How Being Relevant Creates Competitive Advantage
Today, Robert Murray, author of It’s Already Inside (CLICK HERE to get your copy) shares thoughts on how your organization can build a competitive advantage. Lots gets said and written about leadership and strategy. Complex theories and models abound. Leaders (usually the ones with some sort of inferiority complex) use really big words and acronyms [...]
What Zappos Can Teach You About Competing and Winning
It’s an honor and a privilege to bring you some thoughts from bestselling author Dr. Joseph Michelli (author of The Zappos Experience and The Starbucks Experience) on how to reduce the risk of becoming a commodity. Enough of me… here’s Joseph. Every business is at risk of becoming a commodity. So how is it that [...]
Business Ethics Ain’t Rocket Science
Today’s post is by Allen Laudenslager and Bryan Neva Sr. You can learn more about them at the end of the post. The famous U.S. Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf once said, “The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do… the hard part is doing it!” Likewise, the [...]
A Simple Formula for Business Success
Today’s post is by John Spence – author of Awesomely Simple – Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action. He’s going to take hundreds of thousands of pages of information and boil it down into a simple formula for business success. Seriously. Here’s John… As global markets become increasingly more competitive and financial turmoil [...]
Best of thoughtLEADERS 2011: The Awesomest Posts Ever
This year is almost over so it’s time for the year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published in 2011. It’s time for the 2011 edition of The Figgies (here are the 2010 and 2009 editions). This is an annual event here at the thoughtLEADERS Blog. Here’s how it goes: this list is [...]
BBQ, Planes, and Coffee – Keys to Customer Loyalty
I’m fortunate enough to travel to some great places to serve my clients. During those travels I can’t help but have many customer service interactions from which to draw lessons. Today I’ll share how BBQ, airplanes, and coffee can teach you a few things to do (or not do) to create a better experience for [...]
3 Lessons on Using Social Media for Your Business, Courtesy of Your Local Mechanic
Today’s guest blogger is Tanveer Naseer. You can read about him at the bottom of this post. If you haven’t read his blog yet, you should go read it and subscribe to it by clicking here. Enjoy! The start of a new year often fosters discussions over what will be the key events to occur [...]
My Top 5 Tips for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs have it hard enough as it is. Why make it even harder on yourself with self-defeating behaviors? I know you are saying you would hate to do that but I see these kinds of behaviors all the time. You should know if you are demonstrating them. If you’re an entrepreneur you pour your heart [...]
4 Surefire Ways to Destroy Your Brand
Brands. Some are worth billions of dollars. We revere them. Coca-Cola. Nike. Apple. thoughtLEADERS (hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?). They seem monolithic and untouchable. The dirty little secret is they’re as fragile as a porcelain doll. A brand is nothing more than a promise. It sets an expectation with a consumer or customer. [...]
Valet Park, Self Park or South Park – What’s Your Brand?
I’m again happy to bring you AmyK Hutchens as today’s guest blogger (last time she was here she talked about reducing stress). No, that’s not her to the left. That’s Kenny from South Park. Here she is: Stephen J. Cloobeck, Chairman and CEO of Diamond Resorts International, a company with 150+ branded and affiliated resorts [...]
