Guest Blog

U of W link – EFMD Vision 2020

This week’s blog provides a link to a great news story involving two students from the University of Windsor.
The link was created by the Odette School of Business and the Centre for Enterprise & Law.

Please find attached a link to the video submitted to the EFMD Vision 2020 undergraduate business competition by two of the senior undergraduate students:

and 

The competition link:
http://www.efmd.org/index.php/blog/view/307-efmd-babson-launch-vision-20-20-video-contest-for-undergraduate-students

The video link for Christian and Blake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J9pu2wKEIA&feature=youtu.be

This video is very well done and we wish the students every success.
Please let me know your reaction.
Gerry@polarisgroupmc.com

Employee Management

Conflict Management

Conflict between employees is one of the most common sources of trouble in the workplace and can lead to productivity losses, increased absenteeism and poor client service.
Moreover, when it goes unresolved, constant conflict can erode the work environment to the point where employees will even leave the organization.
Here are a few tips to help business owner’s management conflict in the workplace.
1. Clarify. Ensure job functions and procedures are clearly defined in writing so employees know what they are accountable for and to whom they report.
2. Encourage employees to discuss areas of conflict and differences so they do not fester and they become larger issues.
3. Promote trust. Involve management in open discussions that promote trust and respect. Differences of opinion and disagreement should not be confused with conflict and can be healthy in an organization.
4. Involve all parties in resolving the dispute and recognize the merits of the positive and negative factors that each party sees.
5. Review the process used to finalize any decision that successfully resolves the conflict. Management may be able to reuse the model in the future.
Effective leaders willingly address spoken and unspoken negative tensions in the company and work to transform these into positive and productive relationships.
I hope these are helpful thoughts on the topic and I welcome your comments.
Gerry@polarisgroupmc.com

Time Management

Do You Have Time Management Issues?

Business owners and managers often struggle with managing time efficiently. There are many root causes for time waste that can be addressed to improve effectiveness of the business.
Here are a few thought starters:

1. Project assignments. Have you assigned the right person to the right job? An employee may appear to have a problem managing time but they may be in a role or doing a jog they are not suited for.

2. Delegation. As owner/manager do you have poor delegation skills or do you not delegate in order to maintain control? The need to do everything yourself can dramatically impact your time management.

3. Meetings. How many meetings held are really effective? A lot of time can be wasted in unnecessary or poorly organized meetings.

4. Training. Do staff members need training to perform better? What appears to be a time management issue may be a training need.

5. Planning. Are the business’ plans well defined? If direction is unclear staff may struggle to know how to prioritize work activity.

These are samples of business issues that may mask what appear to be time management issues. There can be many others; examination of each may uncover root causes of poor productivity.

If you have thoughts to share please let me know.
Gerry@polarisgroupmc.com

Management Principles

Are your Management Principles Current?

Style of management has changes over time and new technology has dramatically affected how we communicate and interact with employees.  Transactions are completed at hyper-speed and certain principles of management are worth reviewing to ensure they optimize business operations.

Here are a few ideas that may have merit for your consideration.
1. Listen: strong relationships with employees, suppliers and customers are needed for success. Customers are particularly important and rather than creating spreadsheets to analyze customer effectiveness develop questions to ask customers and then listen to how they describe what they really need.

2. Think/Plan long term: short term thinking is an affliction. Strong relationships are built over time and create more long-term value. Today’s actions can affect long term relations with customers so think about the benefit of customer retention.

3. Structure: formal organization structures with top down authority with information flowing up through channels from the bottom are “passé”. Today with a tap on a smartphone anyone can and does communicate instantly. Collaboration and shared communications are becoming the norm without a formal hierarchy.

4. Share. Employees want to share so spend less on monetary incentives and share ideas, technology or data in order to inspire more sharing and perhaps faster innovation.

These are a few thoughts to consider on your management style. I hope they help.
Gerry@polarisgroupmc.com

How satisfied are your employees?

