The Whale Hunters Certified Partner Loretta Love Huff is president of Emerald Harvest Consulting and chapter leader for a Whale Hunters Executive Chapter in Phoenix AZ. Loretta recently had an experience that all entrepreneurs dread–her computer crashed. If you lead a larger company, perhaps you have an on site IT team who manages your data. […]
In a famous quote, Lew Platt, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, said “If only HP knew what HP knows, we would be three-times more productive.” He meant, of course, that HP employees individually and in small teams had critical knowledge of the enterprise, the customers, and the market: research and development, processes, procedures, manufacturing, quality control, […]
The longer you do business with a whale, the harder it will become to ensure that you have a mutually trustworthy relationship. People on your team and the whale’s team will come and go, job responsibilities will change, new sales will require everyone’s time and new customers will be in the intake process. It is […]
In a lean economy, many sales and business development people feel obligated to discount their prices; at least, the discussion of price and where it fits in the sales strategy becomes more important than ever. Many of my customers struggle with the issues of pricing to be competitive and also maintaining a viable profit margin. […]
If you’re like most business owners and executives, you don’t exercise enough control over your time. And you probably find email taking up more time than ever, and more time than it is worth. In fact, if you keep your email application open, or your Blackberry or iPhone in receive mode, you may be allowing […]
An excellent article in the Sunday, July 12 Washington Post called Fixing the Economy? It’s Women’s Work.It’s a good one because it references a number of responsible studies, and because it is more about why companies need a leadership team that includes women than it is about women taking over. I have been observing and […]
I just got an email inviting me to join Forbes Woman, the new offering that Forbes launched July 1. So excuse me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Forbes about business? I guess unless you are female. Lead story is on depression. “Power Women” segment features Mrs. Madoff and Mrs. Sanford (title should be “power-less”!). Other […]
My friend Lorraine Ball, founder of the marketing firm Roundpeg wrote an interesting blog post this morning that got me thinking. It’s about having just hired her daughter to work in her company, wondering if they could make it work? Lorraine asked for thoughts from other business owners about their experiences. I have not hired any […]
This week I was a keynote speaker hosted by the Business Clubs of America (BCA) , Phoenix Metro Chapter. I attended an evening reception for members and a luncheon for members and guests that attracted 200 business executives and entrepreneurs. This organization is a high-powered referral organization. In each market, noncompeting companies pay a membership fee […]
My home town, Indianapolis, features a beautiful city center, all deliberately laid out before the city was developed. The city center is a perfect square mile, circumscribed by the streets named North, South, East, and West, and in the middle of that square mile is a circle, in the center of which stands a monument to […]
This was the week Susan Boyle captivated the world in her first appearance on Britain’s Got Talent. She’s a great illustration of a whale hunter—going after the biggest deal she can imagine, despite being nervous and unsure of how she would be received. She’s a perfectly lovely woman, natural as can be, dressed in her Sunday […]
My coach Dan Sullivan (thestrategiccoach.com) says that the primary job of entrepreneurs is to protect their confidence. I wish the TV business show hosts had a coach like Dan! It is truly hard to remain confident in the face of the economic gloom-and-doom that bombards us daily. But if you’re an entrepreneur, a corporate executive, […]