From the Trenches

How should small business leaders think about mitigating information security risk—and with all that’s going on in our pandemic world, why now? It’s a tough problem. Between reports of hackers breaching the networks of even large multinational corporations with staggering resources, the technical complexity of shoring up your defenses, and …

A topic of much discussion within our company as of late has been, “How can we make a difference to help end racial injustice and inequality?” Our company has always been actively involved in several charitable activities whose mission is improving educational opportunities for students in low-income communities. However, given …

Chances are you’ve already invested a lot of time, energy, and maybe money, too, to shift at least some portion of your staff to a remote work environment during the pandemic. Now that businesses are beginning to open back up to varying degrees, when should your workforce return to the …

I have been thinking a lot about what makes a great brand, and in particular, how does a service business capitalize on it. I asked a good friend of mine, Steve Price, the now-retired CEO of several companies in the services sector, for his thoughts on the topic. “Steve, some …

Leadership is a subject I’ve thought a lot about over the years. I have the good fortune to work with some excellent leaders…and some that never thought about the subject at all even though they were in a leadership role. The pandemic crisis and the resulting economic fallout have made …

Last week, I participated in a meeting where a business consultant stated that they advised their clients in late March to start furloughing or terminating employees. This has been the strategy employed by many large and small companies to preserve themselves during the pandemic. I did not sleep well that …

I recently started to read a book where my first impression was that I did not agree with the author’s premises. One premise is that multi-tasking is ineffective.  You need to concentrate one task at a time.  For a person that prides himself on multi-tasking, I was taken aback.  Yet, …

I am no longer sure that it makes sense to measure every corporate goal. My gut tells me that sometimes a better result is to agree upon a process to achieve continuous improvement.  A well-run process, in time, will achieve the goal.   Many of us in the business world …