India: From Ancient Economy to British Colony
India can lay claim to one of the world's oldest civilizations, and its economic history is truly long and complicated. [more…]
Empowering Employees When Delegating
Delegating, as a coaching tool, is the act of assigning and entrusting assignments and responsibilities to others. Delegating isn't about giving people tasks to do. Tasks are the simple and short-term [more…]
Building a Brand for Market Success
When people hear your name, they conjure up a set of impressions that influence how they think and buy. Those thoughts define your brand.
Your brand resides in your customer's mind as a result of all the [more…]
What the Heck Is RFID?
With all the recent hype over radio frequency identification (RFID) and the requirements to implement it, you might think that RFID can turn water into wine, transform lead into gold, and cure the world's [more…]
Resolving Conflicts on the Team
Conflicts among team members will occur from time to time, and team members may struggle to positively resolve conflicts that arise. Finding out with your team members how best to deal with conflict situations [more…]
Setting Up a Great Home Office
The following are the essentials of the well-equipped home office: [more…]
Converting Your Manual Bookkeeping to a Computerized System
If you're converting a manual bookkeeping system to a computerized system, your conversion will take a bit more time than just starting fresh because you need to be sure your new system starts with information [more…]
Keeping Your Menu Competitive with Well-Timed Updates
Even franchises change their menus, in large part because of an increasingly savvy dining public. With more people going out to dinner more often, the question isn't [more…]
Forming a Committee from the Board of Directors
An organization's board of directors is responsible for forming committees when necessary. Committee members must be drawn from the current members of the board itself, so having a talented and diverse [more…]
What Is the Balanced Scorecard?
The Balanced Scorecard was developed in the early 1990s by two guys at the Harvard Business School: Robert Kaplan and David Norton. The key problem that Kaplan and Norton identified in the business of [more…]
Sole Proprietorships: Flying Solo
The simplest business structure is the sole proprietorship —the IRS's automatic classification for any business started by an individual. Most new businesses with only one owner start out as sole proprietorships [more…]
Considering Six Sigma Best Practices
Successful Six Sigma efforts have several practices and characteristics in common. As you launch into your own Six Sigma journey, you can use these as landmarks to set your course and bearing. Even after [more…]
Introducing Form 990: Tax Forms for Nonprofits
Non-profit organizations are generally tax-exempt and don't need to file revenue forms, but the Internal Revenue Service still requires lots of information — all to be painfully extracted and meticulously [more…]
Building Teams to Self-Manage and Grow
Self-directed teams — sometimes called self-managed teams, empowered work units, or autonomous work teams — function in their truest sense without supervisory authority. Team members are interdependent [more…]
Applying Fundamental Quality Control Concepts
Your organization can implement several fundamental quality control processes to ensure that you produce or deliver a high-quality product or service. The following sections present the information you [more…]
Preparing for a Virtual Presentation
The key to a successful virtual presentation is the same as the key to a successful face-to-face presentation: preparation. Consider the following guidelines to ensure that you're ready for [more…]
Preventing Bar Staff Theft
Theft means stealing, pure and simple. If a dishwasher pockets silverware from the restaurant, that's theft. If a bartender gives a drink away to a customer without ringing it up, that's theft. If a prep [more…]
Delegating Effectively
Delegation doesn't just happen. Just like any other task that you perform as a manager, you have to work at it. The six steps to effective delegation are the following: [more…]
Examining the Elements of a Basic RFID System
Learning the fundamentals of RFID can be overwhelming. You can avoid feeling overwhelmed — and the sensation of going around and around in circles, and the sensation of going around and around in circles [more…]
Tracing the Roots and Meaning of Six Sigma
The Six Sigma methodology was formalized in the mid-1980s at Motorola. New business and management theories and ideas were combined with basic principles and statistical methods that had existed in quality [more…]
Considering Six Approaches to Effective Pricing
Pricing is an integral part of the marketing process. The right price can generate more sales; the wrong price can make your potential customers and clients look elsewhere. The following are six of the [more…]
Mastering the Art of Customer Service
Customer service isn't just the job of your customer service department and representatives; it's the job of every employee in your company. And service starts at the highest levels of a company. [more…]
Selling Tips: Mastering the Meet and Greet
Your first meeting with a prospective client can set the entire tone for your relationship. Here are some guidelines to ensure that your relationship has a positive start: [more…]
Handling a Grant Rejection Notice
As a grant writer, getting a rejection letter from a funding source after you've shed blood, sweat, and tears researching and writing your grant application can be a big letdown. Besides coping with your [more…]
Taking a Look at a Sarbanes-Oxley Overview
In response to a loss of confidence among American investors reminiscent of the Great Depression, President George W. Bush signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act into law on July 30, 2002. SOX, as the law was quickly [more…]
