Two weeks ago in my article, "A Horrifying Revelation About Price", I adressed two issues: Opportunity Cost and our inadequacy in handling price shoppers. Last week I drilled down a little deeper on the issue of Opportunity Cost in "If Lee Iacocca Owned a Funeral Home". This week I will do the same for the [...]
There is an apocryphal story in accountant circles about Lee Iacocca's first day as CEO of Chrysler. As the story goes, Mr. Iacocca's very first act was to call in the Chief Financial Officer and ask how many day's cash was on hand. The CFO responded that the company had 3 day's cash available. Mr. [...]
I have long believed that most price shoppers in DeathCare begin with the price question solely because they don't know what else to ask. That belief supports another which holds that what most shoppers are really looking for is someone they can trust. Thus I understood why it was important that we engage shoppers over [...]
I have to admit I don't know why I find myself commenting on Social Media as much as I do. I guess, like you, I am still trying to figure it out. I have noticed that I am getting messages telling me about FaceBook changes fairly frequently and I have even had to go in [...]
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 [...]