What’s the link between sales, profitability targets and capacity planning? How do you grow your sales, optimize capacity and maintain the level of quality and service that your customers require? Let’s start by looking at profit, which is simply your sales revenue minus your costs. If you increase your sales, but your operating costs go [...]
What opportunities can you seize to strengthen your company?
November 19, 2010 By 1 Comment
Last week I had the opportunity to attend a conference for manufacturing and distribution leaders. The last 12-18 months have delivered significant challenges to these companies: sagging sales, issues with suppliers and distributors, customers with reduced ability to pay and cash flow challenges just to name a few. They were candid in their discussions of lessons [...]
Focus – Making it Work for You
September 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Have any of you ever done the magnifying glass experiment? The one where a magnifying glass is used to capture the sun’s rays, focusing the intensity of that energy and incinerating a dry pile of wood scraps. The focus provided by the magnifying glass harnesses the sun’s typical pleasant warmth into a burning force. So [...]
5 Tips for Surviving an Economic Slowdown
September 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Engaging in business Process improvements can be a great opportunity to lower your costs… There’s nothing like rising gas prices, an erratic stock market, sagging sales, and gloomy economic projections to get everyone worried about a potential economic slowdown or imminent recession. What’s a business to do? Here are 5 tips to prepare your business [...]
Need to Cut Costs Without Crippling Your Company?
September 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment
These days, it seems like everyone is feeling the pressure to cut costs in their company. Oftentimes this cost cutting needs to occur so the company can survive in the short term. But how do you ensure that the results of those cuts don’t damage your ability to satisfy your customers? That they still receive [...]
I Will Survive…
February 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment
If your business mantra sounds like a corporate remake version of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” – you’re not alone. It seems like everywhere you turn these days, we’re getting more bad news about our current “financial crisis”. Businesses that were well positioned for growth are shifting into maintenance mode. Businesses that were just getting by [...]
Is It Time to Create Your Own Economic Recovery Plan?
November 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment
…beat the competition by being flexible and adaptable. Okay – So it’s been a wild ride over the past few months in the economy, and predictions for the future may have you sleeping fitfully these days. Many of us are assessing the damage to our retirement portfolios and our ability to access credit and wondering [...]
