Notes on Noble Business

A few months ago, I asked several dozen business owners and executives just that question. Some reported that their companies were growing and prosperous. Others said their companies were stagnant, and a sizable number reported that their companies were declining and/or not profitable. If your business is in any of those three categories, you may be interested to learn what each group described as their biggest challenges. As you might expect, the challenge of coming up with a better business strategy and how to improve its implementation ranked high. But what I found most interesting was that there were also quite a few mentions about the challenges related to the human side of the business. You may be surprised by what specific challenges they cited.

Read the summary of the business challenge survey results.>>

That’s the question posed by the John Templeton Foundation to a group of leading lights. You can see their responses at www.templeton.org/market/. As you might expect, the answers provided a rich range of perspective. You can also weigh in and provide your own comments.

As I researched my recent book NOBLE ENTERPRISE: The Commonsense Guide for Uplifting People and Profits, I was inspired by the examples of companies and leaders who are truly noble - and actually made their companies more successful through that nobility, with passionate adherence to ethical values and a sense of higher purpose - in which these companies serve not only the material needs of customers and employees, but also their non-material (some would say “spiritual”) needs. [Read the rest of this entry »]

Can you imagine a worse scenario than business and government essentially colluding to achieve a societal goal (in this case “affordable housing”) but doing it in a way (providing high risk credit) that actually bankrupted major corporations in the process? [Read the rest of this entry »]

I often hear human resource professionals and business executives talking about the challenge of dealing with multiple generations in the workforce. How can we motivate and reward our workforce when it’s made up of people from the older generation, the boomers, the Generation X’ers, and the Generations Y’ers or Millenniums – all with different needs and desires? It’s a seemingly impossible quandary. Or is it? [Read the rest of this entry »]

In its August 25^th issue on “Trouble at the Office”, Business Week reports on how nearly 4,000 readers identified their biggest concerns about their work and provided their own answers for how to deal with those concerns. I was particularly struck by the ways people found to fight bureaucracy, deal with toxic bosses - and stay creative – not merely to make their own work lives more tolerable, but to help their companies succeed despite these problems. [Read the rest of this entry »]

A Report from the Field

“I love coming to work here! I’m challenged. I contribute. And I’m fulfilled by both my job and my company.”

How would you like all your employees to say this? (And do you even know how they really feel about their job and their company?) [Read the rest of this entry »]

How can you differentiate your company to put it on the path toward competitive advantage and sustainable business success? That’s the subject I recently talked about with Chip Conley, founder & CEO of Joie De Vivre Hospitality and author of PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo.

The old answers and approaches are no longer enough. As Chip put it, “One of the things that companies are looking for is how to differentiate themselves, and companies that succeed do not tend to do so by following the pack. So one of the most important elements of successful or peak-performing businesses is how you differentiate yourself.” [Read the rest of this entry »]

In the spirit of full disclosure, I neither work for Wal-Mart nor have invested in its stock. However, yesterday morning I attended a presentation at the World Affairs Council of Maine by Richard Coyle, Director of Wal-Mart’s International Corporate Affairs, which gave me reason to reflect on the question posed above. [Read the rest of this entry »]

Underlying all the challenges that business owners and CEOs face is the basic question of how do you turn your company into the industry leader? (Or, if it’s already there, how do you keep it there?) For if you can make your company the best in the business, then you will enjoy sustainable growth and high profitability. [Read the rest of this entry »]

I recently attended an awards dinner at a hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City for my nephew, Curry Ford. This was a gala affair with men in tuxedos and women dressed to the hilt. [Read the rest of this entry »]