August 2, 2016
by Dagmar
Comments Off on How many companies have a strategy?
Some years ago I spent half of my weekends with my studies of Real Estate Investment Banking. I clearly remember one lecture about Exit Strategies (for real estate investors). The excellent tutor managed to keep us awake during this wonderful summery Saturday afternoon when he asked the question
“Who of you works in a company that does have a strategy?â€
The answer was laughter, but nobody raised his hand. Isn’t this disappointing? Continue Reading →
March 22, 2016
by Dagmar
1 Comment
During my readings I came across two very different quotas about the problem with strategy and boxes or categories. Strategic thinking and mental boxes are two things that don’t fit together very well. There is the problem that we are all too easily inclined to refer back to past experiences when we face complex problems. Continue Reading →
February 22, 2016
by Dagmar
1 Comment
Employees will only deliver excellent work results if they like their job, their tasks and their whole work environment. That is a truism, and one with which we are all familiar. So it is all the more surprising that there are still people assigned to jobs where they are virtually out of place. Modern tools for personnel management, planning and development should prevent such mistakes. However, especially in reorganization and restructuring phases there are still employees ending up in a job they would never choose on their own. Continue Reading →
February 12, 2016
by Dagmar
1 Comment
Every business knows that search engine optimization (SEO) is important for its website. You can put all your offerings online – if the major search engines do not like you, nobody will see them.
Last week I attended a presentation of latest survey results among journalists. What I learned there confirmed my assumption that you should not overemphasize traditional SEO. (Don’t worry, I won’t elaborate on the importance of SEO any further. There’s already been more than enough written about that.) Continue Reading →
January 8, 2016
by Dagmar
Comments Off on 2015 Roundup for Eddielogic.com and Themanager.org
The beginning of a new year is always a good point to look back at the previous one. Here is my summary of the most popular articles at this blog Eddielogic.com and our second website Themanager.org. Continue Reading →
January 6, 2016
by Dagmar
Comments Off on Is growth imperative?
Take any business plan, financial statement, press conference, analyst presentation or the like – What do they have in common?
About any business will proudly present its plans for growth. Continue Reading →
November 25, 2015
by Dagmar
Comments Off on Aggressive selling does not always pay off
Businesses have learned that it is imperative for them to focus on their customers. Customer service, customer orientation, customer centricity – meaningful concepts became popular. The problem is, however, that there is only a fine line between serving your customer with a pleasant experience and annoying your customer. Aggressive selling will defintively lead to the latter one. Continue Reading →
November 19, 2015
by Dagmar
Comments Off on Another great business advice – make Benchmarking work for you
Some weeks ago I wrote a post about the Three best pieces of business advice I ever got. That should have been “Four†pieces. I actually forgot another great lesson. So, here is my forth piece of advice, which is about Benchmarking. Continue Reading →
October 26, 2015
by Dagmar
Comments Off on My strategy workshop from heaven
I recently wrote a post about my workshop from hell and what I learned from it. Of course, not every workshop ends up as a disaster. To turn a famous adage around:
Where there is shadow, there is also light.
Today I want to tell you about my workshop from heaven. It was that kind of positive experience you like to refer back to often. Besides that, this is a perfect case study on how to tackle a strategic question: Continue Reading →
October 8, 2015
by Dagmar
3 Comments
There is a lot of critique of strategic planning around. The heavy reliance on analysis has been said to favor measurable outcomes and it would be inappropriate for our unpredictable environment. This critique is not new, but it is constantly renewed. It is all the more surprising that strategic planning doesn’t get poor grades in practice. Continue Reading →