by Brian Clark | Uncategorized
It is almost wrong to call this a ‘business book,’ to call it such is to sell it short.
Michael Feuer is the author of this new book that is published by Wiley.
Michael founded and grew OfficeMax in 1988 and grew the business in a highly competitive environment before selling the business in 2003. OfficeMax grew to have over 50,000 employees and stores in all States except Vermont and operations in China, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico.
Michael’s entrepreneurial odyssey is described in this book as almost a case study and the book is a learning experience that every business person, entrepreneur and those aspiring to be such, will find incredibly useful and practical. If you are getting tired of the same old material being peddled in the relentless flood of business books, you will find The Benevolent Dictator a welcome and useful investment for your time and money.
The Benevolent Dictator delivers sound business advice that is elegantly interwoven with excellent story based narrative to illustrate Michael’s opinions and business philosophies. I found the story about the
founding of Office Works intriguing for its stark contradictions to so many widely held assumptions about s founding a capital intensive business like retail. In an era when so many people are fixated on a kid in a dorm room with a laptop, The Benevolent Dictator describes the founding of a real brick and mortar business.
Michael does not skimp on being transparent with his personal strategies and tactics. There
is a story about Michael’s planned acquisition of Big Mart by OfficeMax. The tactics employed by Michael to gain
information about the Big Mart business makes for very interesting reading. His decision to abandon the acquisition when outbid by another company should be mandatory reading for its illustration of discipline and adherence to values.
There are so many great lessons in this book. Instead of having a boring list of subject headers with explanatory text chapter by chapter, The Benevolent Dictator delivers a more interesting and impactful learning experience as a true
story. These are some of the areas that have made me really consider my work in my business:
- Raising capital and leveraging
‘other people’s money.’
- Managing yourself, your
ideas, and your effectiveness.
- Planning and setting
goals.
- Managing people
effectively to support performance.
- Creating competitive
advantage.
I read this book on a five hour flight from Brisbane to Perth. As I read I took notes and thankfully the cramped conditions in the 737 were out of mind. I wish I had another book of this quality for the trip home, maybe I will read it again.
by Brian Clark | Uncategorized
This is a guest post from a DOTS Partner using the DOTS platform to grow their clients’ businesses.
There is so much information and buzz about social media and online marketing strategies. It is a fascinating and rapidly evolving area that is leveling the playing field or small business to compete with larger ones. Our team at Sales Ecosystem has been working with clients to create a real game changing strategy to establish leadership in their markets. The fulcrum of the strategy is learning. Yes that is right L*E*A*R*N*I*N*G. This strategy is pushing our clients to the top of the pack in thought leadership and innovation. We are have established a regime of developing interesting interactive courses using a simple production tool that works in Powerpoint. We have created a unique branded learning portal using this Australian LMS and it can be accessed 24×7 and our clients can see who visited and what courses they viewed. There are also Libraries and Discussion Groups as well. The feedback our clients have received is incredible. In one case we developed courses to teach sales skills to the reseller network of one client and this has led not only to increased sales but also higher price points. Supporting our courseware strategy is a coaching service to add the personal contact to the online portal. We have extended our coaching ‘through’ our clients and engaged directly with their clients. This learning alignment has been a fountain of new thinking and ideas extending in one case to a two day off-site strategy session with the executive management team of both a vendor and select resellers. This is a low cost high impact strategy that leverages your companies intellectual property to drive sales.
by Brian Clark | Uncategorized
The employment market is tight in Australia. It is becoming more critical to manage the most critical supply chain keeping your business viable and growing…..qualified people. It is now critical that organisations have current data on competency and skill gaps, retention rates, resource planning and talent pools. In my experience most companies have succession plans for the senior executive management team. When one moves to line managers and below these succession plans are often not well documented if they exist at all. The good news it seems boards and executive management teams are demanding workforce analytics to support their strategic planning. A well developed online learning and talent project can deliver solutions for succession planning and retention of key staff. In our client base we have a number of clients effectively creating talent pools within the organisation. The talent pools are engaged in learning, development plans and collaboration with all areas of the business to ensure strong network links are forged on the interpersonal level. The senior managers are able to access reports that pinpoint skills gaps in the organisation. The individuals in the organisation are provided tools to take stewardship of their career paths. The use of online performance reviews is ensuring reviews are completed and the results are assessed and aligned with development of the individual.
