Strategic Leadership

Cure head-in-the-sand syndrome

July 1, 2004

When William George joined the medical technology firm Medtronic, he found a sleeping giant whose culture he described as too “Minnesota nice.” Although it had a strong core value of creating products that help people live with chronic diseases, George thought Medtronic had grown too sluggish to win in the marketplace. To compete, it had to change.

Testimonials: Let customers write your next ad

April 19, 2004

Like most small business owners, you probably work with a tight advertising budget—if you have one at all. One way to stretch your ad dollars: Use customer testimonials, a powerful and inexpensive form of advertising.

Writing a successful e-mail promotion: 10 tricks of the trade

March 22, 2004

1. Place a strong emphasis on benefits. Say you sell skin-care products. You need to highlight the benefit to the customer (younger-looking skin) rather than the features (it contains 12 different moisturizers).

Stand up to problems

March 8, 2004

You can reach difficult decisions up to 20 percent faster when standing instead of sitting, says research from the University of California.

9 ways to improve collections, speed pay-ups

December 1, 2003

Making a sale is worthless if you never receive payment. Many companies make the fatal mistake in their collection process of either letting debtors off too easily or turning them off for good.