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Monday Morning Motivators – October 9, 2006
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Espresso business tips are designed to "caffeinate" your mind while your java
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"Lean is about leadership. It starts at the top - from the highest level all the way through the organization."
-- Glenn Haley, Business Manager, Owens Corning
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Table of Contents
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1. Office Wasting Disease – Linda Fayerweather
2. Avoiding 10 Typical Marketing Monstrosities - Rebecca Booth
3. Be Willing to be a Resource - John Meyer
4. Fine Print
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1. Office Wasting Disease
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Although Office Wasting Disease will not affect your hunting season, it can and will stall out your profit. Don Tapping, author of Value Stream Management for the Lean Office states that “60 to 80% of all costs related to meeting customer demand are administrative.” If your company wants to be “Lean,” Lean must be understood, implemented, and sustained throughout the entire organization.
Benefits of Lean Office:
--Company level, lean can help accelerate those processes that touch external customers and suppliers (be thinking order entry, customer service, distribution);
--Managerial level, lean streamlines support processes (such as IT or human resources) and improves communication and cross functional cooperation;
--Department level, lean reduces activities that add time with little value, improves workflow, and measures progress;
--Individual level, lean can reduce paperwork and errors and clarify roles, responsibilities, and objectives.
Here are the reasons why Office Lean is not the norm and Office Wasting Disease is affecting businesses:
1. Lack of clearly defined administrative “value streams”;
2. Limited data collection;
3. Lack of understanding between “waste” and non-value-added activities in office environments.
Next week: Exploration of administrative value streams.
Copyright 2006 Linda Fayerweather
Changing Lanes LLC
www.ChangingLanes.biz
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2. Avoiding 10 Typical Marketing Monstrosities
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Over the next several weeks we’ll be discussing monstrous marketing mistakes that small business owners and entrepreneurs make time and time again. We hope that you benefit from knowing what the mistakes are before you set out to market your product/service.
Marketing Monstrosity #1 – Sinking Money into Unproven Products
Is your business idea based on valid market research or on a hunch? All too often, entrepreneurs fall in love with their own product/service before they determine if there’s a real market out there for it. Worse yet, they throw tons of cash into the venture only to see it fail.
You can avoid this marketing monstrosity by:
• Doing your own market research with potential users – not your friends or family – before the product’s been developed.
• Test drive the idea in the marketplace once you have a few working prototypes in place.
Copyright 2006 Rebecca Booth
Marketing Goddess
Imagine That!
www.marketingsolutioneers.com
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3. Be Willing to be a Resource
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You may not know all the answers, but you should be prepared to find them. If you are asked a question and you don't know the answer, let the person know that you will try and find the answer for them or at least refer them to the right person. This will go a long way in building your credibility.
Copyright 2006 John R. Meyer
District Director, BNI Ohio
http://www.bni-ohio.com
