Management

Much like a four-letter word, disasters happen in all forms just about anywhere, without warning, at any time. So prepare your company and yourself. Here’s a disaster-readiness checklist I suggest you look over carefully. If you think you’re on top of it, compare your list to this one to ensure you have all the bases covered.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Board of Directors today announced the election of G. Steven Dapper, chairman and founder of hawkeye, as chairman of the board. Don McKenzie, CEO of Direct Group, was elected vice chairman of the board.  The terms of office commenced at DMA’s board meeting today in Washington, D.C.

This year is proving to be a year of growth for many retail businesses, and there's no reason yours can't be a part of that. Here are five straightforward but important steps that you can take to help reinvigorate your retail business’s performance and get it on track to achieve your long-term goals.

In an entertaining keynote speech that kicked off the National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Orlando, Fla. last week, Shep Hyken, author, professional speaker and consultant to companies on building loyal relationships with their customers and employees, listed 10 "Moments of Magic" that'll help businesses win customers for life.

The Labor Department reported that 36,000 jobs were lost in February, in addition to the 8.4 million that have vanished since the Great Recession began. The unemployment rate still sits at 9.7 percent. But not every big company has been hunkering down and waiting for the economy to recover--some are expanding right now to gain market share while their weaker competitors flounder. Looking at data from publicly traded companies, Forbes created a top 10 list of publicly traded companies that added the most workers organically in 2009. It includes blue chips like Amazon.com, Comcast and Lowe's. The group is a window into where the recovery will take place.

If your company or unit is growing quickly, you might have five people in a small group who are playing three or four roles each. As you grow, you might have more people playing these roles. You could have 20 people, each of them finding new roles all the time. Each role demands resources needed to support the role.

In part 2 of this multipart series on the steps businesses must take to become networked organizations, which details how organizational structures and processes can make managing the demand of a product or service a process-based, predictable and repeatable science, we look at four tips to consider when tackling the optimization of your value networks.

Organizational design emphasizes structure. But today’s organizational analysts believe relationships between people inside and outside an enterprise create economic value by sharing knowledge and generating new knowledge. Value networks are a new form of organizational thinking based on human interdependence.

Most multichannel sellers have a small group of extremely loyal customers who buy year in, year out, or come back annually making substantial purchases. These are your biggest fans, and you'd be surprised to realize how much more they spend than your other customers, and thus how important they are to you.

There's nothing today's customer dislikes more than falling into the gap between a company's online and offline operations. Feeling stranded, abandoned and disrespected, even previously loyal customers start looking elsewhere when channel conflict gets in the way of their needs. Customers want a coherent, seamless and positive experience — not your conflict.