Olson / Zaltman is an internationally recognized market research firm spawned out of Harvard and Penn State Universities. They developed and patented the groundbreaking research methodology (ZMET) that opens the subconscious metaphors consumers use to make buying decisions. Now widely used by the world's largest institutions and businesses to develop marketing strategies, they are turning [...]
Selling a business is a highly practical exercise wrapped in a thick emotional blanket. Much like the grief cycle we know so well in DeathCare there are stages that are common and, if you know about them, you can prepare. The more prepared you are the better you will be able to negotiate what you [...]
As a student of leadership and as a "Benchmark" Assessor for the Center for Creative Leadership, I am well aware of the impact poor leadership has on results. The problem, in my mind, is the historical emphasis on styles more appropriate to factory settings than businesses that actually interface with the public. The difference between a manager [...]
I started my career in business turnarounds in the 1970's when I worked for a company whose business it was to buy and "refurbish" distressed businesses and resell them. DeathCare is in need of a turn around. There are different types of turnaround strategies and turnaround strategists. Many are simply liquidators who cut costs so drastically [...]
What employee turnover reveals about your leadership. Employee turnover can reveal a lot of things. Surely turnover is normal but both too much and too little are signs of serious management issues. The pressures of the last ten years have led many in DeathCare to be frustrated with their employees. An attitude has sprung up [...]
Wow!! Big Brother is watching. I really don't pay much attention to the issue of privacy. But I learned something today that really spooked me. Go to www.spokeo.com and enter your name. This site aggregates publicly available information and makes it as easy as a couple of clicks to find out a whole lot more [...]
A few weeks ago, in response to a series of commentaries on business valuation, a reader asked this very good question: "What are your views on funeral home brokers? I know Johnson Consulting will perform a valuation and then broker the sale, but how is it possible to ensure that the company doing the valuation [...]
In 1949 noted journalist Vermont Royster wrote an unusual editorial about St. Paul and his mission. In an extraordinary editorial phenomenon The Wall Street Journal has been republishing it annually since. As we celebrate our Savior's birth and consider the political state of today's world we do well to take 5 minutes and reread Mr. [...]
"A number of years ago a remarkable Christian Christmas card was published by the title 'If Christ had not come'. It was based on the Savior's own words, 'If I had not come,' in John 15:22. The card pictured a minister falling asleep in his study on Christmas morning and then dreaming of a world [...]
Funeral Home Websites have come a long way in the last 5 years. Yet, most sites still remain fairly primitive. One mistake many websites make (funeral and nonfuneral) is not understanding how their specific target market relates to websites in general. Because many web developers and programmers are still relatively young and our audience is [...]