Business & The Complex System

Another great lesson from Jim Collins regarding the importance of implementing tangible mechanisms that force change. The idea is about regularly encouraging growth in your company. This lesson has been key for me lately. We’ve gotten to this plateau in recent months. We’ve arrived as they say, but it’s important to know where you’re going [...]

We reconfigured our office for the 5th time this weekend. We’ve been in this building for 2 years and we’ve really maximized the space. Every time we seem to grow out of it, we find another way to reconfigure to get more people in. When we first moved in we had only 3 people and [...]

My business partner Charles Chase frequently talks about our company as a meritocracy. I think this is critical in developing a business. We all know that the right people make all the difference in a successful company. Keeping people, keeping them motivated and most important, not de-motivating them is partly achieved by establishing and adhering [...]

Scott Hewitt, our VP of sales, has a theory. He has this idea that a successful sales office is like a beehive. As someone I really respect, we frequently get into heated discussions about his methods and my micro-management. During a recent debate he threw out the “Law of Beehive” stating that more sales people [...]

I recently started reading a simply fascinating and inspiring book. Many of you have likely read or heard of it as it is the number 1 selling business book on CD on Amazon right now. From Good to Great, by Jim Collins has got me all fired up about continuing to build our organization. Leads360 [...]

There is a Japanese saying that talks about cleaning house for the New Year. It suggests that organizing and cleaning out the old is a significant factor in having a successful near year. In business I think this is as pertinent and valuable as in the home. The holiday week between Christmas and New Years [...]

The old saying still holds true. Customer service and support is the cornerstone to any successful service business. In the software industry this is even more critical. We often find ourselves in a price war with competitors trying to bring on the same customer. We really try to stay away from dong this because we [...]

A software company has many things to think about when building out the business. One of the most important factors is pricing. Without a proper pricing model, the company can self-implode. Business executives struggle with this and it takes finesses getting it just right. If you price it too high, you push yourself out of [...]

In a small company where most of the staff members are superstars, the company moves and operates like a superstar. But when a company is really large the superstars have a tougher time standing out among the not so smart employees. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say any one person or employee [...]

I saw this tagline on the side of an armored truck today. "The System is the Solution." I think it is a great slogan and very pertinent to this blog. In business, I’ve found that without a good system a company can be find themselves in trouble rather quickly. Dictionary.com defines a system as: A [...]