Competency and Performance Solutions

• Brain Power: Do you have the skills, and the confidence, to use it?

  Business Thinking and Writing, Innovation and Entrepreneurship No Comments

  What if the six inches between your ears contain the power of a bunch of super-computers?

  They do, of course (see links, below*).

  Can you harness a significant amount of that power, skillfully and systematically, to build your career and business, in an economy of complexity and information overload?

  Can you guide your team to use that power? Can you direct this capacity towards the things that super-computers can’t do: innovation, effective communication, relationship-building, collaboration and results? Continue reading »

  

  Tags: 21st century challenges, brain power, business, career, Collaboration, comfort zone, complexity, confidence, information overload, innovation, success, team, teraflops

• Pepin Graduation: Internal Entrepreneurship in Action

  Innovation and Entrepreneurship No Comments

  Joe Wessel of Pepin and Glynis Ross-Munro of CPS saw eye-to-eye on training from the start. Training isn’t telling, and it is always customized to deliver specific business results.

  Joe requested a short program from CPS, built on these principles. The sales team (Jamie, Rick and Craig) helped out with the front-end analysis, and the rest of the team added information as the workshops progressed.
  The program ended with each sales team giving a graduation presentation. They chose areas where they saw opportunities to grow their knowledge and develop innovative ideas.

  

  Jamie organizes the slides

  Each team gave a presentation, often with tastings, hand-outs, displays and other graphics.

  The standard was fantastic. The judges (Joe, Woody, Jamie and Troy) were repeatedly impressed beyond all expectation. Glynis was ecstatic.

  The teams reported that they had enjoyed the process, become closer as teams, and learned an immense amount, mainly through their own efforts. Continue reading »

  

  Tags: beer, cider, happiness, Inductive learning, networked learning, positive psychology, sales

• Dais Analytics meets the Chinese American Chamber of Commerce

  Differentness, Diversity, Culture, Generations, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, International Business No Comments

  The Tampa Bay International Business Council (now merged with the International Business Summit)’s work of building cultural fluency and business competency is a year-round commitment.

  

  Hilton Ross-Munro, Tim Tangreti (Dais CEO) and Dr. HJ Yang. Dais Analytic Corp's nanotechnology-based heating, cooling, ventilation and water filtration products are the cornerstone of a five-year, $200 million agreement with the Chinese government, that could create as many as 1000 jobs for the Tampa Bay region.

  The photographs show TBIBC/IBS reaching out to Dais Analytics, as Dr Yang, aka HJ, of the Chinese American Chamber of Commerce, fulfils the TBIBC/IBS mission of reaching out to local businesses who can benefit from cultural and international business competency, in order to be more successful. Dr. Yang is also a director of TBIBC/ IBS. Continue reading »

  

• Adding value – Continued.

  Innovation and Entrepreneurship No Comments

  Any visitor to CPS’ website knows that we’re fascinated by ways of rethinking business models and processes, and reinventing them to build deep prosperity in a changing world.

  Today I’m noticing how often this requires holistic thinking, and a clear focus on the  customer’s world. Continue reading »

  

• What is value for your customer? Rethinking your business in a new economy

  Innovation and Entrepreneurship No Comments

  Copyright Glynis Ross-Munro

  To what extent does your business think innovatively, then execute and deliver real value?  The key to success in the current economy is not about selling the same item or service for a few cents less than your competitor, it’s about changing the game. And then changing it some more. Whenever you want to. Because you can.

  Imagine: On vacation, you log on to a website, and check on your pet. There are vidcams in the pet boarding facility, so you can watch your pet eating, sleeping, being groomed or exercising. You happily pay a premium fee to a business that provides both pet lodging and peace of mind. This business has delivered value through strategic thought, innovation and specialty skills.

  Consider five more examples, each using strategic thought and insight into the way that customers perceive value: Continue reading »

  

• Gender Diversity Creates Wealth: Norway and (now) Sweden use the science.

