Investment Management is a Commodity? Oh, That's Right, This Time It's Different

4 Key Ingredients to Successful Strategic Planning

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory, tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." ~Sun Tzu Strategic planning, the process of establishing the guiding strategy of a firm is something either not done at all or done poorly at many firms. The most common complaint I have heard from senior leaders of companies in my 30+ years in the financial services industry is that strategic planning seems like a waste of time. These leaders describe the days and weeks spent

Customer Service..2 Strikes You're Out!

I have written before about the importance of customer service to the growth of a business. If your service is sub-par, or worse, all of your awards, accolades, strategic plans, and sales excellence are for nothing. You simply cannot sustainably grow your business without superior customer service. Recently, I took a quick weekend trip away with my wife and youngest daughter. The reason for the trip was that my wife and daughter had airline vouchers that needed to be used before they expired.

Focused Effort: Doing More Now Will Cost You More Later

Our news feeds are overrun with articles on work-life balance, avoiding burnout, how to be more productive, and numerous other iterations of the same theme. Are you surprised? What happened to the productivity improvements we were supposed to get from technology? Oh, technology is definitely playing a role here, just not quite the way we expected. And, no, I am not going to suggest spending less time on social media is the answer to all of your problems - although, disconnecting once in a while