When it comes to building a better burger, Five Guys has answers. Over the past twenty years, it has become one of the fastest-growing restaurant chains in the country. Founded in 1986, their objective, right from the beginning, was to build a better burger cooked to...
Inc. 5000 Winners’ Dynamics of Making People Work
Some have “team building” pigeon-holed as a company retreat with the scavenger hunt, the mine field, the egg drop, the trust fall and others. Games and drills are helpful for building teamwork and confidence, but there are certain BASICS that if neglected will...
Three Keys to Success: How to Make Your Engine Run!
In the world of commerce, there are three vital items to make the engine run—costing, pricing and selling. Determining your costs and then the price are the basic bits of profitability. You must address that bottom line and be viable. Most pricing, today, falls into...
Marketing Make or Break: Being Someone Else While Still Being You
Getting a new business going is a fishing trip through shark-infested waters. But if you can see the world as a shark sees it, you up your chances of making it to higher ground, and ultimate victory. There’s one step that any competent marketing person or entrepreneur...
Bringing the Cyber-Tsunami in a Sea of Digital Noise
Our communication channels are oversaturated, and quite factually the minds of millions are utterly overloaded. How can your voice be heard with clarity amidst the steady drone? Every SECOND of every day there are about 7,500 tweets, 41,000 Facebook posts, 60,000...
The Facts on Fake News—the Art and Anatomy of Lying
The buzzword right now—highjacked by all sides—is “fake news.” The phrase is being run through the political hyperbole machine with the power knob at maximum. But what is it? Well, first off, fake news is nothing new. Ever read a tabloid? They quote “sources” on who...
The Wells Fargo Scam Makes Mockery of Money
To operate in business requires a better understanding of money, especially when those about you cause loss of confidence in money—as money is only an idea. In an article dated 27 November 1971, appropriately titled MONEY, renowned author and philosopher L. Ron...
From Space Stations to the Stars—Moving the World with Purpose
The poster for the film The Martian, based on Andy Weir’s novel, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon, reads “BRING HIM HOME.” The phrase drives the plot and prompts rival nations to cooperate. Like the moon landing of 1969, untold millions of people...
How Men’s Shavers Engineered Word of Mouth
You have heard the story of how one friend tells another friend who tells five more friends and pretty soon you have an economic revolution. Product reputations are built this way. It does not really matter how much money you spend on promotion; what does matter is...
The Basics of Marketing in the 21st Century: from Zero to Zillions
Who has millions or billions to spend on world-class communication? Turns out you won’t need that for your buck to make a massive bang. Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike: all committed astronomical sums for advertising in 2015. Apple raised its ad budget to $1.8 billion;...
How Does a LEGO Life-Size X-Wing Fighter Relate to the Ascent or Crash of Your Company?
Communication is a two-way trajectory. It means asking questions, listening, and acting where necessary on what you hear. And it isn’t just externally facing—i.e., you and your customers; it’s internal, management to manufacturing, marketing to sales, and so forth,...
Catastrophe and Raw Survival in the Age of Unicorns
[UNICORN: A tech startup that reaches a $1 billion market value as determined by private or public investment. The term was originally coined by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures.1] The cycle of boom and bust is nothing new, and an analysis of companies that...