Musings on Business Optimization, Economics, and Vocations

Unfortunately more often than not we see businesses that not only aren't able to focus on their profitable core, but they often aren't even able to articulate what their profitable core is. Fortunately this is fixable. It's easy to get distracted by glittery opportunity after opportunity that adds revenue to the top line but distracts from the company's ability to grow its profitable core.  Many business owners fall into the trap of thinking that they are bringing X in profit to their company by chasing a peripheral opportunity when in reality they may be losing 2X in profit because their most profitable core is eroding. But don't take it from us.  These quotes from turnaround expert Gary Sutton in his book The Six-Month Fix pretty bluntly hammer the point home: The last, and most toxic comment you'll hear in most troubled businesses is silence. That will be the response you'll here when you ask each executive to fill in the blank for this sentence. ...

In this social media crazy-world, the consequences of not treating our customers well are larger than ever. We, as those running or coaching businesses, need to be fully attuned to the quality of service we are providing. Customers can be classified into four groups: 1) Customers who have been offended 2) Unsatisfied customers who showed up today, but will abandon our business as soon as they get an opportunity 3) Mildly satisfied customers 4) Raving fans who spread word of our product or service every chance they get We shouldn’t rest until all of our customers are raving fans. We need this not only because a word-of-mouth testimonial from a satisfied customer is one of the best forms of marketing available, but also because there is no way for us to tell the difference between groups 2 and 3. They rarely identify themselves.   Consider this scenario: You visit a restaurant that provides inedible food and even worse service—the waiter even openly moc...