of a very special young man, Joshua Feldman. Joshua is special because at the ripe old age of 13, he gave a speech that literally left everyone stunned---a speech that moved the entire congregation and left all of the adults with a powerful message. In describing his experience of studying for this important day, Joshua discussed how everyone looks at the Bar Mitzvah experience differently. The powerful...
The Marathon vs. the Sprint
Recently I was speaking with a client who was dealing with the untimely passing of a colleague. The client is a very successful executive who is known for effective leadership and the ability to motivate his troops. He told me he found it hard that week to get into work. Who would find it easy to continue on normally after losing a friend who has meant so much. All of us can relate to this, especially after the last few...
Sinclair Lewis
"…the Romantic Hero was no longer the knight, the wandering poet, the cowpuncher, the aviator, nor the brave young district attorney, but the great sales-manager, who had an Analysis of Merchandising Problems on his glass-topped desk, whose title of nobility was 'go-getter' -Sinclair Lewis TRANSLATION: There's nothing more valuable than a Titan sales executive being on top of his market and knowing where he is, where he wants to go and what he has to do to get there.
The Growth Factor
The number of times I have encountered the "Apple Effect" are too numerous to count. What is the Apple Effect? It is the textbook example of when entrepreneur Steve Jobs started Apple Computer in his garage and grew to epic proportions. Jobs ran into trouble when the company reached a certain point and required a different leadership style to continue growing. The entrepreneurial style of leadership is crucial for any new organization. It even is required to keep existing organizations...
Are There Any Doubts?
At the beginning of this school year, my daughter Amanda entered 2nd Grade. Every week, they would take a spelling test which consisted of three parts: The current week's words, bonus words (which were harder) and special sentences. Children were not required to do the bonus words, only if they wanted extra credit. For the first two months of the year, Amanda stayed away from the bonus words. Her self-doubt prevented her from taking the risk of trying. One day,...