Taking the Pain Out of Annual Planning By Frank Hurtte It’s November. Out here in the Midwest, Iowa’s trees are showing off, fiery reds, deep oranges, and every gold shade ever invented. A little warmth still hangs on, but Thanksgiving, December, and the holidays will sprint by before we know it. And with them come two unavoidable realities: yard cleanup and annual planning. As I write this, I can practically feel the blister forming from the rake I’ll be wrestling with on some future Sunday. You can recruit the neighbor kid for yard duty. Unfortunately, you won’t find an $8-an-hour stand-in for your End-of-Year Planning. But good news: planning doesn’t have to be the monster lurking behind the garage. Let’s break it down and remove the dread. Start Early Many leaders wait until the last moment to tackle planning. Some procrastinate so masterfully, they’ll reorganize their desk drawer before facing it. But starting early prevents last-minute panic and gives you space to think, really ...

Marketing Moment: Keiretsu (pronounced kā-rĕt′soo͞ ) By Desiree Grace Healthy eating. Cleanliness. Politeness. Respect for elders. These are traits we often associate with Japanese culture, and they’re worth admiring. But Japan’s business culture offers equally powerful lessons. After World War II, Japan partnered with the United States to rebuild its economy. (If only that level of civility and collaboration were common practice today. Imagine the progress we could make if adversaries worked together for the greater good.) From that partnership came LEAN manufacturing, Zero Work in Process, and other best practices still shaping global industry eight decades later. One of the most compelling concepts from this era is Keiretsu . What is Keiretsu? Loosely translated, Keiretsu refers to a deeply connected, intentionally cultivated business partnership, one that transcends a standard vendor-customer relationship, and certainly not anything underhanded. Instead, it is an eleva...

Gardening Your Way to Sales Growth By Desiree Grace I love raspberries. I love them so much that I’ve planted, nurtured, and harvested them at three different homes. But raspberries aren’t easy. They demand time, patience, commitment, and an understanding of what they need to thrive. Growing raspberries reminds me a lot of business development. That connection came to me recently as I picked my second massive basket of berries in just two weeks. Lesson One: Understand the Needs We won’t dive into targeting today. That’s a topic for another post, but once your target is clear, the real work begins. My target was raspberries. Yours might be local contractors, the transportation sector, or power utilities. Business development, like gardening, takes research, homework, and a lot of questions. Know your target. What do they like? What helps them grow? Raspberries need sunlight and room to spread. Your contractor might thrive on good pricing, fast delivery, and reliable em...