Category Archives: business

Computer systems have become ubiquitous. A firm understanding of the technology, as well as the opportunity it creates, is almost essential for the successful running of a business. It is now as important as the ability to prepare a business plan or deal with the VAT office. As recently as the late 1980s, computers were used only for simple business work – preparing letters, helping with accounts, invoicing, and sometimes creating promotional materials.

While they still perform these functions, they also offer unprepended challenges and opportunities, especially for small businesses. In terms of opportunities, the most exciting development for business is the arrival of e-commerce– electronic trading on the Internet. It is now possible for small companies to trade successfully in markets that were previously available only to large multinationals.

E-commerce offers the possibility of a company that runs an almost completely computerized business, trading at all hours of the day or night, 365 days a year, with minimal human intervention. The challenges come from the technology itself, which remains poorly designed and unreliable on more occasions that it should. Users are often forced to find ways around these limitations, and can waste time with poorly designed products that could easily be improved. A good example of this is the year 2000 (Y2K) problem, or millennium bug.

Finding a way to exploit the opportunities fully and avoid the pitfalls of technology requires a ready source of explanation and information. Sources of information are not as plentiful as they might be. Consultants are expensive, and many computer magazines seem obsessed with technology for its own sake, and unaware of the practical implications for business users. Computer dealers are often more interested in making a sale than explaining the technology that is most suitable for their customers' needs. This can result in, for example, the purchase of a new piece of software that simply will not work on an older machine. …

A construction business needs to be properly certified in order to operate legally and successfully. Without certification, an individual or corporation will have limited opportunities for succeeding in the construction industry. Many clients are particular about the way the companies they deal with conduct their operations. The certification will insure them that the business is adhering to the highest standards.

There are several certifications that a company can apply for. The first of which is the registered retail merchant certificate that it can obtain from the Department of Revenue. In New Jersey, this is called the Business Registration Certificate, which a contractor will need in order to do business with the state and other public agencies. In Florida, the state does not require all construction work to be certified. Construction works that do not need certification include flooring, paint, window treatments, and countertops, among others. Certification for major construction work can be obtained by passing a state examination. Other states will have their own sets of rules and regulations regarding certification to do business in the construction industry.

Aside from the legal requirement to do business, there are other certificates that a construction company can apply for. The Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification is one of them. A company with a LEED certification shows that its buildings have met the highest standards for sustainability. This is an advantage to the company especially when it deals with customers that are environmentally conscious. This shows the client that the construction firm adheres to the highest standards of promoting the environment's sustainability.

Finally, a construction business can be more successful with an ISO 9001 certificate. This certificate tells clients that the company follows internationally approved standards for resource planning and project management. Moreover, an ISO certification means that the company is not only efficient but also has a risk mitigation plan. …

Great concepts waste away because of no good funding. Dreams fade away due to misinformation on where and how to end this problem. Many entrepreneurs fall victim of this but with a good business plan and business loans, a great concept can later be a company's source of income. You as an entrepreneur stand a chance of owning a company, what you need are government business loans.

There is an authorized agency for this loan. The small business association (SBA) holds the sole right of providing funds to entrepreneurs who wants to establish a company of their own. People are given loans to develop their projects though with the help of the SBA. The association program gives opportunity to the smaller companies.

The government business loans are not given by all lenders. Many lenders run away from these responsibilities. Before you will get approval for this loan you are expected to meet up with some requirement.

To apply for the loan you need to put into consideration the necessary requirements available. These requirements changes depending on the area where the borrower resides before you will be considered loan worthy.

You must reach the standard size of the SBA. So it's very important to get familiar with the requirements in your region.

The SBA does not approve this loan for non profit organization. So if you are a non profit organizations stay away. So your organization must have been generating at least small income to be considered ready for the loan. So just get a load down of your company's income.

More Info? Use An Expert Service …

It was not long ago that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) seemed doomed to failure. Kmart, its largest outlet for licensed household products, was in Chapter 11 and closing hundreds of stores. Its magazine was being challenged by the new upstart competitor by rival Rosie O’Donnell. Major television stations were canceling their daily show and critics were saying the show wouldn’t finish the season. Their company leader was ordered to resign by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Yet most devastating, Martha was headed to jail.

With plunging sales, vanishing profits, and stock prices falling, few gave the domestic diva’s business much chance of survival.

Fast forward to 2007. No longer do we see a company on the brink of eradication. The revamped daily television program is getting such respectable ratings and advertisers that it has been renewed through 2008. A second show, specializing in food, is seen on PBS and a radio program has been added debuted last week. Her single magazine has grown to six specialty magazines, each among the top in their genres. In addition to the continuing Kmart product line, MSLO has agreements to expand its product line to upscale retailer Macy’s and craft-marketer Michael’s. New ventures include furniture and flowers, and even Martha Stewart housing developments.

Most important of all, this now-admired company’s revenues are up more than 50%.

The turnaround

Ben Franklin once said, “What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.” Despite the bevy of unfortunate events, Stewart continually looked at the future. She saw the company as a thriving entity with tremendous growth and maintained a public persona equal to her vision of success. Never pouting. Always smiling. Martha looked to the distant future overlooking what she saw a temporary inconveniences.

Things began to turn around for Martha while in prison. She learned Susan Lyne, head of then-slumping Disney/ABC Entertainment, had been fired by the ABC brass. Their chief complaint about her was that she had pinned the recovery of the network on two yet-to-be aired shows for which they had little hope: “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives”.

