Management Information |
Three Business Lessons From The US Postal Service
There was a buzz in the air recently about the US Postal Service. Seems as though they were running into a budget deficit in the billions. The Postal Service claimed they must cut Saturday service to customers to stay afloat -- a service they had provided for years. And one that customers expected. They said people using email instead of regular mail made a major dent in their profits. Customers were in an uproar. If customers had a choice, they'd lose many. Welcome to the real world of business. There are three lessons in this for your business. Lesson #1: Use indicators, in addition to cash flow, that help you watch the ebb and flow of your business. What can you measure that will tell you quickly -- so you can act -- about what's happening in your business? Lesson #2: Don't just whack a service you've been providing your customers. If you need to cut, look inside your business for processes and procedures that can be streamlined to save you money. Cut the fat of your business, not the services. Lesson #3: Always be on the lookout for new competitors entering your business space. Don't wait for that competition to start taking away your customers. Be proactive. Find ways to offer more value to keep your customers loyal. About The Author (C) 2004 Denise O'Berry. Small Business Expert Denise O'Berry helps business owners take action to grow their business. Find out more at http://www.whatspossible.com
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
RELATED ARTICLES
Executives and Emotional Self Awareness A major problem impairing an executive's performance is his Emotional Blind Spots. Emotions, whether we like them or not, have a significant impact on one's decisions. The Few & the Many: Free Trade, Outsourcing, & Communication Have you noticed that some sound ideas get bad publicity? Two Ihave in mind are outsourcing and free trade.No doubt you could name others, but looking at these two initiatives helps us understand a communication challenge for many companies and not-for-profit organizations. A Corporate Facelift With Sound Bytes If Baby Boomers can get botox and tummy tucks, then why don't companies receive facelifts to improve their image as well? The telephone is the lifeblood of any business. Use it respectfully. Encouraging Behavior That Gets Results You're the boss, and you have every reason to feel good about your organization.You've built a great team. Performance Management - Getting The Most Out of Your Employees Managing for Best PerformanceIn it's simplest form, performance management is a common sense set of discussions that make sure people are clear about what they need to do, have the support to do it and get open and honest feedback on their performance.Any performance management process should answer 4 important questions for your employees:· Direction: What do I need to do and how well?· Feedback: How am I doing? · Rewards: What happens when I do well? · Support/Development: What happens when I need/want help?Lets look more closely at each of these:DirectionEmployees are not mind readers. A Tricky Supervision Challenge Many managers believe that treating their team members as responsible adults will assure excellent results. The truth is that while this usually is effective, some people need much firmer limits than others to perform their jobs. Its a Training Issue! There's a common phrase used by Organizational Development and Human Resource professionals, when identifying kinks in the growth of an organization or company - "It's a training issue." The same phrase can be applied to almost any group of human beings that are working together to achieve a common goal. Innovation Management - Reducing Hierarchy Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. Preparing a Budget Ok, you say, I know I need a budget, but how do I prepare one? The most common budget period is one year, but this can vary depending on whether or not your business has seasonal or cyclical fluctuations. For example if you run a Christmas decorations shop, or a costume shop your business is going to peak during certain times of the year. Key Control - Who Has the Keys to Your Kingdom? Key control, or more accurately the lack of key control is one of the biggest risks that businesses face.What is the risk?Imagine, you have fired a trusted employee, unknown to you that person had a spare key to your business, they come back after hours and steal business secrets, account lists, equipment or anything else of value. Choosing the Right Corporate Training According to a Gallup Poll, 80 percent of employees said the availability of company-sponsored training programs was a factor in deciding whether to accept a new job or stick with a current one. And yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the average number of hours of formal training per employee per year is only 10. 30 Ways to be a Butt-Head Boss 1. Trust no one. Overcoming Perfectionism Perfectionism can get in the way of building or marketing a successful business. It can prevent us from moving ahead quickly or from taking advantage of business opportunities. Human Resource Communication Pays Off Human Resource Communications and Corporate Communications - are they one in the same? Both plan and develop written communication strategies to further the understanding and perceptions of their audience. Both provide counsel and editorial support for management communications. Learning To Let Go If you have the entrepreneurial spirit (which clearly you have!), you probably have a tendency toward being a control freak. I know the feeling well -- "No one can do it as well as me, so I'll just do it all!" While this may seem to be more efficient than trying to bring someone else in to help out, it's actually more time-consuming in the long run. The Email Trap If you sit at a computer for most of the day, it's tempting to constantly check your email to see what's new. But that's a time management disaster if you're trying to make progress in your business. Creative Writing - business principles produce more quality work, faster Maximization methodologies have long been used in business to produce quantities of quality ideas, faster. Creative writers who want to rapidly produce quantities of quality work should apply these same principles. This Old Business Not long ago I was asked to come out and take a look at a business that had been around for about 10 years.. Conflict Resolution Training- When Personal Safety is an Issue Conflict generally arises by having your needs, desires, perceptions and values challenged.When a person feels that their values are being challenged they generally respond the strongest. Business Innovation - Status Games Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. |
home | site map | contact us |