Cost Reduction Management

Virtually every executive on virtually all levels and across all industries and business sizes, have to deal with budgeting and cost efficiencies. One would be hard pressed to find any executive that is not attempting to reduce cost to increase profitability. However, considering the role of modern management coupled with technological development in the most recent two decades, one may wonder about the effectiveness of executive times to re-negotiate or find alternative solutions.

That being said, the sheer mention of the value of executive efforts and cost cutting in the same sentence may make the stakeholders rather nervous. Such concerns can be easily addressed by simple cost benefit analysis. In our experiences, the outcome is virtually always the same; the cost of having high level executives deal with cost saving daily tasks exceeds the benefits of those cost savings .

The most suitable solution lies within outsourcing . In our experiences we have found that a pay per performance model in this particular case is the most beneficial approach. Once a third party is chosen, the compensation could include a minimal base payment combined with a percentage of cost saving. Yet such agreement requires that virtually all contracts and agreements of the given organization is up for analysis and improvement .

Ultimately, cost saving and cost reduction management should be a vital part of overall strategic management. Yet the methodology and approach to such measures requires extensive cost benefit analysis in order to maximize the outcome which can be beneficial to all stakeholders.

Brought to you by:

World Consulting Group

Your premier management consulting firm in Columbia Missouri  

The post Cost Reduction Management appeared first on World Consulting Group.

Expertise

The issues of expertise and qualification are complex multi dimensional issues that can have negative or positive impact on profitability, effectiveness and efficiency.  The complexity in evaluating knowledge, expertise, as well as qualifications can be caused by factors such as lack of uniform standards, subjectivity of particular field, social and cultural norms, as well as the speed of knowledge creation.

Nevertheless, virtually any solid organization will require some methodology to assess expertise in order to fully take advantage of its impact on organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Hence, in terms of knowledge management, the most basic and fundamental process will be the assessment of individuals as well as overall organizational level of expertise and knowledge.

Within this purgative, it is vital to emphasize that research should be the first step. In order to maximize the outcome of knowledge and expertise evaluation, research and development are the corner stone’s of successful S.O.P. However, the quest for perfection should not stand in the way of results. Hence, research and development as well as actual implementation should contain sensible aspects that would translate into practical applications.

A note of caution: there has to be a differentiation in how and why different employees with varying level of responsibilities, duties and job descriptions can and must be evaluated.  This will become more obvious in follow up entries. In the coming days and weeks we will outline explicit procedures which are successfully tested both in academic as well as real world situations.

Brought to you by: World Consulting Group — Your premier management consulting firm .

The post Expertise appeared first on World Consulting Group.

Vendor and customer relations

It is safe to assume that virtually all businesses require goods or services from third party vendors. Nevertheless, it is rather a neglected issue. In terms of internal and external management of those vendors many attempts have left a real approach in the air. The existing software and hardware that allows for more effective management of those external vendors are shy in flexibility and adaptability.

Essentially the most current issue with the existing tools is within it affordability for small business as well as the respective calculation of return on investment.  Even without the financial aspects, most small and mid size businesses lack the internal expertise to deploy such technically demanding projects.

As in most other aspects of comparison between small and large businesses, the small business owners are rather disadvantaged in this particular sector as well. Yet the solution to third party vendor management is rather simple for small businesses.

The basic of B2B relationship stays virtually the same, whereby the only significant difference between small business and large business in terms of their respective relationship is leverage. The most obvious step to maintain a relationship between small businesses and their respective vendors is consistency. By maintaining consistency in terms of trust, projects, and orders, one can virtually eliminate the leverage factor.

However, the question of maintaining such relationship effectively and efficiently is directly connected to issues such as cost benefit analysis, time and cost factors, as well as reliability and dependency issues. Traditionally, the maintenance of such relationship can be managed internally. However, considering the current economy, globalization as well as technical development may increase the attractiveness of outsourcing to third party firms or management consulting firms.

In the coming days and weeks we will discuss the benefits and potential disadvantages of outsourcing vs. in house dealings.

Brought to you by:

World Consulting Group — Your premier management consulting firm .

