Purchasing Consultants

Businesses operate in circumstances which are caused as a result of macro- and micro-economic factors. Macro-economic factors are due to myriad forces such as political stability and unforeseen natural calamities upon which businesses have little or no control. For instance, businesses have little control over oil price hikes caused as a result of war in certain parts of the world.

5 Bad Reasons For Starting A Business

If you start a business for one of these 5 reasons you'll more than likely fail. I'll tell you 5 silly reasons for starting a business and why you should avoid them.

Consultant Cites Job Hunting As A Way of Gathering Business Intelligence

It’s not easy to get detailed, updated information about your competitors: their strengths, weaknesses, and current practices; or about organizations that are engaging in certain endeavors that are relevant to what you think you may be doing in the future. You can speak to their former employees and pore over every comment about the firms in the press and online, but still, you’re just getting a map. Maps, as you know, are somewhat handy, but they aren’t the territory. How can you get into organizations to learn about them? One way is by proposing a joint venture and another is by applying for one of their advertised positions, says Dr. Gary S. Goodman, popular keynote speaker & seminar producer, best-selling author, and consultant to the Fortune 1000.

Trade Up or Trade Down for Business Success

In an age of mass differentiation and low cost chic, there has never being a worse time to be stuck in the middle. Consumers are abandoning mid-range products in their droves, often opting for cheaper alternatives and saving up to buy the occasional luxury.

Business Plan: Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz

Oh, what a relief it is! The old Alka-Seltzer jingle suggests a plan and process to obtain relief from whatever ails you. How do organizations obtain relief from the headaches caused by ongoing challenges? More specifically, how do businesses acquire and maintain a high-performance model? Simply put...they achieve focus!

Strategic Planning One Answer to Beating Your Competition

Do you have a strategic plan of who does what by when? If not, read a short story that may possibly change your mind on how your competition may use your lack of planning to his or her advantage.

Strategic Planning Goes Beyond Who Does What By When

Strategic planning is all about who does what by when. Yet to create an executable strategic plan begins by challenging your assumptions. Learn how your assumptions may holding back your business.

Emerging Corporate Information Security Threats

The time when worms and viruses were a top priority of IT are long behind us. Botnets and phishing attacks now dominate the webscape and new variations are emerging daily.

Translation Service Companies: Benefits of Going Multilingual For Your Business

You've got a good quality product that converts in sales right? You pretty much have your niche tied around your pinky finger and know the ins and outs of every little detail with regards to your market demands. What if you could use what you already have, and instantly (well not quite instantly) gain access to a whole new potential market that is craving to buy YOUR product!

Understanding The True Cost Of Corporate Office Space

How do I assess my true office accommodation costs? We have been asked by a number of clients to help them identify the true cost of an office or location. Here is a guide to the factors you should consider to assess total accommodation costs.

Taking A Cooler View On Hot Desking

What are the factors that need to be considered when looking at hot desking? This paper looks at the definition and factors involved in this type of working model. What is hot desking? – The provision of shared working space, where desks, PC, telephone are provided on an ‘as-required’ basis not on a ‘one-to-one’ basis. With the growth of mobile services, hot desking can also include the routing of voice and other messaging services to any location where the user is able to log in to their secure corporate network. Therefore telephone number, email and instant messaging can be routed to their location on the network and no longer to just one physical desk.

Great CEOs Knife the Competion - With Killer Strategy

Have you just been promoted CEO/Director or General Manager? Congratulations and welcome to the world of strategizing! Now you can doze early, wake late, play golf, cancel meetings and go to Bahamas. On company time! But I bet you're nervous. While your old job focuses on specialized tasks, your new position frees your mind to explore the business' macro perspective. You'll be steering the ship from the captain's chair. Creating a vision will be your mandate. And strategizing will take about 110% of your working hours. Does that much freedom cause abnormal wetting of the pants? If so, resign. If not... read on. You got a lot of strategizing to do.

Self-Serve Checkouts Force Retailers To Rethink Merchandising

The use of self-serve checkouts continues to grow at an astronomical rate. Last year consumer spending at self-serve checkouts was up 35% over 2004. However this widely accepted process is having a major negative impact on impulse sales.