Keeping hold of your customers, especially in tough economic conditions by Oracle Corporation You know as much as anyone about the challenges faced by midsize organizations. There are always competitors with deeper pockets, customers demanding more for less, and suppliers giving preferential terms to larger organizations. How can you sharpen your competitive edge? Read this white paper to learn how Oracle can help you: Retain customers by deepening insight and improving service Retain custom... Read Full Story

Preparing for the Upswing by American Express Learn how other midsize companies are staying poised for economic recovery by maintaining staff and spending in their most crucial areas. There are always key areas of any business that cannot be cut if the business is to remain ready for an economic upswing. Find out how some companies consider the current climate a window of opportunity to: Invest in core activities Cultivate the most qualified employees Maintain customer relationships To see ... Read Full Story

In the absence of a great dream, pettiness prevails. - Peter Senge At some point in his or her career, every politician gets tarred with a catch phrase - and usually not a flattering one. George Bush, Sr. is stuck with two. There was “Read my lips, no new taxes,” of course. But only slightly less unfortunate was his dismissal of what he called, “The ‘vision thing.’” He was trying at the time to shake the impression that he was a competent day-to-day manag... Read Full Story

The StrategyDriven Team would like to thank you, our listeners, for helping us achieve the third place ranking for the StrategyDriven Podcast and the fourth place ranking for the StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation podcast from among the over 2600 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in October! In each episode, co-hosts Lucas Ives, Nathan Ives, and Howard Dickens present a richer and deeper exploration of the principle, best practice, and warning flag articles found on the StrategyDr... Read Full Story

All organizational performance measurement systems rely foundationally on their source data. And like a house built on sand, these performance measurement systems fail if their source data becomes corrupt. Source data manipulations occur for many reasons; some innocent and others malintent. Regardless of the reason, altering metric data necessarily generates a measurement output different than that expected; driving decision-making in a potentially dangerous direction. Therefore, unintended o... Read Full Story

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” Alan Lakein well-known author on personal time management and creator of Lakein’s Question: “What is the best use of my time right now?”         If you enjoyed this posting, we encourage you to become a StrategyDriven Registered Member and ask that you recommend us to others you feel will benefit from using our website. Registered Members gain access... Read Full Story

Best Practices of the Best-Run Sales Organizations by SAP Learn from today’s sales leaders who have benefited from building a sales strategy based on a position of deep customer knowledge. Maintaining a robust customer database in a CRM tool not only provides your sellers and sales managers with actionable intelligence but it can provide significant value to your company. StrategyDriven has partnered with TradePub.com to offer you complimentary one-year subscriptions and/or free trials ... Read Full Story

Selling Through A Slump - An Industry-by-Industry Playbook to Help You Prepare for the Recovery by Oracle Corporation Selling in a recession is tough. And simply doing more of the same is not the way to survive, much less thrive, in a recession. There are important dos and don’ts in times like these. This eBook is your industry-specific roadmap out of the economic slump. Selling through a Slump: An Industry-by-Industry Playbook brings together sales strategies and best practices from 11... Read Full Story

Six Mistakes Companies Are Making Today And How You Can Avoid Them by SAP When the economy slows, many businesses react by retrenching and cutting costs in order to weather the downturn. While such cost reduction is important, companies often overlook equally critical strategic decisions - opportunities to use valuable business information to strengthen product and service offerings and emerge ahead of the competition. The paper highlights six common mistakes companies make in a down economy,... Read Full Story

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles found on the StrategyDriven website. Episode 28 - Responsibility-Driven Leadership examines why now more than ever, people seek leaders who see beyond their own needs, who have vision and integrity, who inspire trust, and who en... Read Full Story