The post Vendor and customer relations appeared first on World Consulting Group.

Management by definition implies a set of skills that may or may not be all naturally acquired or learned. The fundamentals of an effective and efficient management personnel and individual managers are rather murky. Though generally certain set of education and experiences are required to groom a manager, the quantity and quality of those requirements are by no means really uniform.

The most basic requirements such as advanced educational degrees such as M.B.A. or Ph.D. coupled with years of experiences are simply not enough anymore. In the current global economy, virtually all upper management personnel come in contact with issues such as language and cultural issues, technological challenges, cross industrial expertise as well as geopolitical concerns.

This certainly does not mean that every manager or management expert has to be familiar with all potential challenges, rather than the ability to recognize the appropriate issues at hand that can be effectively and efficiently dealt with.

Additionally, such ability may also ease the complexity of implementing solutions such as hiring management experts or management consulting firms that can aid in resolving external and internal issues. Such simplification may also influence the bottom line by creating cost savings.

In the coming days and weeks, we will start a detailed discussion about the most basic and universal requirements for hiring a management employee and management experts.

Brought to you by:

World Consulting Group — Your premier management consulting firm .

The post Management expert appeared first on World Consulting Group.

It is safe to assume that virtually all businesses require goods or services from third party vendors. Nevertheless, it is rather a neglected issue. In terms of internal and external management of those vendors many attempts have left a real approach in the air. The existing software and hardware that allows for more effective management of those external vendors are shy in flexibility and adaptability.

Essentially the most current issue with the existing tools is within it affordability for small business as well as the respective calculation of return on investment.  Even without the financial aspects, most small and mid size businesses lack the internal expertise to deploy such technically demanding projects.

As in most other aspects of comparison between small and large businesses, the small business owners are rather disadvantaged in this particular sector as well. Yet the solution to third party vendor management is rather simple for small businesses.

The basic of B2B relationship stays virtually the same, whereby the only significant difference between small business and large business in terms of their respective relationship is leverage. The most obvious step to maintain a relationship between small businesses and their respective vendors is consistency. By maintaining consistency in terms of trust, projects, and orders, one can virtually eliminate the leverage factor.

However, the question of maintaining such relationship effectively and efficiently is directly connected to issues such as cost benefit analysis, time and cost factors, as well as reliability and dependency issues. Traditionally, the maintenance of such relationship can be managed internally. However, considering the current economy, globalization as well as technical development may increase the attractiveness of outsourcing to third party firms or management consulting firms.

In the coming days and weeks we will discuss the benefits and potential disadvantages of outsourcing vs. in house dealings.

Brought to you by:

World Consulting Group — Your prermier management consulting firm.

The post Vendor and customer relations appeared first on World Consulting Group.

A while back we start talking about fundamental steps to hire management personal. This particular entry will be mainly about evaluating credentials of potential management employees.

The fist most common process is to evaluate the educational background. This is not the same as examination and evaluation of basic academic career rather than the evaluation of educational ventures since the professional life of the individual. It is no secret that there is no shortage in finding well educated individuals. It is substantially more difficult to find an individual which has continued a dedicated path of farther education which may include single or combination courses, professional certificates, external or internal conferences, as well as additional degrees in their entirety.

The second most common process is the evaluation of the career track. This is not the same as reading and checking a resume that has a lot of current buzz words, empty titles and bogus achievements. Nor is this the same as evaluating a prospect based on the company name in their resume.  This is more about reading between the lines.

The third most common process is the reference check. The traditional process entails contacting former employers to get a first hand evaluation. It can occur by any means including email and phone conversation. Nevertheless, as a matter of standard operating procedure, such feed back or evaluation should be taken at face value because of its inherently flawed assumptions.

The fourth most common process is comparative in nature. In its basic form, the evaluation entity will cross compare the most viable applicant against internal and external standards as well as against the other applicants. This particular methodology may or may not be viable because of variations in qualifications of applicants as well as their respective background.