In most organizations the most important asset is the staff and there are many ways to maintain and improve the level of satisfaction employees feel as part of the organization. Many steps can be taken by management without spending vast sums of money to attain this goal.


1. Recognize. This may be the easiest and least expensive but very important motivator. A simple thank you may be priceless. Recognizing in public the effort and contribution of an employee can be a very effective motivator and creates a strong sense of appreciation.

2. Communicate. Keep employees informed on company goals, issues, and how individuals can contribute to the overall success of the business. Show trust, accountability and expectations through clear communications. Listening to employees is another key way to show they are part of the team.

3. Train and educate. Provide employees with the necessary training and education to show your interest and to reinforce that they are appreciated. Job rotation may be another way to enhance employee’s skills and also strengthen employees skill set and the resources of the business.

4. Monitor. Employees keep score too. So management should recognize and reward positive contributions. This can be a positive motivator for other employees as well.

This is a short list of some ways to keep employees satisfied and thus helping the organization achieve its goals. None of the suggestions need break the bank but the return can be substantial.

Business Management

Need a tip with Time Management

Time is one of the resources business managers have that is scarce, cannot be replaced once spent, and it cannot be borrowed or purchased. Here are a few tips to help manage it.
1. Plan your day. Before starting the day, schedule your activity including your own time for high priority thoughts and activity to grow the business. Schedule some time for interruptions that are bound to happen.
2. Take time. Before making calls take 5 minutes to determine what results you expect to attain and review results after to see if the goal was achieved.
3. Calls and email. Try not answering the phone every time it rings or reading an email just because it shows up. Few issues in business require an instant answer and you will be more efficient if you schedule time to return calls and email inquiries.
4. Plan the unexpected. It is inevitable that the unexpected will occur so leave open time in the morning and afternoon schedule to deal with “fires”.
5. Plan Strategic time. Plan ahead for weekly, monthly, and quarterly business reviews. It is important to continuously review and understand the business issues and if you fail to block off time some emergency may pre-empt the time and your plan will be postponed or eliminated. 
6. Downtime. Casual time over lunch can be useful for strengthening relations with employees, customers and suppliers. Use that time judiciously.

Remember that it is difficult to get everything done and bet results are achieved from those priority activities that are the focus of the business and future growth.
Thanks for allowing me to share your time with these tips.
Gerry@polarisgroupmc.com

Business Strategy

Strategic planning vs strategic thinking

Conventional thinking suggests all businesses should develop strategic plans and business plans to help direct the business and facilitate successful growth.
However there may be instances where strategic planning may be inappropriate for some small companies. Here are some reasons that may be the case and alternative action these companies may take.
- Time. There may be conditions that exist that do not allow management to take the time to invest in days of planning.
- Cost. The company may not have the financing to support engaging professional help and more important may not be able to take key executives like sales managers away from the jobs as it could impact revenue generation.
- Change. Smaller companies could be in an environment where change is needed frequently and long term strategies are inappropriate.

The option in this environment is for companies to adapt Strategic Thinking. Fast growing companies need to take advantage of challenges and opportunities and turn their size into an advantage.

- Plan informally on the go. All big ideas don’t have to come from formal strategy planning offsite. Quick huddles with key team members to examine key issues are effective.
- Challenge. Brainstorm to ask “why not” when faced with the inevitable “that won’t work”. Test whether initial negative positions are really valid.
- Make small bets. Large companies with major investments at stake may do exhaustive analysis before acting. Smaller companies can develop and test new potential strategies by making smaller bets by discussing an idea with a customer before the item is built, seeking out a potential supplier that is trustworthy, or discussing the idea with another person with expertise in the area.

These are some options available for strategic planning; the important issue is to make the process fit your organization. Be sure to take some action, sitting on the sidelines while competition takes the business should not be an option.
Let me hear your thoughts.
Gerry@polarisgroupmc.com