Expert insights. Personalized for you.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 30, 2022
Leading by example. How do you teach your work force that mistakes are OK as long as they learn and don’t repeat them? By being a visible example. A friend and fellow CEO states that he publishes each of his mistakes in his company internal blog along with the lesson he learned. “If
Berkonomics
JULY 7, 2022
Another leadership development bit? But if you have no time or are impatient, here are the three levels: visionary, strategic and tactical. Skip or stay with me; but think about your balance in your leadership methods either way. The conundrum of competing needs.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 13, 2018
This is one of my favorite insights, since I lived this one in a positive exit from my computer business. Types of business buyers expanded. Most people will tell you that there are two kinds of eventual buyers for your business: financial and strategic. A financial buyer will analyze your numbers, past and forecast, to the n’th degree, and calculate the price based upon the result, after carefully comparing your numbers with those of others in the same and similar industries.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 22, 2022
Empathy comes from experience. Over fifty years ago, I was CEO of a record manufacturing company in Hollywood.
Advertiser: Aggregage
Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 16, 2022
It happens all the time when you’re a CEO or manager. . Somebody important leaves or is let go, and you worry over the impact upon remaining employees and customers.
Berkonomics
JANUARY 20, 2022
Dave’s note: This is a reprint of a 2015 insight that seems to have struck a chord with investors and entrepreneurs. None of this advice has changed… Let me tell you a few short hair–raising stories of entrepreneurs who have raised money and regretted it later.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 1, 2022
First, what is “servant leadership?”. It’s a term rooted in ancient philosophy. Robert Greenleaf may have been the first to resurrect the concept in his book published in 1970.
Berkonomics
DECEMBER 23, 2021
Here’s the question: This piece of wisdom came from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, during a board meeting for one of the companies where he sits as board member. Jeff asked the question “Is there anything big or small, which is working better than you expected?
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 1, 2018
So, you are close to selling your company, and counting the profits a bit early. Well, that’s human nature. Here’s a thought for you to recall later when and if the event happens. Remember those who got you there. And for tax reasons, remember them before the closing of the deal, so that you can do so by sharing a bit of your proceeds without paying personal income tax upon those amounts. Formal option plans for some.
Berkonomics
AUGUST 25, 2022
Let’s set the scene. One of the CEOs I used to coach started his day by walking the floor of his extended facility and checking in with managers and employees of the various departments, especially the call center.
Berkonomics
AUGUST 18, 2022
Does this really happen? Business unit managers are under lots of pressure to perform, and occasionally are tempted to step over the line finding ways to look better than reality reflects. Of course, this has never happened to you, and you have never done this in your past.
Berkonomics
AUGUST 11, 2022
Want the best way to create your core competency quickly and inexpensively? . Think like a startup, with little resources, a limited window of time, and few dollars to spend on expensive experts. Divide the hiring decision into two boxes.
Berkonomics
AUGUST 4, 2022
Remember the five “W’s?”. In my early journalism classes, I was taught the five “W’s” of good news stories, and that most should be in the first paragraph at that. Who, what, when, where and why are the five, with sometimes a “how” thrown in for those followers of the macabre.
Berkonomics
AUGUST 26, 2021
How we often handle employment issues today. When we accept the work commitment from a person we hire, we make a pact with the new employee that often stops at agreeing to pay for service rendered and to provide a safe working environment. There should be more than that. .
Berkonomics
JULY 28, 2022
Here is a variation of the “tree falls in the forest” question. . In past insights, we’ve looked at leadership skills, ways to enhance effectiveness, and how to develop creative ideas that motivate and propel your organization to greatness. Here is the ultimate question for a leader….
Berkonomics
JULY 21, 2022
Over the years I have counseled entrepreneurs to think of a “no” response in terms of “yes, but…” There is always another way to say “no” that leaves the door open for creative thinking. Well, almost always. . Sometimes, you just have to suck it up and say “NO” with strong conviction.
Berkonomics
JULY 14, 2022
Why revisit this issue now? Several years ago, I wrote an extensive article on the ten most important tests of a company in classifying a person as an independent contractor. See [link] for that important insight.
Berkonomics
JUNE 30, 2022
As a leader, you set the goals, establish the strategies and tactics to get there (with help from others of course) and sell the dream to all your stakeholders. And that includes potential customers as well as executives and employees. Can unmanaged growth ever happen?
Berkonomics
JUNE 23, 2022
First, the challenge. Let’s say you have been told by your board, by your chairman, CEO, or direct leader to solve three problems you identify and report back within a month showing progress – or that you have solved these three. But wait. You have questions!
Berkonomics
JUNE 16, 2022
There are many roads to Rio, so they say. But there is one overwhelming method of appraising the effectiveness of a business leader. Outcomes.
Berkonomics
JUNE 9, 2022
“Here’s the deal…” So, I occasionally read suspense novels to break up the relative monotony of constant business books. A sentence in the one I recently read caught my eye.