Note of cautious – the above named procedures are inherently centralistic and general in nature. Individual businesses and organizations will have to conduct their own customized standard operating procedures to harvest the greatest effectiveness and efficiency in their hiring procedures. Nevertheless, hiring a management expert is one of the rather intriguing part of human resources, yet the greatest danger and impact is within those small organizations which do not have dedicated human resource departments.

In the coming days and weeks we will continue to discuss the procedures which would benefit small and mid size organizations without dedicated human resource department.

Brought to you by:

World Consulting Group — Your premier public relation firm .

The post Management Expert appeared first on World Consulting Group.

It is no secret that virtually all organizations encounter some level of internal power struggle among the executives for power and influence. In most cases, such struggle is most obvious in budgeting issues as well as distribution of resources. Though one may argue that such internal competition may aid better performance of the participant, the real influence and impact of such internal competition may be felt by frontline employees as well as third party vendors.

Essentially there is no valid argument to limit healthy and measured internal competition; however, the impact of negative competition may influence the frontline workers negatively by forcing them to consciously or unconsciously take sides or even worse by aiding to fuel negative competition. Similarly, the third party vendors may find themselves in the middle of divisional or departmental competition which may either force them take sides or cancel their contract and involvement to preserve their own reputation.

In this particular entry we will discuss the evaluation of key personnel. Clearly, the impact on human capital will raise the question as how to regulate such internal conflicts. The most obvious step is the evaluation of talent and competency.  Though traditionally, executive team members enjoy a uniform attendance in all vital meetings, it may not be a good idea to have them attend all meetings. The most obvious terminology would be information isolation or otherwise known as compartmentalization of information. It is important to point out that this concept should by no means confuse or cause difficulties in sharing of information with all stakeholders.

Compartmentalization in this particular context should be viewed as sharing information with those that need the particular set of data and information to make a solid business judgment. For instance, having the company mid management attend shareholder meetings or having an accountant join a meeting on strategic long term planning, would be a great mistake. Granted that feedback from every part of the organization can help in improvements, it is important to differentiate between getting feedbacks and having random mid managers attending strategic meetings.

Certainly, there are exceptions that verify the rule. There are also certainly instances that require having the greatest possible internal feedback. However, in terms of not taking a road which would alienate extremely valuable human capital, it is increasingly important to keep non qualified and less relevant management personnel out of such strategic meetings.
In the coming days and weeks we will discuss strategic methodology to determine how to devise standard operating procedures that would assist in eliminating guess work in minimizing internal and external threats because of managerial infighting.

Brought to you by:

World Consultin Group — Your premier management consulting firm .

The post Internal Management issues appeared first on World Consulting Group.

The fundamentals of marketing and marketing practices are not subject of this opinion. The purpose is to ask the most appropriate questions when selecting or weighing the decision to move forward with particular company and its respective strategic vision.

Lets start by looking at some general concepts such as reputation and track record. In terms of reputation, any chosen vendor has to be checked in order to establish a base line of existing industry or general reputation. There are certainly exceptions in which reputation may not be of great concern due to the company age or other similar factors. Similarly, the same considerations apply to track record.

Yet, once the vendor has been chosen and its strategy successfully implemented, new factors take priority. The first and most important factor is the evaluation of success. Once internal or external evaluation of such vendor has proven to be successful, it is important to shift and increase the value of their expertise. At first, this may sound too logical to mention, however, many reasons including internal power struggle as well as deficiencies in expertise may impact direct or indirectly the outcome of internal decision making. Hence, it is advisable to establish SOP which would directly reward the entities that have positively and measurably contributed to the successful outcome.

Such SOP may create a substantially more positive relationship between service provider and the client which ultimately may contribute to greater bottom line. On the hand, the lack of such procedures may create unquantifiable harm in terms of loyalty, output quality and quantity, competitive edge, as well as overall profitability.

In the coming days and weeks we will outline several different time tested procedures that potentially eliminate such negative impact.

Brought to you by:

World Consulting Group is your premier management consulting firm

The post Marketing decision making appeared first on World Consulting Group.

Economics of Advertising and Marketing

A while back we start talking about general guidelines for budgeting for advertising and marketing. In this particular post we would like to address some very cost effective internal marketing efforts that can reduce the cost of marketing.

