I taught an Ethical Leadership class at Virginia Tech and posed a question to my students the first day of class- “What is a well lived life for you?” It is worth considering. People have various answers for this, but most talk about having good relationships with family and friends, leaving a legacy of something …

It’s common that a client will want to start strategic planning by “updating the mission statement.” After all, that’s what a lot of experts suggest. Mission statements get a lot of attention from writers and consultants. Many of them assert that the statements should be highly inspirational and easy to read. They give examples of …

DUE DILIGENCE: “The process of investigation, performed by investors, into the details of a potential investment, such as an examination of operations and management and the verification of material facts.” (Source: InvestorWords.com) The title of this article may surprise some readers. What possible role, you might ask, can crisis management play in the complex interaction …

Many social enterprises in the US come from the nonprofit sector, and a common way to measure nonprofit social enterprise is through earned income. Generally earned income refers to selling goods or services in exchange for a quid pro quo payment. In other words, you only get paid if you deliver the goods. Based on …

Coaching Blog: What Are You Tolerating? http://bit.ly/aPXSWk # Training Blog: Tools for your Training/HPT toolbox http://bit.ly/aFWR3o # Business Planning Blog: What Makes a Business Plan a Business Plan? http://bit.ly/9RQcPh # Customer Service: Mapping your Customer Experience Strategy http://bit.ly/9SXUoh # Boards Blog: Is a “Working Board” an Immature Board? http://bit.ly/8YOdMf # Consulting Blog: What’s a “Mature” …

“Should this news release go on the wire?” Clients ask this often. The answer is not a simple yes or no. Major corporations routinely put their news releases on a couple of leading news wire services like PR Newswire or BusinessWire that are allegedly picked up by media everywhere, or those specified in the order. …

Let’s be clear: if you’re not measuring any part of your service delivery, you are missing a huge opportunity to improve, grow or even save your business during these scrutinizing, tight economic times. The challenge with specifying key indicators is that not all businesses will use the top customer service metrics. For example, a retail …

What can we learn from the announcement that Twitter will begin accepting advertising (besides the fact that this giant of social media finally thinks making money is a good idea)? We can surmise that Tweeting — or microblogging — is going to be around for a long time. However, the 144 characters that all Twitterers …

According to Chris Bruzzo, vice president of brand, content and online at Starbucks, “When people are searching on Starbucks, what we really want to show them is that something is happening at Starbucks right now, and Promoted Tweets will give us a chance to do that.”

The first question you should ask yourself…How do you measure customer satisfaction? If you are measuring by the # of complaints you are or are not receiving, you are in trouble. Not everybody bothers to take the time to tell you about his/her horrible experience. If you are asking your customers if they are satisfied, …