"Management" Posts
Why?
By Ken DiPrima“What are you doing, daddy?”
“I”m fixing this.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s broken.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
Kids challenge everything around them, especially the actions of adults. One of the first things they learn is how to ask questions. Their natural curiosity is forever urging them to inquire about their surroundings—how things work and why they are important. That’s how they learn and grow. They want to fit in and be a part of the social norms within their family. They want to belong and to contribute.
Ironically, that role is reversed in school, where the teachers ask the questions and students are …
Champions and Money Players
By Ken DiPrima
From 1947 through 1964, the New York Yankees were the American League Champions fourteen times. They missed playing in the World Series only three times during those seventeen years, and won the Series ten times in that short time span. They were known as the “money” players—players who fought hard for a share the World Series bonus money. The bonus money was truly significant, often equaling close to the annual salary of the typical player. They could smell victory and had the killer instinct to win.
But was it the pursuit of money that really motivated these players? The …
The Dog Days of Summer
By Ken DiPrima
In baseball, they are called the dog days of summer. Those long, hot, sluggish days, where languishing in the hot sun becomes a millstone to efficient performance. Trudging through them takes energy and determination. Player trades are often made to bolster rosters, and managers are poised to be as creative as they can be.
At the end of ‘dog days’, baseball teams arrive at the proverbial fork in the road. One path leads to victory and the playoffs, where money is on the line, and aches and pains no longer keep key players out of the lineup. Their energy …
Bad Things Happen To Good People
By Ken DiPrima
Bad things happen to good people. Life is full of adversities; we’ve all experienced some personal crisis in our lives. Maybe it was an illness, an untimely death of a family member, a debilitating accident, a financial loss that wiped out all personal assets, or a bad error in judgment that created unthinkable liability. Tragedy strikes individuals, families, communities, and even countries, as evidenced by the 9/11 terrorists attack. And when they do, lives are changed forever.
Businesses also experience disasters, and the resulting setbacks can be a major blow to the company. Doomsday can be knocking at their …
Take the ‘Pro’ out of Procrastination
By Ken DiPrima
“As soon as I finish this, we’ll address that issue.”
“I’ll do that tomorrow.”
I haven’t decided yet.”
“That can wait.”
“I’ll get to it when I can.”
“If I only had more time…”
Have you ever caught yourself using one of these excuses? Or heard your boss use them with you or a colleague? If you answered yes, you are not alone. We are all guilty to varying degrees of this common, but costly practice of putting things off. Everyone procrastinates at one time or another. When a particular task seems unpleasant or undesirable, we tend to put it …
Teamwork: All Eight Oars In At The Perfect Time
By Ken DiPrima
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships,” said Michael Jordan. Those words, spoken by a six time NBA champion and one of the sports world’s top superstars, apply not only to sports teams, but to almost every endeavor in life.
Winning teams may have at least one superstar on its roster, but how many championship teams are composed of nothing but superstars? Not many, if any, at all. What they all do possess is an organization built on talented players, working as a single unit, executing a well designed plan.
A perfect example of this winning combination is …
‘E’ Is For Excellence
By Ken DiPrima
Anybody who has served at sea with the U.S. Navy is aware of the coveted ‘E’ award. The award stands for Excellence and is awarded, annually, based on a fleet wide competition, which measures the performance of each ship against an established set of rigid standards. By any measurement, it’s a big deal. A very, very, big deal…
The winning ship paints a large white ‘E’ on the bridge bulwarks on both the port and starboard sides of the ship. A ship that wins five consecutive battle efficiency competitions will replace the white ‘E’ with a gold one.
All ships …
CBS Consulting Asks: Does Your Business Need Spring Training?
By Ken DiPrima
The pop of a baseball smacking into a catcher’s mitt. The crack of a bat sending a line drive into the outfield. The grunt of men doing wind sprints…
These sounds are a definite sign that spring is just around the corner!
Sites, in both Florida and Arizona, host the thirty Major League baseball teams’ Spring Training. This annual event is both highly practical as well as significantly symbolic.
Every spring, hundreds of hopeful young ball players are given the opportunity to participate in the training camps of these major league teams. They have the chance to “show their stuff” …
Get A Jump On Your Competition With An Annual Review In Q4!
By Tom Ryan
It is often said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over, again, and expect different results. All too often, small business owners are hoping that business will improve, but they fail to take the most elementary step to make it happen—conducting a comprehensive review of their annual performance.
A Must For Success!
Annual reviews are viewed as a ‘must’ for success. All major corporations, today, arrange for the annual review as part of their normal business operating procedures. Annual reviews are considered to be a ‘best practice’ among industry leaders. Additionally, Wall Street …
How Does A Business Owner Create A Competitive Advantage?
By Ken DiPrima
Imagine ten businesses, all providing the same services or products, all selling to the same customers, all drawing from the same labor pool, located on the same street within a half mile stretch. Experience shows that these ten companies will exhibit a wide spectrum of success.
On one end of the spectrum, you’ll find a business which is booming, whose showroom/office/store front is picture perfect, who enjoys the highest level of customer satisfaction, whose profits are greatest, and whose employees are happiest. The community looks to them with civic pride.
On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll find a …