In terms of internal resources, many small and mid size businesses utterly fail to maximize untapped internal human capital that can have a great deal of impact on external marketing. Many times the mere idea to integrate frontline workers into overall marketing efforts has not even been thought of, nor has it been given its due evaluation.

Though the above statement may appear to simplistic and centralistic, it is no secret that most marketing executives fail to see the value in the external expertise that can be utilized online as well as offline to achieve a greater brand recognition as well as cost reduction.

The simplest approach to have a true comprehensive, self sustaining and low cost marketing can start by allowing those that have daily interaction with end users and customers to highlight feedback. Nevertheless, the mere collection of such feedback may have no significant impact without accompanying analysis and utilization. This is the place where virtually all small and mid size business go wrong.  Such analysis cannot and should not be conducted by management. It should be done by those that have the real interaction with end user. After that initial analysis, the management and experts should take over and conduct the scientific analysis and implementation of strategic solutions.

The secret is in initial analysis because of the possibility that decision makers and marketing experts may overlook minor details of customer feedback that may or may not be of significance. But once the frontline employees have a unanimous agreement, one can assume that most relevant and vital information has been handed over.

It is unrealistic to expect this concept to work for a large firm. It is equally impossible to cover all the necessary steps that need to be taken in order to make such efforts work. However, as a general concept, small and mid size businesses should never neglect the power of feedback from their front line employees. Such efforts, if implemented properly can have significant impact on the company bottom line by reducing the cost of marketing, reduce the cost in research and development, decrease advertising budget, increase ROI on marketing and advertising budget as well as create an organizational culture that integrates its most valuable asset into its strategic operational vision.

Brought to you by:

W.C.G. Management Consulting at its best .

The post Economics of Advertising and Marketing appeared first on World Consulting Group.

The ever changing face of Public relations

It is no secret that public relations sector has played a significant role in public perception of commercial and private entities. Equally it is not secret that many of those in the public relation industry have extensive contacts within the news media in order to achieve their objective. However, judging the last few years and the accompanying technological development has created an entirely new branch of public relation which does not require utilization of traditional media.

The term online reputation management which has been seen all over the old and new media is the result of internet evolution combined with wide participation of those that have utilized successful online marketing in order to reduce possible views of negative online remarks by consumers.

Certainly it is not productive to dissect the validity of diverse methodology rather than examining the actual need and necessity. The most significant issue at hand is the issue of need. It is safe to say that in today’s World Wide Web which allows anyone and everyone to have a voice with minimum amount of investment, the real question becomes as how to go about avoiding those public relation dilemmas.

Some companies choose to ignore such issues. Best Buy (A registered Trade Mark of its respective owners) is a good example. Others attempt to hire large traditional public relations firms that are not flexible enough to adapt to the ever changing online environment or are entirely too costly to justify the return on investment. Indeed there may be solid reasoning behind each of these strategies depending on overall strategic vision of the company.

However, in terms of small and mid size businesses the most suitable approach may not be as complex as for its counter parts at large business. Most small businesses have to worry about their local and regional presence and reputation. Hence the most obvious point to start is the local market. The most cost effective approach would include steps such as reasonable contribution to local charities and non profits with the understanding that those entities will credit such contribution on their website. For instance a small donation $200 to your local baseball youth league can do the trick. Another appropriate step could include participation in providing tournament prices to your local golf club or political fundraising efforts.

It is obvious that there are no limits to the creativity that can be explored. However, it is vital that such local efforts are directly reflected in online credits. Here is the math: SERP has only 9 or 10 results on the first page and since studies show that very few people go past page 2 or even page 3, the math starts adding up. Your organic search results combined with such minor local social efforts will keep your positive face on the first 2 pages as well as help your community’s charitable and social efforts.

Of course such strategy is not as simple as it appears. There are many additional factors that may influence the outcomes of your DIY reputation management including changes in the SERP based on algorithm changes, more effective efforts by your critics as well as funding issues. As in any aspect of business decision making and organizational leadership the cost benefit analysis should be the determining factor in deciding if a professional or professional firm can have greater impact and help improve the bottom line. 

