August 2012

In, or with any company, here are some key metrics to keep your eyes on: Top and bottom-line growth Revenue growth rates v. market rates Product mix ratios Other product growth Gross margins by product Pricing and revenue per unit, by product Cash-on-hand and cash growth rates Earnings guidance; and report “surprises” to management

A neat article about one of my favorite tools: The Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus. Specifically, check out the Word Notes; especially, DFW’s.

Greg McKeown, writing for Harvard Business Review: Why don’t successful people and organizations automatically become very successful? One important explanation is due to what I call “the clarity paradox,” which can be summed up in four predictable phases: Phase 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it leads to success. Phase 2: When we

PRAXIS IS THE PROCESS BY WHICH A THEORY, LESSON OR SKILL IS ENACTED, PRACTICED, EMBODIED OR REALIZED. A term in use since Aristotle … praxis is one of the three basic activities of humans beings (the others being theory and poiesis or skillful manufacture). Praxis in Aristotle includes voluntary or goal directed action … sometimes

At a minimum, make sure your sales management team understands basic cost concepts, such as: cost drivers activity-based accounting customer profitability value-add and value chain analysis target costing And,  a cursory understanding of the role of cost information for tactical and strategic decisions is helpful too. Use tools such as: budgets, variance analysis, benchmarking, transfer pricing and the balanced scorecard to