Your strategic plan will only be as effective as who you invite to participate in the process. In fact, sometimes, it is even a good idea to set up more than one planning session in order to avoid diluting the ideas by having too many interest groups involved in the same session. So plan well, …

Business has never had a bigger vehicle for positive word-of-mouth advertising. Fun campaigns can go ‘viral’ and trigger momentum like never before.

At the Fresh Tracks office we recently got together as a team look at the issue of trust. It made me realise how much we take trust for granted when it’s there, and how much extra work a lack of trust can create. Although our session included event managers, admin staff and senior managers, it …

Keeping in mind that only about 5% of all non-governmental giving to nonprofits comes from corporation solicitation programs, you’ll want to use your time and resources cost-effectively. That means not trying to get funding from every corporation that comes to mind. So, first, make a (wish) list of all those corporations, and then gather the …

A professor in grad school used to take pride in humiliating students, presumably to teach the students how to handle tough questions they may be asked about their research. It was a brutal process to watch. Perhaps you work with bosses or co-workers who do this. We run into various sharp objects in our work …

There are many elements in the environment of a project, and ‘organisation’ is one of the most important. Organisational decisions can encompass wide-ranging aspects, such as partnerships, key supplier and sub-contracting relationships and responsibilities within a project – and that’s the key word: “responsibilities”. Making responsibilities clear at the practical working level, perhaps phase by …

Business MUST adopt and USE a social networking and social media marketing strategy NOW – or risk being left in the dust.

Proactive social media monitoring by H&R Block stops a potential crisis in its tracks We’ve seen several examples of employees sabotaging their employers via social media, the most infamous of which may have been the YouTube video showing a pair of Dominos employees doing various disgusting things to customer’s food. Perhaps as a result of …

The Divine Art of Comedy: Timing in Public Relations Timing is everything, like any old Catskill comic, successful business person, and even Ecclesiastes — a book in the Bible — will tell you. Cliched? Absolutely. And mostly true. As the good book says, “To everything there is a season” — including (if you extrapolate enough) …

In considering the creation of a corporate solicitation program (a CSP), the first questions I’d ask of a nonprofit is whether they realize that only five-percent of all “charitable” giving to nonprofits comes from corporations, and (considering “return-on-investment”) how much of their time, energy and assets do they want to dedicate to this effort? Whether …