We’ve all had special people influence our thinking that stamped our souls with virtues, principles, beliefs, and life lessons. Teachers, coaches, parents, ministers, bosses, and neighbors. When I was in high school some thirty-plus years ago I had one of those experiences with my sophomore high school basketball coach. His name was Eugene Zuccarini. Everyone called him “Zook”. At seventy-plus years old he’s still teaching golf. Mentors never cease their passion, do they? Read more

First, a caveat: This is not a political column, this is a business column. The meaning of Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts is a great metaphor for corporations. Given a “Massachusetts Shock Message” to a corporation (like snowballing employee turnover or customer defections), how many corporate executive teams and organizational leaders go into spin cycle- or worse yet- denial mode? Let’s face it: leadership isn’t just about giving a directional message (“I haven’t explained the message well. They don’t get it”.) That’s top-down management-by-directive, and the problem is the executive is in denial about which way the real message is being sent: it’s not coming from headquarters; it’s coming from the pickup truck- the street. Read more

Where do you find good salespeople? First, you have to define “a good salesperson”. With no college curriculum or extensive certification process for someone to be called a salesperson, a “good” salesperson is a highly subjective definition. Here’s the acid test for executives as to whether or not they know a person is a “good” salesperson or not: Can the executive make an accurate evaluation without looking at the sales numbers or track record- and will the sales numbers verify the executive’s decision to hire? Would an executive of a prominent electrical wholesaler hire a food server at a restaurant with the intent of making him an outside salesperson? John Walter of Walter’s Wholesale Electric did that very thing about twelve years ago. Read more

In 1999, we started working with an startup division of a $3.5 billion company. The division added value to the company’s several main product lines by creating sub-assemblies of the company’s various division components. Starting out at about $7 million in annual revenues, the division continued to grow both revenues and profits through 2008, hitting over $65 million in annual sales. Of course, the economic downturn of 2009 has caused a decline in revenues- as it has industry-wide and company-wide.  Read more