Turnaround Tactics

The 10 Questions You Should Never Stop Asking

arc Kramer, 11.20.09, 05:01 PM EST

Companies run aground for the same basket of reasons, so don’t forget the fundamentals.

Marc Kramer

In the early 1990s, I was brought in as an interim president/CEO of two regional monthly magazines. Both are now out of business. It was a trying time–and also one of the great learning experiences of my life.

One magazine focused on business, and the other on the arts. What the two had in common were the investors, who forced them into a shotgun wedding and put them under one roof. These geniuses (including your intrepid columnist) thought they could squeeze pennies and boost margins by merging the back offices and the sales teams. The editorial staffs couldn’t be combined because they required different expertise.  Full Forbes Story

PlazaBridge Group, LLC and our partner New Kind thank you for participating in the 21st Century Readiness survey. We ask that you complete the entire survey of 28 short questions. It will take less than 5 minutes.Your results will remain anonymous. Summarized results and trends will be presented at “Open Season on the Status Quo.”

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Very good article on how to build and maintain customer loyalty! Investing in your company’s future is key.  I’ve pulled out two great sections from Robert Reiss’ article!

How Ritz-Carlton Stays At The Top

Robert Reiss, 10.30.09, 03:42 PM EDT

An interview with Simon F. Cooper, president of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

How do you ensure everyone is on the same page?

We use what we call “lineup,” which is a Ritz-Carlton tradition. The concept comes from the early restaurants of France, where the chef got his whole team and all the waiters and waitresses and the maitre d’ together at 5:30 in the evening. It’s a sort of round table. Everybody is there. The chef communicates what they are going to be serving. For the Ritz-Carlton, we want every single hotel, everywhere in the world, every partner, every shift, to utilize lineup, which typically takes around 15 minutes every day. Part of the lineup everywhere around the world is a “wow story,” which means talking about great things that our ladies and gentlemen have done. That is a wonderful training and communication tool, where every department layers on the department message. And it’s based on having the same message everywhere, every day, and then each hotel layers on its own message.

The last paragraph is sobering.  However there are some positive nuggets in the article.  We’re seeing positive trends in our client companies. Rapid prototyping new business models, products and strategies as fast as we can to help take advantage of the upturn, to increase value and valuations!

FORBES STORY:  Economy GDP Grows By 3.5% Joshua Zumbrun,  10.29.09, 09:47 AM EDT ………Though expected to be positive, growth outpaces economists’ predictions. 

Last paragraph:

Rosenberg notes that surveys of the population show that only a minority believe the economy has hit bottom. “Imagine having that psychology with nearly zero interest rates, a bloated Fed balance sheet and unprecedented fiscal deficits,” says Rosenberg. “There is going to be some very tough slogging ahead as far as the economy is concerned.”

Full Story

Botanical Gardens REV-#5707

Private PBG MindMixer Event- By Invitation

When: December 8, 2009
Location: One of the first events in the New NC Botanical Gardens, The BoardRoom, Chapel Hill, NC

MindMixer Guests for this event include: CEOs, Trend Experts, Conceptual Designers, Exceptional Story Tellers, Business Experts with Brilliant Minds.

“Open Season on the Status Quo”: Trends to turn vulnerabilities into opportunity for 2010″  Are you feeling vulnerable to the dynamic changes in our economic landscape?  Forget about China and India for a few hours! We will share trends, growth, strategies and methods for 21st Century readiness.

Key take away for this complementary event: The PlazaBridge Group’s 21st Century Readiness Survey and profile scores.

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