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Planning: It’s About Management and Accountability

September 13, 2012

(Note: this is an excerpt from my book The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, which is posted as a web site where you can read it online.) Every small-business owner suffers the problem of management and accountability. It’s much easier to be friends with the people you work with than to manage them well. Correct management means [...]

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Crystal Ball and Chain

September 11, 2012

This is an answer to a question I get way too often. I call it the “Crystal Ball and Chain” problem. I’ve run into it several times as I’ve introduced the planning process into a new company or organization. People in the organization sometimes fear business planning. In the background, the fear is related to [...]

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Business Plans are Always Wrong, But Still Vital

September 10, 2012

(Note: It feels like business planning season to me. Fall, or almost fall, time to think about next year. So I’m reviewing business planning fundamentals, this week and next, refreshing some of my older posts.)  Business plans are always wrong. That’s because we’re human. Business plans predict the future. We humans suck at predicting the future. [...]

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Isn’t it Creepy to Walk Into a Startup with Fancy Offices?

August 22, 2012

Funded or not, ambitious or not, I just don’t see the sense of startups having fancy offices. In the old days, as a consultant to startups and investors both, I hated walking into an interview with a startup when it was a nice office, beautiful windows, carpets, and lots of space. In the middle days, [...]

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Q&A: Are There Business Classes That Busy Smallbiz Owners Can’t Afford Not to Take?

August 13, 2012

Over this weekend I was in email with a college student who asked me to answer some questions about business education, as part of a class project. I found this one interesting, and one that comes up a lot, so I decided to post the question and my answer here today.  The question:  On your [...]

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Go Ahead: Disagree. I dare you.

August 10, 2012

This one had me from the moment I saw the title: Dare to Disagree. I clicked, watched, and I love it. Good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates (sometimes counterintuitively) how the best partners aren’t echo chambers — and how great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree. I’ve seen this [...]

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What is the most important thing to have when you are just starting your company?

August 7, 2012

Entrepreneur.com asked What is the most important thing to have when you are just starting your company?  on LinkedIn and here are the results: While I really like the answer business plan – I’m a business planner – I don’t completely agree. If I weren’t biased down to my bones, I’d answer “something else” and clarify that what you [...]

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You Need People Committed, Not Just Involved

July 30, 2012

In breakfast, the chicken is involved, the pig is committed. In the business planning process, commitment is essential. Plans need to be implemented, and implementation means commitment.  There has to be accountability, and peer pressure.  You have to follow up on what was planned to make sure that it was actually carried out. Here are [...]

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Displacement: A Critical Small Biz Factor We Never Acknowledge

July 26, 2012

Displacement: In the real world of small business, everything you do is something else you can’t do. Understanding displacement is vital for business planning, vital for growing a business, vital for small and medium business in particular. Consider the picture here, marbles dropping into a full glass of water. The water comes splashing out of [...]

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Hooray the Late ’60s Are Finally Winning

July 19, 2012

No surprise to me: Alexandra Levit reports on Amex OPEN that big-company CEOs are “abandoning command and control.” IBM studied more than 1,700 chief executive officers from 64 countries and 18 industries. Of course. Look around. You’ll see complaining sometimes about alleged millennials, but all they’re doing is wanting people to care what they think. [...]

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