The Manager's Resource Handbook
Tools, Resources and Guides for Managers and Business Leaders. Real Advice from Real Bosses.
At one point or another, virtually every business must adapt to changing times. In some instances, your product offering becomes stagnant. Perhaps your competitor has unveiled something new and is taking market share away from you. And, from time to time, technology advancements will make your current products and services obsolete. In all cases, we as business leaders must respond in such
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15 Minutes That Fuel Productivity Meetings are perhaps the most effective form of communication in any workplace. They give everyone a chance to communicate in real-time, they prevent important messages from getting lost in an inbox, and they offer managers a chance to get some valuable face time with their employees. But not every meeting is intended to be a lengthy conversation or
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How to Negotiate and Manage Customer Requirements Seven years ago, my company was on the losing end of a $4 Million settlement. I could write a lengthy explanation as to how things got there, but it came down to one very simple thing: we gave our customer what we thought they wanted, not what they said they wanted. It was
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Before the RFP: Key Messages That Position You for Success Winning a contract comes down to finding mutual value between you and the client. The concept of value goes beyond the financial numbers, though, and is really a combination of price, product, services and trust. When you receive a Request for Proposal (RFP) from a client, how do you demonstrate the value you can
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Is Managing Change The Ultimate Program Management Challenge? For 18 months now, my team has been negotiating scope changes with a given client to offset our increases in cost. Per our contract, we have the right to seek commercial coverage and have the ability to charge the customer for change. We went into this particular business deal expecting delays before all was said and
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6 Reasons to Sign a Contract Even if You Won’t Make Money With all the talk about powerhouse brands like Amazon, UBER and Apple, we often hear about companies experiencing rapid growth and making record profits. But these firms are clearly exceptions to the norms that countless small businesses experience. Without a doubt, every business owner wants to be profitable and hopes
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10 Essential Project Management Resources If you think about the best project manager you know, chances are he or she shares some common traits. For starters, successful project leaders are typically very well organized. Additionally, they are often great communicators, and they can remain calm under pressure. Despite these great talents, though, even the best project managers need help to bring about
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10 Management Decisions That Drive Business Success Making financial decisions is not limited to just those managers who work in the Accounting department. For both small business and large corporations, whether we realize it or not, every manager and business leader makes decisions on a daily basis that affect their organization’s costs, finances and performance. We at MRH like to refer
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Isn’t the Customer Always Right? Actually, no, they aren’t! In the B2B space, we often find ourselves working with clients and customers to develop and sell our products and services. And yet, sometimes, things do not always go as planned. I recently paid a visit to one customer who has started to change the rules as they go. Despite the contractual commitments
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How to Save Your Small Company’s Hard Earned Cash As all business leaders know, when a company becomes strained and pressed for cash, we need to look for ways to reduce our costs and expenses. While cost control is always important, we naturally spend more during periods of growth to support the increasing size and momentum of the organization. The
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The 7 Rules of Process Development and Implementation Your growing business has a great product, friendly customer service, happy clients and cash. What’s missing? An often forgotten ingredient to a well-run business is the development and implementation of the processes that serve as the backbone for a company. Developing effective business processes makes your internal activities repeatable and consistent. And the more stable your
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A Basic Outline to An RFP Response When conducting business between companies, typically referred to as business-to-business or B2B, most opportunities and contracts are generated through a process of bid solicitation. Businesses looking to outsource services will often issue what is known as a Request for Proposal (RFP) to seek information from various vendors and suppliers who they believe can do the
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Estimating the Cost of a New Hire Fighting for resources is a frustrating problem we’ve all dealt with as managers and business leaders. Every one of us has said it at one point or another: ‘Too much to do, not enough people to do it.’ Justifying more staff is certainly difficult, but it is possible when you create a
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Tips for Conducting a Technical Design Review When it comes to the product development cycle and a phase gated design process, holding robust technical design reviews is critical to a project’s success. While there are various types of design reviews that lend themselves to different technologies and industries, the most common and universal examples include the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Critical Design Review
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Here is What You Need To Do When the Sky Is Falling If you have not yet experienced it in your career, you will at some point. Managing a crisis at work is difficult for even the most skilled of leaders. Every time I think of such situations, I imagine that scene in the movie Apollo 13, when NASA controllers place
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Management Challenges and Solutions For Today’s Organization Over the past few weeks, I’ve been participating in a significant hiring binge by my firm. Having interviewed candidate after candidate, the process of filling more than 20 new positions is extremely fast-paced, if not frantic, considering how important hiring decisions are. How do I properly assess a candidate’s skills when I am meeting
» Read more What Is Structured Problem Solving and Why Use It? I was asked to attend a meeting by the manufacturing manager. “We have a problem” he said. He had been alerted to a defect with hardware being processed through the production floor. Initial information suggested that during some of the molding processes, some parts were noted to have cracked while the molten
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Why Consider a Horizontal Integration Strategy? Just about every firm continuously tweaks and looks for new ways to optimize their operation in the pursuit of growth and profits. In the early 2000s, made even more possible by a rapidly expanding internet, just about every industry seemed to jump on the outsourcing bandwagon. The thought was simple: why expend internal resources on
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How Can Technology Help (Or Hurt) Your Customers? As I waited for my flight to Amsterdam today, I grabbed a bite to eat at the nearby café. It was a late afternoon flight that would get me in around 7PM – just enough time to get dinner with an old friend, who was to pick me up at the
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How to Manage Change in Business Everyday, our industry and market changes. Our staff will change. And leaders of our organizations move on, and new ones take their place. All of this forces us as business leaders to constantly keep tabs on our organization to make sure things run smoothly. Unfortunately, with such dynamics many businesses
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