  Differentness, Diversity, Culture, Generations, Innovation and Entrepreneurship No Comments

  Ansgar Gabrielsen, a male Norwegian businessman and politician, is an expert on the details of a 2007 Catalyst study, The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance & Women’s Representation on Boards,

  Gabrielsen’s focus has not been on gender equality. His interest is in “the fact that diversity is a value in itself, that it creates wealth.” He is part of a movement has led to a law that requires all listed Norwegian companies to have at least 40% of women on their boards.

  Despite much outcry about the law, research findings show that companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams perform better financially than groups with the lowest female representation. The Norwegians have therefore made diversification mandatory, on the basis that  increased profits can be, and are, achieved through diverse boards, and that a company’s primary responsibility is to act in the best interests of its shareholders by maximizing profits.

  Continue reading »

  

  Tags: Boards, Collaboration, diversity, management, Norway, profitability, women

• Sustainability: Engage all your People with ‘Green On-Boarding’

  Innovation and Entrepreneurship No Comments

  Care for You Business, Care for All Resources

  Businesses face soaring energy, operating and facilities costs. The State of Florida struggles with water shortages, damage to Florida’s fragile ecosystem, and the threat of climate change to our low-lying state. Sustainability issues threaten our entire world, economically and environmentally.

  The research is conclusive. Green attitudes, thinking and actions are measurably profitable, and have multiple benefits such as employee engagement, process innovation, gains in brand and company reputation, and positive share performance. Continue reading »

  

  Tags: attitudes, brand, employee buy-in, energy-efficient, environment, environmentally-friendly, green, green families, green homes, green workplaces, immersion learning, innovation, interactive training, International Business, reputation, sustainability, sustainable transit, sustainable transport

• Company Security meets Managing Millennials

  Differentness, Diversity, Culture, Generations, Innovation and Entrepreneurship No Comments

  Third Prize: A self-sustaining system for monitoring your corporate information security and privacy on the Internet.

  Second Prize: Engaged staff, increased retention, teamwork and trust.

  First Prize: A long-term, company-wide culture of awareness of the importance of respecting and protecting corporate information. Employee-driven emphasis on its role in trust-based business relationships, legal obligations to business partners, competitive advantage etc.

  In CPS’s Managing Millennials workshop, we suggest many ways to give your Generation Ys some variety in their work, to engage their interest and loyalty, and to offer some outlet for their creative minds, as they focus on routine tasks. Most of these suggestions leverage their technological and generational-specific skills, for the well-being of the organization.

  Continue reading »

  

  Tags: confidentiality, corporate security, Culture, engagement, Generation Y, innovation, leaks, milliennials, ning, retention, security, social networking, technology

• Get involved in the International Business Summit

  Innovation and Entrepreneurship, International Business No Comments

  Save the date, or sponsor a workshop at IBS:

  Benefits of IBS Involvement:

  IBS is about networking: It connects people with new contacts, and builds relationships and trust. The structured speed-networking is particularly popular.

  IBS is about visibility: sponsors and networkers come to IBS to define their brands, and promote products and services to potential clients. IBS offers a specific opportunity for sales and marketing to the diverse, international, and multi-lingual community. The Collaboration, Diversity, Prosperity Awards highlight achievements by innovative and inclusive companies in our region.
  

  Continue reading »

  

  Tags: International Business Summit

• American Pie – Deep-Level Mining in US Business Culture

  Differentness, Diversity, Culture, Generations, Innovation and Entrepreneurship No Comments

  Culture (I tell participants) is like an iceberg. You see the part that sticks up about the water, but below the surface is the real bulk. The thing you are most likely to crash into is that unseen, unsuspected mass.

  The aquatic metaphor is also apt. We swim in our culture, so like fish we do not notice it. It is the water that surrounds us, and we cease to analyze it. It is simply the environment in which we live.

  The other common image of culture is the onion. Our daily lives are framed by layers upon layers of  unseen assumptions and mind-sets. Because we have no other way of conceptualizing our world, we see it through our ‘normal’ perspective, seldom imagining different interpretations, until some rather dramatic event gives us new eyes. Or until we choose to study a subject like Anthropology, to help us see that many things are hiding, in plain sight, right in front of us.
  Continue reading »

  

  Tags: Add new tag, competitiveness, Culture, CultureGPS, ethics, Hofstede, new econnomy, Trompenaars, wealth

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