The complaining customer

"Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business." - Zig Ziglar
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Unions

Employee unions peaked in 1945 when almost 36% of American workers were union members. Union memberships today stands around 12%. Unions have gained members in the public sector and in some service industries. Key factors in declining membership include the exodus of manufacturing jobs to other countries, job growth from smaller and specialized businesses, and decreased industry regulation.
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Angels

An angel investor is a venture capitalist that provides money for a business start-up, usually in exchange for ownership equity in the business. Angel investors typically invest their own money and commonly fill business capital needs under a million dollars. Many angels are successful entrepreneurs who want to help other entrepreneurs get their business off the ground.
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Leveraged buyouts

A leveraged buyout occurs when a company is acquired by another company through the use of borrowed money. In many cases, the assets of both the acquiring company and target company are used as collateral for the purchase loans. Leveraged buyouts allow companies to make large acquisitions without having to commit a lot of capital and also provide a tax shield in the form of debt payments.
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Productivity

The virtuous cycle of rising worker productivity is a key component of economic growth and stability. The rewards of higher productivity growth come in the form of more money for workers to spend on consumption items. This extra money provide businesses with incentive to invest more in technology and equipment, thereby laying the foundation for even higher future productivity.
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Exit strategy

An exit strategy is a planned departure from a business with the goal of redeeming your investment plus any potential profit. Exit strategies are typically carried out through a sale, merger, IPO, buyout or liquidation. Successful exit results are obtained when companies have established value, relationships and distribution channels, customer base, or with intellectual property.
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Lean Manufacturing

James Womack coined the phrase "Lean Manufacturing" in his 1990 book "The Machine That Changed The World". The lean concept is a derivative of the Toyota Production System and Just In Time Production systems. Lean means manufacturing without wasted material, time, equipment and inventory. Most companies waste 70% to 90% of their resources. Even the best Lean Manufacturers waste about 30%.
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Statistical mode

In statistics, the mode is a measure of central tendency for a set of values and is defined as the most frequently occurring value or values in a given data set. The mode is a useful when dealing with categorical data. For example, if a manufacturer sells 12 different computer chips, the mode would represent the most popular chip sold.
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Early business failure

About a third of all new establishments never make it past two years, according to statistics from the Small Business Administration. The editors at BusinessKnowHow.com cite the following top reasons for early business failure: poor management, insufficient capital, bad location, and lack of planning. Additionally, many businesses fail because people start them for the wrong reasons.
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Executive coaching

Executive coaching is becoming a mainstream function in many companies. A recent survey by Right Management Consultants found almost 90% of companies said they used coaching to sharpen the skills of current executives and future organizational leaders. The most frequently cited benefit of corporate coaches is that they provide objective, real-time feedback that in many cases cannot be provided by others.
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Blue Ocean Strategy

Blue Ocean Strategy is a business strategy that promotes developing uncontested products or services that makes the competition irrelevant. In contrast, Red Ocean Strategy promotes competition in existing industries and markets. The Blue Ocean concept was developed by authors Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in their book "The Blue Ocean Strategy".
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Group Think

Entrepreneur.com editor David Javitch uses the phrase "Group Think" to describe the process where a group or team is reluctant to challenge its leader, presenting the image that all is well, even if it's not. Javtich suggests the following remedies: confer with random groups from different departments and different hierarchies; hold theme-based sessions with employees; or call company-wide Q&A meetings.
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Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker is considered the father of modern management. Born in Austria, Drucker came to the U.S. in the 1930s and became a preeminent writer, commentator and management consultant. He authored many books and articles that explored human relationships and the organization of business, and offered management advice grounded in history, sociology, psychology, philosophy and culture.
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The Great Depression

The Great Depression in the U.S. was a major economic recession that occurred from 1929 to 1933. The severe recession lasted 43 months, almost three times the duration of the average recession of the 20th century. Several complex factors are cited as the cause and persistence of this worldwide malaise: massive bank failures, sudden stock market crashes and government policy decisions.
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In Search of Excellence

