Author Archives: Christopher Koch
How Employees Can Succeed Faster
How to Succeed Faster. Google used to have a formula for finding the best employees: it screened for high SAT scores and grade point averages. Sounded like a good plan (especially since Google’s two founders demanded it).
Why The Supply Chain Is Dead
We really should stop using the term “supply chain.” “Supply” gives the impression that one company makes something, say a part, and sends it to another, where it sits, like bolts in a bin, waiting, along with many other discreet pieces, to be made into something greater. Sounds old, doesn’t it?
Analytics and Social Media: 6 Tips for Selling When Customers Just Aren’t That Into You
I’m seeing companies spend lots of money trying to get customers to talk about their brands and products in social media. For many of these companies, it’s a big waste of money. Let’s be rational about this. What customer wants to tweet to his or her friends about toothpaste or B2B procurement services?
Four Ways to Prevent Global Catastrophe (For Your Small Business)
How global do you want your small business empire to be? Unless your product is insanely complex or its name is an unmentionable slur in the local language, the limits are pretty much all in your head. This is not your father’s—or even your older brother’s—globalization. Logistical networks have improved in lockstep with the penetration [...]
The Walmart Effect: 4 Best Practices For Dealing With That First Huge Order
When a small business gets its first big order it can seem like manna from heaven. But wipe those dollar signs out of your eyes because it’s really more like a shock to the system. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—we’re at our most alert and energized during such moments—but for small businesses, getting a [...]
Stop Hating Legacy Systems, Start Hating Complexity
Last week I had an epiphany while attending the SAP Financial Services Forum in City: I no longer hate those 40-year-old mainframe legacy systems that for years I dismissed as old and uncommunicative. I realized it’s not the legacy systems I hate. They are actually marvels of engineering. No, it’s what has built up around [...]
Why Bank Regulation Is Like The EU Crisis
Sheila Bair gripped the edges of the podium like a preacher in full fire-and-brimstone mode. Bair, the former Chairperson of the FDIC, spoke fast and barely paused for a breath during her speech at the SAP Financial Services Forum, as if …
The Critical Thresholds of Change for Small Businesses
Two critical aspects of fast-growing small businesses are constantly running a kind of tortoise-and-hare race: sales and operations. Many companies become so consumed by sales that they fail to see that if operations fall too far behind, it can lead …
Four Warning Signs That Small Businesses Need To Become Big
Who would have guessed that the human tongue would become an internet sensation? The marketers at Orabrush had a clue. They make a strange device designed to clean your tongue. The weirdness of the concept, combined with the untapped urge …
Will A Lack Of Data Sharing Put Airline Crews And Passengers At Risk?
I know you’ve heard of tree huggers, but have you ever heard of server huggers? I’ve heard this term used to describe businesspeople who refuse to sacrifice their departmental application or database to the (presumed) greater good of cross-company integration. Maybe it’s because the application they are using does more than the one they are [...]
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