I just returned from the 11th Social Enterprise Alliance Summit+ World Forum in San Francisco. A record 700+ attendees from around the world attest to the growing strength of this vibrant sector. I met folks from Canada, the UK, Australia, the Philippines, Africa, and South America. In an earlier blog I described social enterprise as …

A vision, during strategic planning, is depiction of the organization and its customers at some point in the future. Like mission statements, there are many different perspectives about what should be in a vision statement. Vision statements can depict the overall result sought by the organization. They also can be used to inspire and motivate …

Business plans tend to be mostly head, and mostly left brain at that. They describe a business idea for making and selling stuff, and good ones present strong reasons and compelling data. That’s important, and trumps so many plans that offer little more than grandiose assertions and generic arguments. But the heart of any business …

It’s common in change-management projects to have a vision for change. It’s very useful to have clients consider both a grand vision and a strategic vision. We do this in our consultant training services, and the consultants usually greatly appreciate that approach. Grand visions and strategic visions can be used in strategic planning, as well. …

[From the latest issue of my ezine, Crisis Manager] Not everyone knows who ED Magedson is, but there aren’t too many consumer-focused businesses that haven’t heard of the RipOff Report (ROR), the consumer complaint site founded and directed by Magedson. The common belief is that shortly after a complaint about any company appears on the …

Imagine that you have just returned from attending a concert or play. When asked if your enjoyed the event, you reply “It was good.” What do you really mean by this statement? Do you want it understood that the musicians, actors, and support staff were talented or that the basic sheet music or script was …

My leadership development journey began in 1961, when I popped into the world as the first CEO of the Donna and Jim Fabris Family. (I’ll use the organization’s acronym, DAJFF.) Jim and Donna founded DAJFF less than a year earlier. They were 23 years old. Jim says he’d been planning DAJFF since he was about …

“We never understand a thing so well,and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves.” ~ Rene Descartes Coaching works because the coach guides the client to come up with their own solutions versus telling them what to do. The coach helps the client learn more about themselves. Through the coaching …

Do the philosophies and core concepts of historic Thought Leaders in the Marketing and Advertising industries transfer to Web 2.0 and social media? In the case of Raymond Rubicam...

In another sterling example of checking brains at the nonprofit boardroom door, I recently learned of a charity that is financially on the ropes. Poor decisionmaking, weak leadership, the struggling economy, and ho-hum programming have this cultural entity (with a multi-million facility) on the verge of collapse. No one is currently at the helm, and …