Brought to you by:

World Consulting Group — Your premier management consulting firm .

The post The ever changing face of Public relations appeared first on World Consulting Group.

The intrigues of Management Consulting

Management consulting is no different than any other advisory role. Though simplistic at first glance, it is not much different than a legal or medical advisor. The one most common similarity is that all advisory roles illustrate certain business and ethical issues. The most pressing issue, however, is the clients’ ability and willingness to adhere to guidance.

It is no secret that one of the greatest challenges in maintaining positive relationships with existing and potential clients is to convince them of the benefits of the advice given to them ; or as we refer to it as protecting the client from itself. This does by no mean imply that clients should blindly follow their management consultants’ suggestions; however it does imply that based on consistent record and relationship longevity, clients should be able to distinguish appropriate and useful recommendations from negative or self serving opinions.

Many times small business owners which have been lacking expertise in innovation and organizational effectiveness and efficiency, resist the dire and necessary organizational changes that would lead to greater profitability, effectiveness, efficiency and ultimately greater ROI and improve bottom line. Internal factors such as less than competent managers and executives , lack of continues education by upper management , industry specific habits , as well as lack of third party audits to improve upon existing procedures , farther create organizational redundancy which may in turn decrease the likelihood of organizational improvements.

  
Similarly the organizational culture that has led to some preliminary success may contribute to the halt of farther positive development in organizational evolution. Many times the previous success that may be correctly contributed to old and outdated business practices create sense of satisfaction which create a false sense of comfort for executive which may lead to neglects in innovation and evolution.

Ultimately, the abstract concept of organizational culture will depend on many factors that may or may not have a positive impact on overall outcome. Yet the alternative solutions to improve upon past successes can have similar negative impact; which brings us back to the issue of ethics .

Generally speaking it is certainly more profitable to prolonging problems; however, is it ethical? Of course it is not ethical nor does it actually make sense. From a business point, management consultants are certainly better off to create and maintain a relationship based on honest and upfront assessments and projections. From an ethical point it is equally important to illustrate integrity by consistently pointing to weaknesses that may influence the outcome.

Yet the ultimate question is when does one give up on an organization that is not willing to follow advise , is plugged with incompetence employees and executives , lacks clear strategy and even more importantly creates frustrations within the management consulting firm ? There is no good answer to this. One may suggest that it depends on loyalty issues; others may suggest that separation from such client may lead to negative rumors that can be harmful; yet others may argue that the success of projects that is hindered by clients errors should be clearly identified and criticized before the lack of success is blamed on the management consulting firm .

The final word on this is rather ambiguous. Each management consulting firm should decide on clear lines of tolerance. Basically deciding when a client becomes more of a liability than a business partner or client should be allowed. Many factors may contribute to a decision to sever relationship with such clients; including business profitability, industry specific reputation, personal relationships as well as contractual agreements.

Nevertheless, separation from a client should not be taken lightly. Any and all efforts to convince the client to change course should implement in order to preserve the relationship before any decision to separate is even considered.

Brought to you by: World Consulting Group ; your premier management consulting firm .

The post The intrigues of Management Consulting appeared first on World Consulting Group.

Though it is obvious that financial restrains caused by the current credit crunch is impacting virtually all aspects of the economy, it is less obvious what small businesses can and should do to protect revenue and assets.

It is important to note that there is a psychological aspect to such dramatic news cycle; whereby many individual business owners may or may not panic. Similarly important, it is imperative to point out that there is general consensus that the current perception may not be illustrative of the actual market and economic vitality.

Yet, even assuming that the perceptions are correctly reflecting the realities of the market and economy, it is important to point out that any degree of panic will not be of any help. The traditional wisdom and theory of expansion and retractions in the market would dictate a conservative approach in times of uncertainty, which in our times of global economy is certainly a very risky move.

The cure and proper action will depend on particular industry; however, one thing is virtually certain: certain small and mid size businesses can greatly benefit from the current market retractions by taking advantage of low cost market expansion and new market penetration. A very good example would be the self storage industry.

