The Manager's Resource Handbook
Tools, Resources and Guides for Managers and Business Leaders. Real Advice from Real Bosses.
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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How To Create and Implement Organizational Vision Last week, my friend Charlie was telling me about his job. He described how he felt directionless and was not sure how he fit into the big picture. High up in his organization, Charlie has been a tremendous asset to his organization over the years. I found it strange: how can someone with
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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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The 4P Marketing Model: A Case Study On a recent business trip to China, tired of taxis, elevators, conference rooms and hotels, I went out for a walk one night. My translator, whose chosen English name was Martin, elected to stay at the hotel to do some work. Always wanting to try something different, my walk coincided with my secret
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How Great Businesses Fail and What We Can Learn From Them We all know that there is one constant in the business world: things are always changing. Every day, there are new technologies, legislative decisions and geopolitical events that shape the world around us. The pace of such change continues to accelerate, and throughout it all we see businesses come and go. How, in such
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One of our most popular articles here at MRH discusses a basic strategy that we’ve used to justify an increase in staff. And it’s no surprise: based on our research, 50% of managers say the biggest challenge they face is the size of their staff. We’ve said it many times, but will mention it again. Between salaries, benefits, insurance and other
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A little while back we posted an article about writing a reply to an RFP (Request for Proposal), which provided a basic outline for responding to potential clients. Since then, we have received a lot of questions from the MRH community asking for details on formats to use as well as what sort of sections and content to include. So, we wanted
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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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3 Resource Planning Methods to Help Predict Staffing Needs Most businesses and organizations go through an annual headcount planning process for the upcoming year. We all know that such activities are important to running a productive organization. And yet, while resource management is critical, doing it well and doing it right is easier said than done. There are a number of methods
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The Difference Between Internal and External Customers Several years ago, I was asked a very simple question: “Who is your customer?” Perhaps I was naïve, or maybe just ignorant, but I replied to the simple question with an equally simple answer: “The people who pay our company money for our products and services.” He clearly expected my response, because the
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15 REAL Tips for Working in China Having returned from a trip to China earlier this week, I wanted to take a few minutes to share some learnings about how to conduct meetings and work with your customer in the People’s Republic. Despite some concerns and disagreements before our arrival, my team was made up of several veterans when
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7 Steps to Organizational Preservation Though it is far more common than we would like to admit, our businesses and organizations are filled with what I like to call “single persons of failure,” or SPOF. In my company, for example, we have a department manager who is nearing retirement in the next 18 months, yet we have no one identified as his
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Common Product Development Mistakes to Avoid and How to Steer Clear Several years ago, after doubling down on our investments, running wild with our tests and sprinting through patents to make sure we would be the first to market, we were finally ready to present our new technology to our target customer – a major global airline. After spending $3
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Competitor or Partner? It’s Not Always David Vs. Goliath Note to Reader: Competitor names are changes for privacy reasons. Last month, I was asked by a client to participate in a visit to some of their customers. The client, Acme Electric, wanted to meet with some of their smaller customers with the hopes of growing their existing sales volume
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The Benefits of Outsourcing Must Outweigh The Drawbacks Whenever we hear someone mention the term outsourcing, we usually have an immediate reaction to that single word. First, we might say that outsourcing work is a modern and effective management technique that has many applications and offers countless benefits. Or, we may say that outsourcing work – either overseas or just to an outside
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Understanding the Business Benefits of Airline Alliances We often hear about partnerships in business, but what does this actually mean? How do they work? Regardless of the form they may take, be it a licensing deal, a revenue sharing arrangement, or a full blow Joint Venture, partnerships are designed to maximize the expertise and strengths of each partner and can make good business
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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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