Archive for the ‘Resources’ Category

Whether you’re new to managing a business or are an old hand at using management tools, practices and literature, there is no doubt that you’ve been touched one way or another by the writings and insights of management/leadership guru, Dr. Henry Mintzberg. For over 40 years, Mintzberg has been the Canadian business thought-leader.

With 15 internationally acclaimed inventive and practical business books to his credit, Dr. Mintzberg has added a new title to his repertoire — and, it just may make him a household name on the scale of Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point), Jim Collins (Good to Great) and Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence). The new book, entitled,  “Management? It’s Not What You Think!” is written for today’s busy manager/leader — in that its structure, content and language reads more like a series of provocative and insightful blog articles than a lengthy academic tome.

For BusinessCast #170, Robert and I sat down with Henry Mintzberg to talk about his new co-authored book, some of his previous best selling books, and to get his insights into today’s most critical management/leadership issues. We were surprised with his take on some of the challenges central to the success of all managers/leaders…and we suspect you will be too.

Listen to BusinessCast #170 and find out what the Nation’s business thought-leader has up his sleeve.

Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes

Not all growth is equal, nor is it all good. That means a major challenge for leaders and managers is to manage “smart growth” — the kind of growth that leads to more efficiencies, more revenues and more successes. That’s why for BusinessCast #157, we sat down with Bruce Hunter who helps entrepreneurs across all industries identify and harness growth that makes sense for them and their businesses.

Bruce, a former VP & GM at Kraft, identifies common pain points that entrepreneurs face at one of the most critical stages of their business’ development. He also provides some insights for successfully addressing these challenges. Finally, he makes available a survey to help you determine, and potentially head-off, some of these natural growing pains. Managing growth is always a challenge but, listen to BusinessCast #157 and you’ll find yourself managing growth smarter.

Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes

Marshal Cohen has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Fortune and Time Magazine. He’s also been a guest on The Today Show, CNN and ABC World News. As Chief Industry Analyst for the NPD Group, he provides critical advice and insights into why people make the purchase decisions that they do.

Do you know why prospects purchase your products/services? I mean, do you really understand what’s behind their thinking, their feelings, the obstacles they have to overcome, the choices and trade-offs they make? Because most entrepreneurs experience a disconnect between their sell cycle and their customers’ buying cylce, Marshal Cohen set out to answer these questions in a succinct and practical way in his compelling new book, Buy Me!

For BusinessCast 149, Robert and I sat down with Marshall, the Chief Industry Analyst from the NPD Group — one of North America’s leading market research and consumer marketing firms. Marshal gives real-life insights that will help you:

• Understand the buying process of your current/future customers
  
• Shift buyers’ attention from your competitors’ offerings to yours
• Move buyers’ attention from features to value

Whether you’re focused on consumers or businesses, listen to BusinessCast 149 and you will gain valuable insights that will help you to re-tool your products/services and can beat out your competition.

Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes

As business complexity increases so do the tools for measuring business success. Nowhere is that more evident in marketing — the area that remains either a measurement mystery or nightmare for most entrepreneurs. That’s why in BusinessCast #148, we sat down with Jim Sterne.

Jim is a wildly successful entrepreneur and the brains behind the eMetrics Summit. This event, now hosted in nearly a dozen countries, is regarded as the event to help entrepreneurs get a handle on online metrics. Given the importance of every entrepreneur’s online marketing efforts (i.e. email, websites, landing pages, social media, blogs, banner ads, search engine marketing, etc.), entrepreneurs deserve a resource that provides practical insights. Jim shares with us his entrepreneurial story and why the eMetrics Summit can help every business person market smarter.

**Special for BusinessCast Listeners**: You can get 15% off the attendee cost if you use the following purchase code: BCAST15.  See you at the event!

Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes

Mitch Joel has accomplished something that few others have: he has made the fundamentals of digital marketing and social media easily accessible. In his book, Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch makes the intersection between digital marketing, social media, personal branding and entrepreneurship digestible for nearly everyone. In BusinessCast #146, Robert sat down with Mitch to talk about this book — which is one of the few sources that we recommend for entrepreneurs getting a bearing on social media.

Once you’ve been inspired by Mitch’s book, the next step is developing the right social media strategy for you, your business and your audience. Without a doubt, Charlene Li’s Groundswell remains the most well-researched and practical book that we’ve found. Listen to the conversation that we recently had with Charlene, in BusinessCast #101, Leveraging the Groundswell.

Of course, if you’re trying to get a handle on social media, you’ll need to measure its effectiveness. The eMetrics Summit is a world-class event to help you tackle this challenge. And, the event is coming to location near you. **Special for BusinessCast Listeners**: You can get 15% off the attendee cost if you use the following purchase code: BCAST15. See you there!

Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes