Category Archive for "Growth"

Business Management
Seminar Series
Kicks Off August 21

The first of four special business management seminars begins next month at the Santa Ana Business Alliance.

“How to Compete in the Global Market” will be a concentrated, two-hour session conducted by strategic specialist Randy Amiri, COO at cpSphere. Mr. Amiri will address specific issues including how the world economy and web marketing provide unique opportunities for small to medium-size businesses. Space is limited, so reserve your spot now for the August 21 event by calling 714-541-5353, ext. 110. Come and learn how to compete!

Schedule for the remaining seminars:

September 4 “Growth Strategies”
September 18 “Operational Excellence”
October 9 “Business Performance Measurement”

Jack Mobilia from cpSphere was named Chairman of the Corona Chamber of Commerce - Manufacturing Technology Council. Corona Manufacturing Technology Council held its first meeting on June 26th…which was very well intended and very successful.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday-August 20th & will be held at Circor Aerospace-Corona facility & the topic will be on “The Balanced Scorecard-A Performance Measurement System”.
All manufacturing companies in the Corona area are invited to participate-please contact Jack at jack.mobilia@cpsphere.com for specific details on your eligibility and to ensure your early registration.

Click here to download this presentation.

RECESSION CONTINGENCY PLANNING
Intelligent and experienced observers may disagree about exactly where the economy is today, and where it’s headed, but there’s certainly no disagreement about the fact that we are living in very difficult economic times:

• George Soros: “We are in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

• Warren Buffett: “I believe that we are already in a recession… perhaps not in the sense defined by economists. … But people are already feeling the effects of a recession…. It will be deeper and longer than what many think.

• Alan Greenspan: “…there is a greater than 50% probability of recession.”

• CNN “A growing number of top economists believe that the U.S. economy
  has now toppled into recession.”

Of course, this isn’t the first recession—and it certainly won’t be the last.  So in determining how to turn this particular problem into real opportunity, a good place for us to start is by learning what leading management consultants have recommended in the past. Continue Reading »

DRIVING INNOVATION THROUGH NEW BUSINESS MODELS

Innovation can bloom even in a grim economic climate. If anything, the slowdown may foster creativity.
–Wired Magazine

High energy prices, the tightening of commodity supply and the credit/housing crisis have caused US economic growth to slow to a crawl. Growth in GDP was an anemic 0.6% for the 4th quarter of 2007 and 0.9% for the first quarter of 2008.  As a result, small and medium size businesses are being advised to cut costs, reduce inventories and revamp marketing.

But astute business owners and senior executives recognize that, in fact, the recession presents an opportunity to test an enterprise’s most fundamental business assumptions in order to determine the most effective—and profitable—way forward.

Successful large companies have, for a number of years, approached this situation through the use of business modeling, and increasingly, smaller businesses are turning to this tool for innovation, which today empowers them to compete more effectively in a recession—and can do the same for you. Continue Reading »

Part One:
DRIVING SALES WITH A STRONG MARKETING PLAN

Every business, no matter what product or service it is providing, needs a marketing plan. You can think of it as a road map to help guide you, so you will achieve your business objectives. You probably already know where you want to go; you just need a plan for how to get there, and signposts along the way.

There are a number of components that make up a strong marketing plan.  And, just like your business plan, you will need to do careful research and planning in order to produce a compelling and valuable document. Continue Reading »

cpSphere, in conjunction with the Commerce Industrial Council is proud to present a two hour lunch seminar aimed at assisting Southern Californian manufacturers and distributors which are having difficulty combating imports. Attending companies in other sectors will benefit by learning the costs and benefits of sourcing overseas and how to adapt their business models to the current economic climate. The event will feature an overview of industry “Best Practices” and theory covering the following topics: 

• Countering low price suppliers through Business Model Innovation

• Competing on a “Low-Cost” vs. “Low Price” Basis

• Controlling costs, improving efficiency and ensuring accurate reporting

• Creating productive sourcing, procurement and partner relationships 

Date:     May 8, 2008

Time:     11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Place:    Commerce Industrial Council

              6055 E Washington Blvd

              Commerce CA 90040

              Cost: FREE (Includes Lunch)

RSVP:     Nathan August

              cpSphere: Partners in Sustainable Growth

              nathan.august@cpsphere.com

              310.645.0707

  FORTUNE magazine, all the way back in 1982, found that 90% of all new strategies fail because of flaws in their implementation. The magazine, eager to investigate how information systems and connectivity changed the way business was practiced in the intervening 20 years, repeated the survey in 2002. Surprisingly, their second survey produced nearly identical results.

The logical conclusion?

-Information networks and advanced systems increase productivity, but cannot create buy-in among managers and employees about strategic shifts. Creating buy-in, then, is at least as important as the fundamental strategy itself and, unfortunately, is not as simple as hosting a series of “inspirational” or “communication” workshops.

Managers and employees, if they are to implement a new strategy, need to know what it means specifically to them, and it must be phrased in actionable terms. In practice, this means detailing the precise way in which the work day will change as it pertains to each employee.

Many software systems are currently available that provide this feature and, if a company does not currently use a CRM, ERP or CPM, the process can be completed (albeit with significant effort) manually. Once this information has been created and distributed, a company can start building consensus and creating momentum for the strategy. Anything less is asking employees to begin “cheerleading” for an abstract concept. The success rate of that strategy, at least according to FORTUNE, is less than 10%. 

A crucial part of Strategic Planning for any organization is establishing a clear consensus on value creation — which is another way of deciding on the main focus of the company.

Simple as it may sound, there are quite a few business organizations which get sidetracked and lose focus of the main value creation process.

Strategic planners and top-level leadership have to provide clear cut answers to questions like

• “what specific kind of value are we generating and for whom?”,
• “how do our processes add value to existing goods and services?”,
• “what are our key value drivers as dictated by our strategic goals?”

For example, if a book retail chain is expanding its coffee house operations into in-store restaurants, is it keeping its focus on its main value-added activity of selling books or gradually shifting into restaurant or catering business?

And what would that mean for the whole organization in terms of the new processes that need to be integrated with the existing ones?

What kind of new measurements must be taken with which kind of new technologies to feed what type of new reports back to the strategic planning level?

A shift in business focus and the definition of “value creation” should be taken very seriously as it will trickle down and affect every process within an organization.