During a visit to Martha in her West Virginia prison, the two would immediately become friends. Martha admired Lyne’s 25 year work history and decided she was the right person to lead the company into the future. Lyne took over as MSLO president and soon would gain incredible recognition: Advertising Age would name her “Executive of the Year” and The Wall Street Journal would call her the “top woman to watch in corporate America.”

Five Essentials of Leadership

Top business leaders like Martha Stewart are known for five essential qualities:

1. Pursue your purpose with passion. Anyone that knows Martha knows MSLO is the very purpose of her life. No two breathes are taken without thoughts of her business.

2. Practice solid values. Not every aspect of a great leader is based on a solid value, however all great leaders have one or more solid values upon which they focus. For …

Decisions are the coin of the realm in business. Every success, every mishap, every opportunity seized or missed is the result of a decision that someone made or failed to make. At many companies, decisions routinely get stuck inside the organization like loose change. But it's more than loose change that's at stake, of course; it's the performance of the entire organization. Never mind what industry you're in, how big and well known your company may be, or how clever your strategy is. If you can not make the right decisions quickly and effectively, and execute those decisions consistently, your business will lose ground.

Indeed, making good decisions and making them happen quickly are the hallmarks of high-performing organizations. When we surveyed executives at 350 global companies about their organizational effectiveness, only 15% said that they have an organization that helps the business outperform competitors. What sets those top performers apart is the quality, speed, and execution of their decision making. The most effective organizations score well on the major strategic decisions – which markets to enter or exit, which businesses to buy or sell, where to allocate capital and talent. But they really shine when it comes to the critical operating decisions requiring consistency and speed – how to drive product innovation, the best way to position brands, how to manage channel partners.

Even in companies respected for their decisiveness, however, there can be ambiguity over who is accountable for which decisions. As a result, the entire decision-making process can stall, usually at one of four bottlenecks: global versus local, center versus business unit, function versus function, and inside versus outside partners.

The first of these bottlenecks, global versus local decision making, can occur in nearly every major business process and function. Decisions about brand building and product development frequently get snared here; when companies wrestle over how much authority local businesses should have to tailor products for their markets. Marketing is another classic global versus local issue – should local markets have the power to determine pricing and advertising?

The second bottleneck, center versus business unit decision making, tend to afflict parent companies and their subsidiaries. Business units are on the front line, close to the customer; the center sees the big picture, sets broad goals, and keeps the organization focused on winning. Where should the decision-making power lie? Should a major capital investment, for example, depend on the approval of the business unit that will own it, or should headquarters make the final call?

Function versus function decision making is perhaps the most common bottleneck. Every manufacturer, for instance, faces a balancing act between product development and marketing during the design of a new product. Who should decide what? Cross-functional decisions too often result in ineffective compromises solutions, which frequently need to be revisited because the right people were not involved at the outside.

"Who Has the D?", Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko, Harvard Business Review, January 2006. Visit CJPS-Enterprises for more information. …

The IBM 2010 Global CEO study revealed a very interesting and noticeable result that can change the world for the better.

A total of 1500 CEOs took part in the survey from 60 countries in 33 industries worldwide. The survey showed that less that half of the chief executives surveyed felt that they or their enterprises enterprises could successfully handle the growing complexity caused by the changes in global economic power centers, accelerated industry transformation, growing volumes of data and rapidly developing customer preferences.

The CEOs seem to believe that more that rigor, management discipline, integrity or even vision are needed to equip them and their enterprises for this growing complexity. The only skill that could navigate business in an ever increasing complex world and business is CREATIVITY and this was identified as the number one leadership competency now and in the future.

The survey is critical evidence that the world is entering a new age where creativity is becoming more and more important. This finding also indicates that there is a need to discover innovative ways to manage an organization's structure, finances, people and strategy and that old business models can not offer all the solutions business needs to remain competitive, profitable and sustainable.

A challenge however exists ….

The challenge is the attitude, fear and perceptions people have towards creativity. People associate creativity with a particular personality or genius of a person, others see it as a specific thinking style (right brain directed thinking) and some see it that people are simply born artistic. So, defining and understanding creativity can be problematic. The idea that creativity is a predetermined personality trait benefits at a psychological level because it gives people an excuse for not innovating or initiating change themselves, reducing the problem of creativity to a recruiting challenge. This makes creativity in business a rare commodity. But this can no longer be accepted.

So what can business leaders do now?

This article aims to offer an interim solution. The article will firstly explain the link between creativity and innovation and then show how creativity and innovation can be implemented in the workplace.

The link between creativity and innovation

In literature various definitions exist to explain the terms creativity and innovation. For the purposes of this article, creativity can be defined as a mental and social process involving the discovery or new associations of ideas or concepts which is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight.

Three things are needed for creativity:

1. Resources – knowledge, expertise and access to information.
2. Creative thinking – a person's capacity to think outside the box and put existing ideas together in new combinations.
3. Internal motivation – motivation from within; a person's personal needs and passion to be creative.

There are three very important aspects to take note of:

• Creativity discards preconceived claims.
• A Creative individual attempts a new approach or method that might seem unthinkable to others.
• Creativity requires divergent thinking (generating many unique ideas) and convergent thinking (combining those