Berkonomics
JUNE 2, 2022
What’s a gatekeeper? Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity? There are always gate keepers whose job it is to filter out the inconsequential or inappropriate and allow through those with most promise.
Berkonomics
MAY 26, 2022
We seem to be back to 2019 in the trade show world. Shows that shuttered during COVID have reopened, even if traffic and attendance seems smaller so far, but rising. So, let’s spend a cycle on trade shows for the first time in years.
Berkonomics
MAY 19, 2022
No–one needs to tell you that mobile readers now outnumber desktop readers for your. message. A recent Experian marketing survey revealed that 52% of all email opens are from mobile devices, and that 38% of all clicks are from mobile devices.
Berkonomics
MAY 12, 2022
There’s a famous intersection in Tokyo, Shibuya Crossing, where thousands of people cross each day, seemingly in random directions. Here’s the test: try to follow one person in his or her journey. That would be like picking a piece of information form a maze.
Berkonomics
MAY 5, 2022
Using old email lists for the first time is like eating really stale doughnuts. The taste is pretty bad, and the side effects could be disastrous. Strict rules about spam accounts. Email companies like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp and many others all have strict rules.
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 19, 2020
Remember when? Back when we were all trying to figure out the real value of traffic on the web, investors – and acquiring companies – got a bit crazy with metrics used to value acquisitions and investments.
Berkonomics
APRIL 28, 2022
Finding your needle in the haystack. There is so much information being shot at us daily via social media streams that we should monitor and control that which pertains to our business – and do so with some level of expertise. Start with a simple tool.
Berkonomics
APRIL 21, 2022
We think of media advertising as either paid or free – placed by paying a fee or by a PR firm or by you at no placement cost, especially when you provide editorial content beneficial to the publisher. But now there’s new media….
Berkonomics
APRIL 14, 2022
If we never advertised, we’d never sell anything. Right? Perhaps right, but there are three major types of advertising, some requiring large outlays of cash, some not. The types of advertising. First, you can advertise your brand so that people recognize it when they see it in later materials.
Berkonomics
APRIL 7, 2022
How I didn’t follow my own advice. Years ago, I led a deal and invested in a company that looked like it had lots of promise to disrupt the women’s clothing industry with special algorithms and an online store. But something had bothered me from the very start – unsalable inventory.
Berkonomics
MARCH 31, 2022
“Broadcast the message and they will come!” “Segment my broadcast and I will have better response.” Both of these time–honored methods of reaching our customers have worked for as long as there was print and radio–TV to get the message out. The obsolete marketing message.
Berkonomics
MARCH 24, 2022
There is a process to innovation that can be summed up with four words: “Whoa. Credit Dr. Mark Goulston with this. He states, that’s exactly how Steve Jobs described his “aha moment.” So, let’s paraphrase the late Mr. Jobs as we describe this process. A bit of history that “made” Apple rich.
Berkonomics
MARCH 17, 2022
We’re talking about brand strategy here. Not advertising, and certainly not an easy grasp for amateur marketers. So how developed is your company’s brand? Is your message clear, concise, and consistent?
Berkonomics
MARCH 10, 2022
Customer empowerment is moving so fast nowadays that many of us are running to just catch up. Yet if we don’t or can’t, it is a sure thing that someone else will. Yes, we can blame the Internet for this.
Berkonomics
MARCH 3, 2022
This one is attributed to Rod Adair, the famous oil and gas fire suppressing expert. And boy, does it apply to most of us and our offerings. Quality” products and services….
Berkonomics
MARCH 4, 2021
My stories of missing the context of the times. Over the years, as I managed my several computer companies as CEO or executive chairman, I made the decision to go to market with a brand-new product that had never before been exposed to my customer’s marketplace.
Berkonomics
FEBRUARY 24, 2022
This story has turned out to be one of the most enduring posts ever for me, well worth repeating. And what a lesson for us all. I confess that our research cannot find its source.
Berkonomics
FEBRUARY 17, 2022
How do you define credibility in business? A friend of mine recently told me his story of how his very career rests on his credibility with his major supplier–partners.
Berkonomics
FEBRUARY 10, 2022
Here’s the problem: Investors sometimes join into investment rounds that have been pre–negotiated by others, receiving the paperwork already created by attorneys from that negotiation.
Berkonomics
FEBRUARY 3, 2022
First, the implied promise: Taking money from professional investors such as angels or VCs usually requires that you agree to seek an exit for those investors in your plan, often targeting five to seven years as the ideal period for growth before a liquidity event.
Berkonomics
JANUARY 27, 2022
Why is this important advice? Because the first rule for raising money is to do it on good news – right when sales are increasing at an accelerating rate. Or when a major customer signs a significant deal. Or when something happens that makes an investor think this company is about to break out.
156 
Let's personalize your content