Small Business Blog from Atlantic Canada

Kanban is a Japanese term that literally means “signboard”. in its strictest sense, it is essentially a scheduling system that “signals” what to produce, when to produce and how much to produce. As you will see, Kanban is a pull system. Work gets pulled by the people who actually do the work based on their availability. Kanban can lay over your existing process and asks you to follow just three basic principles:
Visualize your workflow, limit your work in progress, and only start new work when you have finished some existing work.

What differentiates successful businesses from the “also ran” businesses. There are some very important lessons that we can learn from the “world’s most creative corporate playground”: Innovate the Pixar way. Some of the guiding principles of organizations like Pixar: Pursue leadership excellence at all levels, embrace speed is life, foster an inclusive culture, simplify and go, evolve immediately, do the right thing, celebrate remarkable achievements, technology innovation is our lifeblood, don’t take success for granted, earn customer and user loyalty and respect everyday, sustainable long-term and profitability are key to our success, we aspire to change the world

The title for this post could very well have been, “How I improved my presentation skills in four easy steps.” I thought my presentation skills very above average. I certainly did not harbor the notion that I was a great presenter. But I thought I was at least above average. That illusion was, however, shattered after I viewed Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc. in action. The desire to see Jobs in action was spurred when I read the book by Carmine Gallo, The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs.

Leading in the best of times has been a challenge. Leaders never have all the information they need to make the decision and waiting for the complete information results in inaction. In Leadership in the era of economic uncertainty, Ram Charan (no relation to me) succinctly puts it: “We will not know when we have turned the corner and we cannot envision the shape and scope of the world that will emerge. What we can be sure of is that this is a time of tumultuous change and with change comes both the danger and opportunity.”

Be it presentations, providing critical feedback, selling, motivating your team or interviewing, “Mastering Communication at Work: How to Lead, Manage, and Influence - Review” offers practical suggestions on how to maximize the return on your speaking time. The book offers insights into how to build trust, credibility and relationships with everyone within and outside the organization. It is written in a conversational style and the authors make effective use of case studies and examples to drive home their point.

Did you take a moment to notice the tag line for this blog? “Helping Atlantic Canada’s businesses achieve their BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)”. So it is only natural for us to seek out individuals who set their goals high, do not fear failure and work smart to achieve their BHAGs. The quest to meet such individuals in Atlantic Canada led me to Dan Martell. A native of Moncton, New Brunswick, Dan is a serial entrepreneur with a string of companies, successes and failures - Maritime Vacation, iThink Interactive, Spheric Technologies Inc and now Flowtown.

Rivers is a very interesting individual. The enthusiasm in his voice when you talk to him about internet marketing and entrepreneurship is infectious. His biggest strength is to conceptualize ideas and lay a solid foundation of a business enterprise. We saw this in action with his cooking venture – The Chef Group. He has recently launched The Marketing Factory – a series of internet marketing seminars in Atlantic Canada. Rivers believes passion drives successful entrepreneurs. His passion is to build businesses from scratch. So we caught up with him last week to discuss his successful entrepreneurial ventures. We wanted to learn the ingredients to be a successful entrepreneur?

It’s easy to get listed quickly and with a high ranking in Google if you have the money. But how the heck do I get my site to rank high using generic search? ah, the wonders of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in getting you a high page rank in Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It does wonders to your traffic, eh! But, how the heck does one get there? Ideally the goal ought to be within the top 10 but we can settle for the top 20 now, can’t we?

Business is a team sport. Or is it? Or at least that’s what I thought until I got a wakeup call. I take up an assignment at an organization with the sole motive of making a profit. However, I always keep in mind the client is the reason my organization is in existence. Isn’t it logical that if my client is making money my organization makes money and I, in turn, will make money? I realize that I can only profit if my organization profits. And I will do whatever it takes to ensure the organization profits. That is my motivation. I am not saying you give up your ambition or your goals for the good of the company. No, I do not preach altruism. But I do encourage symbiosis. You will best serve the company if your profit goals are aligned with those of the company. In today’s fast paced business world, no one can do everything.