Leadership


Recent Leadership Articles

What Balance?

By Nancy K. Austin |  Apr 1, 1997

A management consultant asks, What would you do if you were forced to choose between business and family?  Read more

The Takeover

By Stephanie L Gruner |  Apr 1, 1997

The story of how you can lose your business the same way you build it--one day at a time.  Read more

Cisco's Secret: Entrepreneurs Sell Out, Stay Put

By Hal Plotkin |  Mar 1, 1997

Here's a look at how a high-tech giant is buying up small companies and bringing their owners on board, too.  Read more

Obit: Rising Costs, Changing Tastes Lead to Last Call at Legendary Tavern

By Kitty Barnes |  Mar 1, 1997

A look at why a celebrated saloon was forced to close shop.  Read more

Ready, Aim, Focus

By Jay Finegan |  Mar 1, 1997

A Leadership Intensive Training program helped one company refocus its squabbling employees onto competitors.  Read more

Pulling the Plug

By Jim Collins |  Mar 1, 1997

A management expert explains that to make room for new projects, you must stop some old ones.  Read more

I Wish I Could Compare Notes with Other CEOs in My Industry

By Stephanie L Gruner |  Mar 1, 1997

If you can't find a networking group in your industry, why not create your own? To benchmark his own business practices against the best ones in his indus...  Read more

Hot Tip: Soliciting Employee Feedback

By Stephanie L. Gruner |  Mar 1, 1997

When department heads at Harborside Graphics Sportswear, in Belfast, Maine, tried to get honest feedback from team leaders at monthly meetings, the result...  Read more

Help! Our Electricity Bill is Outrageous!

By Stephanie L Gruner |  Mar 1, 1997

Ed Laflamme of Laflamme Services, a $7.2-million contractor in Bridgeport, Conn., cut energy costs by installing motion detectors in every office. Instead...  Read more

The Risk-Averse Entrepreneur

By Steven Berglas |  Feb 1, 1997

A management expert warns about entrepreneurs who avoid risk and change, and, in so doing, strangle their businesses.  Read more

How to Give Wisely

By Jill Andresky Fraser |  Feb 1, 1997

Inc.'s finance editor explodes some of the myths about small-business philanthropy.  Read more

Obit: Boston Ad Agency Finds Cost of Doing Business Doesn't Add Up

By Phaedra Hise |  Feb 1, 1997

The obit of an advertising/PR firm that was started by three talented partners and why the firm failed.  Read more

The Myth About the Mrs. in Husband-and-Wife Teams

By Jerry Useem |  Jan 1, 1997

A psychologist debunks some of the myths surrounding wives who team up with their husbands to run family businesses.  Read more

Obit: Monument Co. Misjudges Funeral Industry, Pays with Its Life

By Phaedra Hise |  Jan 1, 1997

A look at how a well-known memorial-carving company went belly upafter new owners took over.  Read more

Hollywood Lures High School Animators with Sweet Deals

By Hal Plotkin |  Jan 1, 1997

An innovative training program in a California high school is churning out graduates who command high salaries.  Read more

Garbage In, Garbage Out

By Scott Adams |  Jan 1, 1997

The creator of the comic strip Dilbertcomments on what's happening to trash cans in some big name-brandcompanies.  Read more

Measuring Morale

By Jack Stack |  Jan 1, 1997

A noted CEO tells readers there is only one way to know how morale is at your company: ask the people who work there.  Read more

Comforts from Head to Toe

Jan 1, 1997

People enjoy being comfortable, and they notice when they're not. Here are two businesses that gain customer gratitude by providing creature comfo...  Read more

Giving Where It Counts

Jan 1, 1997

Do your customers really need another box of chocolates or corporate knickknack during the holidays? For years, General Engineering Laboratories, a consul...  Read more

Good Psychology

Jan 1, 1997

Everyone knows the auto-repair business has an image problem. "Customer satisfaction is hard to achieve when the industry's revenues are based on large, u...  Read more

Who Was That Masked Shopper?

Jan 1, 1997

When you have one location, quality control is simple. But as a company grows, it's hard to keep tabs on everything. The founders of the Ruby's chain of r...  Read more

Inside Inspiration

Jan 1, 1997

"Employees know what they need most to serve customers best," says Patty Remen, corporate relations manager for The Davis Companies. The $47-million staff...  Read more

Lowering the Language Barrier

Jan 1, 1997

Finding a good interpreter is crucial to providing foreign customers with services such as equipment-orientation seminars. Marty McCann, an audio engineer...  Read more

First-Class Passenger Lounge

Jan 1, 1997

When you enter Direct Tire, based in the Boston area, you pass under a banner that reads, "We'll Fix It So It Brakes." That slogan, which owner Barry Stei...  Read more

Keep in Touch

Jan 1, 1997

Are your customers frustrated when they can't reach you? Do they have to be transferred three times before reaching the right person? Here's how three dif...  Read more

My One and Only

Jan 1, 1997

Peter Bull of Cherry Hill, N.J., didn't want his customers to feel the frustration he feels when talking with a customer-service rep who doesn't know him ...  Read more

A Stitch in Time

Jan 1, 1997

Diteck, a manufacturer of surge protectors, based in Largo, Fla., tracks the true cost of customer service independent of warranty costs or operating erro...  Read more

Company Tracks Comments of Customers and Employees

Jan 1, 1997

Are you tired of tracking customer complaints with inefficient paper systems? So was AFFINA Corp., a Troy, Mich., supplier of market research and database...  Read more

Favoring Family Values

Jan 1, 1997

Working parents constantly juggle the demands of work and family life. Employees who spend work time worrying about their children or elderly relatives sp...  Read more

Prescription for Burnout

Jan 1, 1997

"All you have to do is answer customer support phones for two hours to realize how stressful it is and how important those reps are to building customer l...  Read more

Educate Staff about Past Mistakes

Jan 1, 1997

When the office gets busy, there's a great temptation to dictate orders to the troops and skip explaining the whys of company policy. "But don't do it," u...  Read more

Conversation Peace

Jan 1, 1997

When a customer working with several employees at a company gets two different answers to the question, "What's going on?"-- who's right? At Sealund Assoc...  Read more

Every Complaint Scores a Homer

Jan 1, 1997

Tom Dickson, owner of the Lansing Lugnuts, a Class A minor-league baseball team, based in Lansing, Mich., likes to use customer complaints as a guide for ...  Read more

Revive the Routing Slip

Jan 1, 1997

Houston-based Pro-Mark, the world's largest manufacturer of drumsticks for musicians, drums up attention to clients' needs and positive feedback by Read more

Nuts-and-Bolts Problem Solving

Jan 1, 1997

Floor employees closest to production are often best qualified to respond to customers' needs. Bob and Tom Jagemann, who run a family-owned tool-and-die s...  Read more