POST CATEGORY : CEO Leadership

Qualities of a Great Restaurant CEO And Why This Industry Is Different

Everyone knows that a great CEO, Chief Executive Officer, is one of the most important positions in any company. However, being a restaurant CEO is a little more specific than other executive management positions in other companies.

Qualities of a Great Restaurant CEO

Being a great restaurant CEO takes specific skills along with dedication.   Owning a profitable restaurant takes more than hard work – it takes the know-how of the daily ins and outs. So how do you know if you have what it takes?

Top 5 Qualities Needed in a Restaurant CEO

Unfortunately, it’s tough to know exactly what it’s like to be the CEO of a restaurant until you try.…

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3 Must-Watch TED Talks For Small Business Success

TED Talks are taking the business world by storm. Short for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, TED itself is an annual conference that brings together leaders from these three industries to share their expertise with the crowd.

Past events have featured speaking appearances by top executives from companies such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Al Gore, Bill Clinton, and J.J. Abrams have also spoke at these conferences.

3 Must-Watch TED Talks For Small Business Success

So what can you take from a TED Talk? Plenty. Here are three success lessons small businesses can learn:

1. A Social Media Presence is More Than a Profile

Several of the more recent TED Talks have been focused on social media – surprise surprise.…

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3 Best Practices for Managing Employee Performance

Managing Employee Performance

When your company is small, having formalized employee performance and talent management processes can seem unnecessary. But since your staff are your most strategic resource, and your only sustainable competitive advantage, it makes sense to establish some HR processes that help maximize employee performance.

Here are 3 basic employee performance management best-practices that every company should have in place, regardless of their size:

  1. Goal management
  2. Performance feedback
  3. Development planning

Goal management starts with setting organizational goals and communicating these to all staff. Then, every employee should work with their manager to establish individual goals that are pertinent to their job/role, and help the organization achieve its goals.…

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5 Tips: Choosing the Right Team to Support Your Local Business

When we begin our journey as local business owners, we often go it alone for a bit and find that we wear a lot of the department hats ourselves. We’re the CEO, the accountant, the marketing team, the human resources team, and then some.

But at some point, we’re ready to hire a team of consultants, contractors, and/or employees to support our goals and vision. At this exciting and pivotal point in time, our business’ success largely hinges on whether or not we hire the right people to support us and our business.

Tips for Hiring Team to Support Your Local Business

It can be helpful to keep the following in mind when you’re recruiting a team to support your company:

Interviews Matter.…

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College To Work – Building The Leader In You

preparing for job interviews after college

I was recently asked to help a college student prepare for interviewing, and it reminded me of how important it is to be well-prepared when looking for a job, especially transitioning out of college. In this blog post I provide several tips for the earliest leaders – those entering the professional workforce for the first time. This is your first shot at presenting yourself as a leader to your desired place of work.

Make your resume “pop” with accomplishments and leadership.

It’s very important to show all of your work experience that includes summer and seasonal jobs and internships. Organizations look for good work experience.…

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Top Seven Open Enrollment Tips for Small Businesses

seven cost-cutting open enrollment tips for small businessesWith open enrollment season officially underway, many small businesses, as well as their employees, are wrestling with the rising cost of health insurance.

According to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, there was a spike in health insurance premiums this year, with the cost of employer-sponsored health insurance increasing 9 percent for family coverage and 8 percent for single coverage.

That’s especially troubling for small businesses when you consider that they pay up to 18 percent more per worker than large firms for the same health insurance policy.

The good news: there are many ways for small businesses to mitigate those increases.…

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Personal And Professional Development With PRINCE2 Training

project management with Prince2 training

PRINCE2 is a process-based methodology that offers non-proprietorial best practice guidance on project management, encompassing the management, control and organisation of a project. In addition to being used as a widely-used standard for effective project management internationally, it also takes the form of an official certification for accredited project managers across a wide range of sectors. Effective project management is critical to any business or organisation looking to successfully complete a new project whether it is IT, building or any other sector.

When making sure you and your people have the skills they need to become successful project managers it’s important to look beyond the project management certification.…

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Priorities For Technology Due Diligence

There is limited time and access during M&A due diligence. Knowing this, it is critical to focus on the high priority areas with the largest affect on risk.

merger and acquisition IT due diligence

As we discussed in our previous article, “Due Diligence for Mergers and Acquisitions – Why include IT“, technology due diligence is a critical part to evaluating a merger or acquisition. The less time spent the higher probability of extended integration or other issues. We now discuss which parts of IT due diligence to prioritize in order to minimize risk.

People

  • If the organization you are acquiring has proprietary technology, evaluating the personnel is critical as they support the technology.
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Can a Small Business CEO Have a Vocational Degree?

I am a recent graduate of a four year University, and I will say it wasn’t exactly National Lampoon’s Animal House like I expected. Sure I went to my share of parties and football games, but I also sat in a lecture hall Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and oh yes, Friday.

can a ceo have a vocational degree

When I first went to college I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do – my major started undecided, changed to marketing, changed to PR, changed to journalism, and finally landed on English education. For me, a four year University was exactly what I needed to get my thoughts together, and the career path I ultimately choose required a four year degree.…

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Due Diligence for Mergers and Acquisitions – Why Include IT?

include IT in merger due diligenceAs we start to see mergers and acquisitions activity ramp up, we shift focus to the value of technology due diligence.

What do you review during due diligence? You probably look at financials, customer lists, markets and existing executives. You may even review operations, eyeing potential efficiencies, such as those gained by integrating departments like HR, accounting and IT.

Randy Myers, CFO Magazine, states “For CFO’s, valuing the synergies to be realized by eliminating overlapping or redundant systems and operations is a fundamental aspect of M&A due diligence.” But how often do you review the technology area itself?

Not planning ahead can be painful.…

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