Implementing accountability: lessons from Brazil

We facilitated a strategic planning meeting in southern Brazil. While there, we had the opportunity to visit IguaçuFalls, one of the great sites on the World Heritage List. IguaçuFalls has a flow capacity equal to three times that of Niagara … Continue reading

Posted in Implementation, Strategic Planning | Tagged , | Leave a comment

It isn’t enough to tell people what you want

In 1979, Ted Kennedy, brother of the assassinated President John Kennedy, was asked this straightforward question during an interview with CBS Newsman Roger Mudd. “Why do you want to be President?” Kennedy couldn’t come up with a straightforward answer. He … Continue reading

Posted in Implementation, Strategic Planning | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Plans are nothing… Planning is everything.”

“Plans are nothing… Planning is everything.” Dwight D. Eisenhower Maria Birkhead, Senior Facilitator at Myrna Associates, discussed this famous quote with a client’s executive team during a recent review meeting. She noted that Eisenhower’s quote is an amazing statement, coming … Continue reading

Posted in Strategic Planning | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Attitude and Aptitude: What Combination Makes for the Best Hires?

When I was earning my BSEE from NJIT, then known as Newark College of Engineering, I was a member of an elite group of five top students. We all had high GPAs, but we all didn’t have the same IQs. … Continue reading

Posted in HR Management, Strategic Planning | Leave a comment

Size Matters

How large do you want your company to be within five years? Why? When you hire an architect to design a new headquarters building, the first question he asks is how many square feet you want. If you tell him that … Continue reading

Posted in Strategic Planning | Tagged , | Leave a comment

First things first – the lesson of rocks, sand, and water

Author Steven R. Covey inspired today’s retelling of a time management classic. Covey’s story starts with a speaker showing a group of business students a large glass jar and a box of large rocks. The speaker pulled rocks from the … Continue reading

Posted in Implementation, Strategic Planning | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Learning marketing tricks from bowerbirds

A common marketing challenge is getting prospects to take your company seriously. Your company may in fact be the perfect partner for a specific prospect. This will be a moot point, however, unless your prospect perceives you as such. Unfortunately, … Continue reading

Posted in Marketing, Strategic Planning | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Why vision is key to successful implementation

….. Typical Bicycle Cab ….. My wife Mary and I were on an anniversary trip to take in a couple of new shows in New York City. One of the challenges we faced as theatergoers was finding a cab to … Continue reading

Posted in Implementation, Strategic Planning | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The business power of social engagement in planning for success

When Rome was the power to reckon with, a Roman soldier could legally require anyone else to carry his pack for a mile. (In Matthew 5:41 Jesus suggests carrying it a second mile in part to have a greater understanding … Continue reading

Posted in Strategic Planning | Leave a comment

Chance favors the prepared mind

One might think that the Greeks, who sustained a central role for mathematics, would have discovered the laws of probabilistic thinking. The evidence is that they didn’t. Greeks considered matters of chance to be the exclusive purview of the gods. According to … Continue reading

Posted in Strategic Planning | Tagged , | Leave a comment