The best-selling 1982 book "In Search of Excellence" by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman is heralded as a landmark business book. The book is a study of forty-three of America's best-run companies within the context of eight primary principles of management that made these organizations successful. Each principle is covered in the book's eight chapters.
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Good stress

Some forms of stress can actually be good for you. According to psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Tan, as published in a recent MSNBC article, moderate amounts of stress can help people perform tasks more efficiently and can improve memory. This "good" stress can improve heart function and make the body resistant to infection, experts say. Learn to recognize good stress events and welcome the challenge.
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Alfred Nobel

The idea of the Nobel Prize was established in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth for its establishment. Since 1901, the prize has honored men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace. Nobel invented dynamite and made his fortune through manufacturing and distribution of the explosive.
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The concept of three

Audience members tend to retain about three things from a presentation. A presentation rule of thumb says use the concept of three to structure your presentations. Present three ideas, each having three sections, with each section having three items, and so on.
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Father of Branding

British grocer William Lever is considered the Father of Branding. Lever came up with the idea of cutting and wrapping bars of soap with the name Sunlight on them toward the end of the 19th century. Up until then, people would ask the grocer to cut and wrap a piece of soap. Sales of Lever's soap surged and soon after other soap producers copied his marketing idea.
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Bombarded

Efforts to achieve sustainable brand loyalty are directed at consumers that are bombarded with messages on a daily basis. Jack Trout, author of "Differentiate or Die", cites the following daunting facts: printed knowledge doubles every five years; four-thousand new books are published every day; the web grows by one-million pages a day; by age 18, a person has watched 140,000 TV commercials.
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The four Cs

The four Cs of competitive advantage: Competitive uniqueness: what can I do for my customers that no one else can do? Competitive advantage: what can I do better for my customers than my competitors? Competitive parity: am I at the same level as my competitors? Competitive disadvantage: where does the competition have an advantage over me?
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Crowd sourcing

The term "crowd sourcing" was coined by author Jeff Howe in a 2006 Wired magazine article. Crowd sourcing is defined as sourcing tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to a community in the form of an open initiative. Examples include Open Source software development and the online Wikipedia. Similar phrases are open innovation, collective intelligence and social collaboration.
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Search within a site

Use Google's "search within a site" syntax to search within a specified website. Use the following syntax at the Google Search text box: site: siteyoursearching.com search text. For example site:cnn.com Florida elections will search the CNN website for the text "Florida elections". See google.com/advanced_search for more Google advanced search methods.
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Business and Management Today

Blogging author Jason O'Connor suggests that online businesses can benefit from blogging. The business benefits of blogs include: they help position a company as an industry expert; they are interactive in nature and can obtain valuable customer feedback; they are inexpensive and easily marketed; and certain products or services may be featured in blogs.
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Myers-Briggs

The Myers-Briggs personality assessment test has been identifying introverts, extroverts and other personality types since 1943. Based on the theories of psychologist Carl Jung, the Myers-Briggs questionnaire has been gauging personalities through attitude, style and cultural changes over the past sixty-years. Many consider it an essential tool for hiring and career planning.
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Alumni network

SelectMinds CEO Cem Sertoglu suggests that companies maintain an "alumni" network of ex-employees, according to a recent Inc.com article. Keeping track of former workers can pay off for a business as rehiring a former employee typically costs only about half as much as bringing in a brand-new hire. Rehired alums may also provide sources of new business.
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Executive and management coaches

More organizations are making use of executive and management coaches. A recent survey by Right Management Consultants found 86% of respondent companies said they used coaching to sharpen the skills of individuals who had been identified as future organizational leaders. Many used certified executive coaches through consulting arrangements or brought them on as permanent staff.
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Wellness management

More organizations are employing "wellness management" methods to identify preventable, long-term health problems with the goal of prevention versus treatment. The program begins with employees enrolling in a yearly, voluntary health-risk appraisal. Employees with potential health problems work with health educators and coaches to plan and track health progress.
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