Archive for August, 2010

Are your competitors dictating your business plans, your targets, your product offerings and your day-to-day operations? If they are, you’re in the throws of hyper-competition. So, how do you survive this intense and high-risk time in your business’ life? To get answers to this critical question, in BusinessCast #165, we sat down with John Sculley — the former President/CEO of Pepsi and Apple. John led these world-wide brands through some of their most turbulent and successful times — while thriving and optimizing hyper-competition. 

Listen to BusinessCast #165 and you will tap into the insights and critical lessons from one of the world’s most successful (and for some, contentious) business leaders.

For another BusinessCast episode that provides relevant lessons, list to Big Lessons from Big Business – with Carl Yankowski, former CEO of Reebok, Palm and Sony Electronics who shares insights, stories and tips for all business leaders and managers.

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All entrepreneurs have powerful stories to tell and are often compelling story-tellers. In fact, story-telling is so important to business success that we recently interviewed Chris Carder, Thindata 1:1′s President on how to use story-telling to close business deals, build stronger relationships and inspire your teams.

But, what typically catapults entrepreneurs to achieve and sustain success is the less glamorous part of story-telling: the ability to listen. And, that means the ability to listen to the market, listen to clients, listen to advisors and listen to colleagues/employees.

As evidence of the importance of listening for entrepreneurs, for BusinessCast #163, we interviewed Evan Thompson, Managing Director at Thompson Wiley & Associates. His company has thrived because of its ability to actively listen to key stakeholders as well as help their clients listen better.

Evan shares some of his many critical business insights. Listen to BusinesCast #163 and benefit from the wisdom found in listening.

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As your business grows, have you ever hoped, perhaps secretly, for some way to avoid those costly and time-consuming pitfalls that are a natural, but painful, part of your inevitable success? Well as it turns out, entrepreneurs just like you often confide in Robert and me a desperate need for practical ways to steer clear of common business hazards.

That’s why for BusinessCast #162, we sat down with Rick Spence to uncover today’s most common “entrepreneur bear traps” — those traps that snare even the most thoughtful, innovative, well-funded and profitable businesses.

Rick shares our passion for helping entrepreneurs achieve professional and personal success. For over 20 years, he has shared his observations and insights in many of North America’s most widely-read online and offline business publications. Together with Rick, we identify and tackle today’s “entrepreneur bear traps” in business strategy, marketing, operations, financing and human resources.

Listen to BusinessCast #162 and avoid some entrepreneur bear traps before they catch you off-guard.

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