Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

As a leader in your business, try these six ideas to give your business a jump-start : Ask for ideas from employees in all parts of your business . Don't ask for ideas only from your product development or marketing departments. Be sure all employees clearly understand your vision and the mission of your business. Brainstorm ways to take advantage of your strengths . Determine how to overcome your business' weaknesses . Choose which opportunities you will prioritize to help keep everyone focused on a common goal . Celebrate your successes regularly and encourage learning from your mistakes .

Are you a leader contemplating starting a new business? Or, has a budding entrepreneur turned to you because of your leadership skills to ask for your help? Here are 11 questions you or that entrepreneur should ask before starting a business. Is there a true need for my product/service? What is the competitive environment and how will my product/service be unique, different or better? Will my location (or accessibility online) be convenient and easy to get to for my customers? Do I have adequate funding to support my business, particularly during the ramp-up period that could be a year or more? Do I have the stamina to start a new business and work hard even if it means months of extended work hours and perhaps even seven days a week? Will my family and social life withstand my commitment to my new business? Will the name of my business be easy to spell, suitable for print on online, and memorable? Am I a risk taker ? Am I humble enough to ask for help , especi...

Today's thought to ponder for business leaders: The number of Americans age 65 and older will grow from 40 million today to 88.5 million in 2050.  That projection from the U.S. Census presents an opportunity for business leaders who have their eye on 2050, even though that's 38 years away. Think of the opportunity if you can create a product or service, or adapt your existing offerings, to meet the needs of an America that will look very different in 2050 than it does today. Need even more convincing?  Consider these additional projections: The number of Americans age 85 and older will grow from 5.8 million today to 19 million in 2050. The number of Centenarians in the U.S. will grow from 105,000 today to 601,000 in 2050.

There are lots of lessons tied to those canary yellow squares, called Post-it Notes: how ideas and innovations can come from anyone on your team at any time how they can be used by leaders to boost morale how test marketing is critical Enjoy the history of those yellow squares.

According to Brian Cole Miller in his new book, Quick Brainstorming Activities For Busy Managers , there are 50 ways to improve your brainstorming at your company or in your organization. My favorite is the Paper Swap brainstorming activity: A brainstorming technique where participants write their input on separate pieces of paper; then they swap papers and continue to add input. Miller provides 49 other techniques in his book (released by Amacom last month), all of which take less than 15 minutes to complete .  For all brainstorming sessions, Miller reminds leaders that you should: Focus on quantity not quality Don't allow criticism Encourage wild ideas Combine ideas for more ideas Miller also suggests that the best starting question for a brainstorming session is a Focus Question -- one that: Uses the participants' own language Is personal to the participants and not the organization Evokes responses with imagery This is a must-read book for any ...

Perhaps you saw the July 4th issue  Fortune magazine article about how digital companies are so big and growing so fast, that they are obliterating old brick-and-mortar businesses.  Fortune reported that: The U.S Postal Service is on track to lose $6 billion this year.  Cellphone text messages sent are up 1,200,243% from 2000. Netflix sales are up 43,101% from 1999 versus Blockbuster' s drop of 29% in sales during the same period. Amazon has almost single-handedly bankrupted Borders . iTunes debuted in 2003 and Tower Records closed in 2004 and Musicland folded in 2006.  FYE is shriveling. And the Wall Street Journal recently reported that sales of greeting cards have fallen 9% since 2005 amid the rise of social media and email. What is the digital company or the new technology that will force you to change your business model?  Or expand, or morph?  Or, worse...that will cause you to close your doors? As the leader in your business, are yo...

Are you a leader contemplating starting a new business?  Or, has a budding entrepreneur turned to you because of your leadership skills to ask for your help?  Here are 11 questions you or that entrepreneur should ask before starting a business. Is there a true need for my product/service?  What is the competitive environment and how will my product/service be unique, different or better? Will my location (or accessibility online) be convenient and easy to get to for my customers?  Do I have adequate funding to support my business, particularly during the ramp-up period that could be a year or more? Do I have the stamina to start a new business and work hard even if it means months of extended work hours and perhaps even seven days a week? Will my family and social life withstand my commitment to my new business? Will the name of my business be easy to spell, suitable for print on online, and memorable? Am I a risk taker ? Am I humble enough t...