Archive for the ‘Risk Management’ Category

If you’re like most business leaders, the topic of succession stirs up mixed emotions. On the one hand, succession provides great new opportunities. On the other hand, the thoughts that run through your mind about succession processes are anything but positive.

Because making successful succession transitions has an impact on so many North American businesses and so many stakeholders within a business, Robert and I have interviewed several key experts — getting the answers to the most important, most frequently asked and most painful succession questions.

Recently, for BusinessCast #198, we sat down with Sean Graham who shares key legal insights to help you avoid succession train wrecks. We’ve also gathered critical lessons from succession thought-leaders that span all industries and disciplines, including:

• Thomas Deans, best-selling author of “Every Family’s Business” (BusinessCast 117)
  
• David Simpson, Executive Director of the Business Families Centre (Ivey School of Business) (BusinessCast 191)
  
• John Geddes, one of Canada’s recognized succession gurus (BusinessCast 110)
  

Together, these four BusinessCast episodes help you better plan for, go through and successfully emerge from business successions regardless of your role in the process.

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For BusinessCast #171 Robert and I sat down with Dave Fleet,VP, Digital at Edelman (Toronto) to address a scenario that businesses around the world are increasingly having to address. And, the stakes could not be higher: your business reputation…which, of course means either the success of your business success or its downfall.

Here is the scenario (as applied to a large financial institution):

A Canadian-based financial services company has launched a campaign that renews one of its seasonal consumer-based investment products (e.g. RRSPs). They have spent their resources on traditional media (including television, radio, direct mail, in-branch literature and outbound telemarketing) as well as leveraged their permission-based email program, search engine marketing and ad-buys on some well-known consumer sites (e.g. national and local newspapers as well as investment sites).

Everything seems to be going on as expected but, then they get thrown a curve ball: Four days ago their call centre started receiving a dramatic increase in calls revealing that a message is floating across Facebook that their investment product is somehow unreliable.  At the same time, one of the SVPs has just seen that a local financial community influencer with nearly 10,000 loyal Twitter followers has just posted a message slamming the product. Finally, the spill-over is having an impact on in-branch conversations with consumers as well as in the B2B areas of the bank.

In BusinessCast #171 Dave provides insights about how to use social media to protect the business reputation by answering the following questions — questions that are applicable to all businesses facing this type of scenario:

• What are the most immediate actions that you would advise the company to take?
• What is the best way to evaluate the damage done to the reputation of the brand and its product?
• What can the company do to make sure that there is little spill-over into other areas of the its business?
• What are the measures of success that you would recommend to demonstrate success?
• What kind of timetable is required to execute the key recommendations?
• In what areas are the major hard dollar costs associated with the key recommendations?
• What are the most common knee-jerk reaction activities that the company should avoid taking?

Listen to BusinessCast #171 for Dave`s insights on how to use social media to protect and enhance the reputation of your business.

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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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Just like very entrepreneur, you strive to deliver exceptional customer service. But, are you creating and sustaining the right customer experience — you know, the one that truly wows your new and existing customers? To tackle this critical question — and provide some practical tips — we sat down for BusinessCast episode #155 with Stephen Smith (former President and CEO of WestJet and Zip Air).

Stephen is obsessed with ensuring that leaders cost-effectively establish and strengthen long-term profitable relationships by creating positive and consistent customer experiences. So, its no surprise that he is a strong advocate of using technologies, work processes, training and customer engagement strategies to help companies understand just how effective they are at creating positive customer experiences. Listen to BusinessCast episode #155 and build the customer experience that will be the envy of your industry and ensure your continued success.

Tools You Can Use Now: Scattered throughout BusinessCast episodes, we`ve identified several easy-to-use tools to help you get a sense of what your customers are saying about you and the experience you create for them. For example, begin by setting up a Google Alert with the name of your company. Also,  set up a Social Media Alert (from SocialMedia.com) which is just like a Google Alert but taps into the Internet`s prominent social media sites. Finally, use free Twitter search tools (e.g Twazzup) to get a read on your company in real time.

**UPCOMING EVENT FOR ENTREPRENEURS**: MarketingSherpa and MarketingExperiments are hosting a series of one-day seminars across North America. Check out the Online Marketing ROI conference (coming to Toronto on June 10) where you can also win an iPad.

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Over the last few weeks Robert and I have been collecting and consolidating the hundreds of questions that get sent to us each week via email, phone, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc.

But, rather than answer all the questions ourselves, for BusinessCast episode #134, we brought in two of the leading trainers of Canada’s growth companies — Andrew Patricio and Roger Pierce — the founders of BizLaunch. Together, the four of us answer questions spanning Marketing, Sales, Human Resources, Finance, Operations and Technology.

Listen to BusinessCast episode #134 and chances are we’ll be answering questions that you frequently face. Also, listen to our recent episode Q&A — Part 1 where we posed a host of other commonly asked questions to our very special guest, Peter Thomas, the founder of Century 21 Realtors.

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