Considering the current rate of foreclosure and troubled real estate market , self storage industry can have a comparatively easy time in penetrating new niche markets and establishing productive relationships with sister industries such as real estate business.

Notably, it is not as easy. Certain industries that have enjoyed an unchallenged easy ride in the past 2 or 3 decades will have to weak up and adapt modern advertising and marketing methods that will lead them to extensive online ventures. That being said, even those industries that have been semi active and adaptive will face challenges in understanding and monetizing the virtual world in order to achieve the most attractive return on investment.

Ultimately, the current economic downturn as well as its respective perception may illustrate real as well as professed uncertainties that may or may not be of real value. The greatest possibilities of impact, positive or negative, will entirely depend on particular industries and their respective overall standing. However, in spite of traditional wisdom of caution in uncertainty in the market and economy, it is vital to also see the possibilities that can lead to expansions and profits with very limited risks. Hence it is not advisable to view the current situation as an opportunity rather than a crippling challenge.

However, it is imperative to emphasize the due diligence and risk management should not be dismissed or disregarded. Both of these functions will prevent hasty decision making and potential future pitfalls that are vital for any and all viable organizations.

Brought to you by: World Consulting Group — Your premier consulting firm .

The post Budgeting for a recession appeared first on World Consulting Group.

Long. Way to long.

Something very interesting happened to one of our experiments today. Let’s take a step backwards: three years ago we wanted to experiment with effectiveness and efficiency of banners. We decided to use one of our projects that is entirely organic in nature to see if anyone of our general visitors would find a spelling error in our banner.

Now, three years and 4 million unique visitors later, our experiment has come to a conclusion. We received an email from Mr. David Zach ( Futurist) pointing out the spelling error. Apparently during a speaking engagement he named one of our sites and was consequently advised of the error.

It seems strange that some 4 million people would overlook such an error. On the other hand, one could argue that it is virtually certain that a minimal percentage of those visitors found or saw the error but didn’t contact us. In either case, there is something negative and positive to be said about both possibilities.

In the coming days and weeks we will publish the details of this study including methodology, data collection and analysis as well as our final findings in terms of most recognized Eye tracking studies.

Brought to you by: World Consulting Group — Your premier management consulting firm.

The post Long Way to long appeared first on World Consulting Group.

Many times, it is rather obvious why bad business decisions are made. Other times, it seems like a mystery to outsiders. However, one of the most viable venues to explore the reasons for bad, ineffective or simply wrong decisions is to examine the business habits of executives.

It is beyond this short entry to examine all possible sub categories of bad executive habits, however, one of the rather most common and virtually universal issues is the reading habits; which will be the main emphasize of this entry.

Though not a scientific statement, it is rather easy to see the basis of a decision relating to executive experiences; however, it is rather substantially more difficult to establish a connection between recent readings and current decision making process. We have seen and heard anecdotal evidence which imply a correlation between recent readings and current decision making.

Let’s examine this concept:  is it logical to infer that a recent piece of literature may have conscious or unconscious impact on the reader? Could it be that the way such readings are selected is also illustrative of the readers’ preferences? Is it acceptable to assume that such factors may impact the decision making process and the ultimate outcome?

Certainly it is not farfetched to assume that current events including reading habits may have short or long term impact on a decision maker. It would be interesting to back such hypothesis with a field study; however, considering the deductive reasoning used, it is rather safe to imply that such assumptions may not be baseless.

The essential of good or bad decision which is ultimately a question of situational impact and organizational capabilities, cannot and should not be simplified. Yet the exploration of sub categories of impact may prove equally difficult in establishing universal SOP. Hence leading to a assumptive conclusion that although a universal statement about the impact of reading habits of executives in relations to their respective decision making process may not be viable without scientific data, yet may illustrate a good starting point.

In the coming days and weeks we will start exploring other issues such as topics of the reading material , the frequency of readings, venue and many more related issues.

Brought to you by: World Consulting Group — Your premier management consulting firm .

The post Executive habits and the impact appeared first on World Consulting Group.

In the ever changing global environment with steep local, regional and international competition, it is hardly a mystery that most successful companies value their executive teams.  However, it is still difficult for small businesses to enjoy the same level of advice and expertise because of lack of human capital management capacity.

Essentially, the most widely encountered issue for small businesses is within the monumental task of hiring and retaining an executive. The hiring by it selves is not as problematic as recognizing and cultivating talent.  In our opinion, the biggest factor in such decisions ends up being related to loyalty. It is not difficult to get lost in the sea of professional and personal connections, whereby the goal becomes fuzzier and personal accountability, efficiency and effectiveness take a second row to personal likings.

In spite of the simplified statement above, such loyalty issues can cost business owners a tremendous headache and lower bottom line. One of the most common circumstances occurs when unqualified personnel work their way up, not by actual achievements, rather than just extended time of employment.

The results are rather astonishingly flawed. Personnel in mid management and even upper management, end up being unqualified at best and a liability at worst ; hindering internal and external growth , upsetting the internal balance , creating resentment from internal and external entities , as well as hindering overall growth.

Ultimately, it is hardly a new issue. Small and mid size businesses simply lack the proper resources to be consistent in hiring, promoting and terminating executive employees, compared to their larger counterpart. However, the tell tales are not as complicated. As a small business owner, ask yourself some simple questions: when was the last time we brought a third party to evaluate our internal efforts in terms of effectiveness and efficiency? When was the last time our executives attended some trade shows? When did our executives attend a farther education course? Have any of our executives been published? Are they at least trying? How do our executives keep up with the latest in our industry? Etc.

Note of caution: just because a business owner thinks highly of an executive team member, it does not mean that the particular person is actually competent. Nor does it mean that the particular executive is worth his / her money. It simply means that he or she has been noticed. It doesn’t mean more; it doesn’t mean less.

In the coming days and weeks, we will explore the details of how to spot an executive that is more harmful to the organization than anything else.

Brought to you by: World Consulting Group . Your premier management consulting firm at http://www.worldconsultinggroup.com/ 

The post Peril of adviser gone bad appeared first on World Consulting Group.

The value of a domain

Depending whom you ask, you will receive a variety of answers that may range from complex calculations of ad revenue to unique visitors from particular geo locations. Essentially there is not right and wrong answer, the price of a domain that may be worth $10 to one entity, maybe worth $100000 to another.

The essentials are rather simple and logical, the mere branding or name recognition can translate in huge amount of traffic or sales, or it can harm a new brand. The real question is as how a domain can and will be used to improve ROI. 

We all have seen or read about huge domain sales, that have created millions of dollars sales, but we also have seen domain speculators fail to monetize their domains. The bottom line is rather obvious, in which the value of a domain may entirely depend on a particular niche and possibilities. The wild card is however, the most recent action by ICAAN. Will the authorization of new vanity domains with all new top level extensions be a game changer? Will it increase the value of traditional domains or diminish their value.

Brought to you by :

Management Consulting : http://www.worldconsultinggroup.com/
That remains to be seen. 

The post The value of a domain appeared first on World Consulting Group.

The past few weeks and months have created an economic environment that has been less than helpful to small business owners psyche. Granted that economic situation is real and dire, the greatest impact appears to be on the willingness of small business owners to adapt rather than panic.

From our internal observation, there are two different small business owners: those that were naturally prepared for turmoil and those that were not.  Our initial assumption that larger companies were in a better position to absorb and adapt to turmoil turns out to be wrong.

After extensive analysis of hard data and behavioral observation, it turns out that those companies that appear in a better position to deal with current situation have one major factor in common ; mainly their respective human resources and talent management .

We looked at dozen companies with an extensive human resource operation and compared them to another dozen small businesses without an effective HR program. The results were astonishing. The latter had substantially more difficulties in coping with the psychological issues of economic down turn as opposed to the first group.

Granted, it is too early to judge the actual outcome in terms of success during a down turn period. However, one may hypothesize as to why the preliminary result point to such different results. It is rather simple to point to the ability of the management via the appropriate talent; but the question of ability may not be the appropriate indicator.

In any case, we will continue our study and observations and report back. 

Brought to you by :

World Consulting Group : Premier management consulting firm .

The post Our observations appeared first on World Consulting Group.