Curiosity in Leadership
What does leadership mean in our world? What does it mean to me and to others? I’m curious about leadership. A good friend once gave me her definition of curiosity as “exuberant ignorance.” I love this definition because it brings a positive tone to the phenomenon of “not knowing” and the word “ignorance,” which is […]
Lean Practitioner Model Five Years In
From our company’s inception, we wanted to keep overhead low. This makes sense for any startup, but we’re planning to maintain our “leanness” into the future. I don’t mean cheapness; we, of course, have operating costs, and we like new and functional equipment. We collected some cool data over the course of 2023 that might […]
Mind the Gap: What to Do When Customer Expectations and Reality Collide
“I don’t understand. This hotel has no restaurant, no concierge and no valet. It’s not at all what I expected. The place had no standards.” – Guest at a roadside motel “I showed her the picture of Jennifer Aniston and asked for the same haircut. She cut my hair, but I still don’t look a […]
Discover the Power of Building Brand Equity
I recently came off the road from a number of trade shows at which I had many conversations with small-business owners in our industry. During one of the marketing sessions I led, we discussed how companies were utilizing their marketing as the foundation for their businesses and incorporating it into the other facets of their […]
By the Hour or By the Bid
In the Milwaukee area, where I’ve spent my tree career, I’m one of the few outfits that works by the hour. Most of my competitors work by the bid. There are upsides and downsides attendant with each way of pricing work. I started out working by the bid. I moved to working hourly when a […]