You can now download the July issue of Better Business Focus . Please feel free to e-mail Better Business Focus to your friends or colleagues.
Better Business Focus: Expert Inspiration for a Better Business.
Better Business Focus is the essential key for business owners and managers. It achieves that by focusing on the way in which successful businesses compete and manage their organisations. It focuses on how people are recruited, coached and developed; on how marketing and selling is undertaken in professional markets as well as in markets with intense competition; on how technology and the Internet is reshaping the face of domestic and home business; and on how people are being equipped with new skills and techniques. In short, it offers expert inspiration for a better business.
Below is a selection of articles from this month’s issue, and we hope you enjoy the read!
- Paul Sloane
Six reasons why you should post articles on LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the primary social media platform for business professionals. Your profile is important but so is your activity. There are several benefits in posting articles on LinkedIn (LI). - John Bancroft
Does marketing stop when a sales lead is generated? Every C-level exec, business unit lead or sales and marketing director appreciate the importance of modern B2B marketing, which has greater involvement in the overall B2B sales cycle. However, a successful strategy is defined by several key factors, and this needs even more involvement from marketing. - Guy Arnold
How to run a small business well and get a good night’s sleep: If you’re like me, you probably went into business because you were passionate about what you do: maybe your run your own business because you felt that your passion and ability would enable you to successfully get and keep customers and build a profitable business.
Serenity in Leadership - Top D&I experts reveal aspirations as we look to a future post pandemic: As the UK hopes to be coming out of the pandemic, we ask some of the most experienced D&I experts what the single most important business lesson they learnt from the pandemic was and what their top aspirations are for the next 12 months.
- Dr Lynda Shaw
Why holidays are important for our health: The past year has been incredibly tough and unpredictable, and the uncertainty and constant changes have increased our stress and anxiety levels. Many of us are hoping to take a holiday this summer, whether that is in this country or perhaps abroad. Here is why taking a holiday is so important to our physical and mental health. - Bob Apollo
Why your customers want to buy is as important as what they want to buy: You’d hope, wouldn’t you, that most salespeople understand what their prospective customers want to buy. You’d expect, wouldn’t you, that your salespeople understand what their prospects think they need before making a proposal. - Urko Wood
Why most organizations are failing at innovation today: Study after study has shown that the #1 reason for start-up and new product failure is “no market need,” i.e., misunderstanding customer needs. - Janet Sernack
Coaching in an innovation culture: One of the most exciting aspects of living and coaching in an innovation culture, is the creative energy that constantly erupts, causing disruptive bursts to the way people think, feel and act. Especially when it comes to sensing, seeing and solving complex problems, (one of the higher cognitive skills identified by the World Economic Forum needed to thrive by 2030) through maximizing peoples’ differences and diversity quickly and efficiently, as they do in Israel, the Start-Up Nation. - Thom Dennis
Why fear stops inclusion & 14 ways to break the cycle: Fear at work comes in many forms. External forces that are out of our control like the pandemic give rise to fear and force change upon us because we are living in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. Internal fear forces at work may arise from unfair treatment, anxiety about job security, or fear from bullying and harassment. - David Finkel
The real reason your turnover is high: A while back we talked about the real reasons why you weren’t hiring new employees, and shared the hard truths behind why you might be hesitant to find and hire new talent despite a need for help. Today, I wanted to share a little more hard truth- this time surrounding the reasons why your employees quit. - Braden Kelley
Five lessons I learned as an accidental entrepreneur: You don’t have to start a business to learn from my journey. I like think of myself as an accidental entrepreneur. I originally set out to make innovation insights accessible for the greater good. But, nearly 15 years after publishing my first article, I sold a site that had more than 8,000 articles from around 400 contributing authors. - Greg Satell
We have to learn to embrace uncertainty and confusion: One of the most often told stories about innovation is that of Alexander Fleming and his discovery of penicillin. Returning after a summer holiday in 1928, the solitary Scottish scientist noticed that a strange mold had contaminated the bacteria cultures he was growing. That single observation would change the world. - Tom Koulopoulos
Three keys to ensuring your family business succeeds: Amazingly, 90% of American businesses are either family owned or controlled. Allot is riding on the success of these businesses, in terms of both your fortune and your family relationships. Yet fewer than 15% of family-owned businesses are successful enough to make it to a third generation. So, why do they fail? - Yoram Solomon
Does (team) size matter (for trust)? In this article, I will talk about why teams and teamwork are so important, why trust is important to the team and successful teamwork, and how trust is correlated to the size of the team. I will close with what is the ideal team size. - Michael Graber
Allow innovation exercises to expand business model: As your innovation efforts begin to move from the ideation to the testing phase, or the co-creation with consumers or customers, outlandish and disruptive concepts present themselves.
As messy as children arriving, they show up, saying “feed me, let me scream at the top of my lungs, I’m uncivilized” all without speaking. - Sunil Bali
Permission impossible….. Robert had a blue collar upbringing in a poor part of Chicago. As a kid he loved watching the aeroplanes fly over his house and playing with his parents 8mm home movie camera. At birthdays and holidays he always took it upon himself to create a movie.