Company Health Archives - The Resultants

Will Your Vision Ensure Your Company’s Survival?

Author - Jerry Olson - February 2020

Every business faces an existential dilemma. Its founder(s) conceived the business with a plan for where they want to go. They’ve dreamed of making a difference in the world but in most cases, that dream never becomes reality. Small Business Administration (SBA) statistics show only half of new businesses are still operating five years after they start and only one…

Go Big or Go Home with a Powerful Vision

Author - Chad Haldeman - Jan 2020

The Big Picture – Begin with the End in Mind! When it's time to build a company's growth plan, goals are often created in a vacuum by its leader(s) and based on his or her financial goals. Or, plans are built primarily based on historical facts and performance using a simple percentage increase. Both of these approaches have merit as…

Finish Strong in the 5th Quarter

Author - Terri Wilcox - Oct 2019

If you've ever attended a UW-Badger football home game, I hope you stayed for the 5th Quarter. It is legendary. The game just isn’t over until the Badger Band stops playing and the crowd stops dancing. Even the opposing team’s band members, cheer squads and alumni join in. It’s a blast and the band always puts on a great show.…

A magazine lays open with a cup of tea and notepad and pen nearby

How Great Leaders Engage Their Followers

Author - Jerry Olson - Sept 2019

A leader’s habits and behaviors have a significant impact on the engagement and effectiveness of their followers. In fact, at least 10 of the 12 core elements of engagement identified by Gallup in the book First, Break All the Rules, are directly or indirectly dependent on the leader’s behaviors and habits. Good leaders plan ahead, prioritize and act with forethought…

Steve Wilcox wears a blue blazer with blue shirt and smiles for a professional head shot

“Followed by All” Culture Chaos

Author - Steve Wilcox - Sept 2019

I once worked with a Leadership Team at a manufacturing company that prided themselves on top-notch processes and procedures. They shared with me their SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) and spoke glowingly about how they followed procedures, thus improving efficiencies overall. At the same time, they were also discussing an issue with work output on the floor. It seemed one of…

Processes: Why Are They Important and Why Should I Care?

Author - Peter Beaumont - August 2019

As I sat down in front of this blank digital page with a completion deadline looming over me, I had no idea where to start. So I typed a title. Great, now I just knew the subject was something about the importance of processes. After a few minutes, a light bulb went off! I realized I needed a process to…

Accelerate Business with Solid Core Processes

Author - Jerry Olson - July 2019

A company's Core Processes can provide a competitive advantage in accelerating it beyond its competitors. Far too often, a business struggling to grow neglects this key aspect of business. We see this frequently in small businesses where the owner can see the scope of the business. He or she often assumes that their employees know what to do and how…

Using Culture to Drive Performance

Author - Chad Haldeman - June 2019

It was a classic David vs. Goliath situation. We were part of a larger company but in our market, we were a distant second in terms of organizational size and market share. Our competitor had dominated the market for many years with legacy brands and tenured sales and operations teams. As we evaluated our options during strategic planning, becoming number…

The Recruitment Balancing Act

Author - Terri Wilcox - May 2019

There has been a shift in today’s tight labor market that's forced us to think about how we view our employees and our working relationships. In fact, RiseSmart recently reported the employee relationship economy is on the rise. RiseSmart states, “it's emerging in response to the evolving concepts of work: how it's done, where, by whom, for how long and…

5 Ways to Drive Employee Engagement

Author - Peter Beaumont - April 2019

Why is everyone talking about employee engagement? And what exactly is it? Well, simply put, employee engagement measures how passionate employees are about the work they do, how loyal they feel towards the company they work for and whether or not they're willing to go the extra mile. It is NOT the same as employee satisfaction, though it IS just…

A Reason to Celebrate

Author - Jane Drigans - March 2019

Has March Madness taken hold of you yet? It’s been described as “one of the biggest, most exciting and most fun events in all of sports.” With the NCAA Final Four men’s championship coming to Minneapolis, there's no doubt there will be great displays of teamwork and much cause for celebration around here. Whether or not you’re a sports fan,…

Avoid Failure by Creating Focus

Author - Chad Haldeman - Feb 2019

Epic Fail “What happened?” Susan President asked, obviously upset at the team’s lack of performance. Just 90 days prior, her leadership team had devised a plan that included the key areas of focus needed to drive the company’s performance for the year ahead. They had picked 10 quarterly goals they felt would lead to successful performance. Now, reviewing their performance…

Go Further with Faster Decision-Making

Author - Jerry Olson - Jan 2019

Do you have a vision of growing your business into more than it is today but feel like you keep getting stuck? Accomplishing your goal of a bigger and better future will require changes to how your business is run. Hand-in-hand with those changes come all the decisions to be made. Unfortunately, as businesses grow and become more complex, especially…

Why It’s Important to Laugh at Work

Author - Peter M. Beaumont - November 2018

When I was just starting out in my career, it was frowned upon to laugh at work. Work was serious business! And it still is but sometimes, work can get a little too serious. According to a 2007 study performed by University of Missouri-Columbia researcher Chris Robert, humor “has meaningful impact on cohesiveness in the workplace and communication quality among workers.…

Can You Get and Keep Joe?

Author - Jerry Olson - October 2018

In his article originally published on page 36 of the October issue of the BATC-MN Housing First Digest, Jerry Olson talks about an issue most of us can currently relate to, employee retention. In today's full employment economy, good employees have lots of options. So, what can you do to ensure they'll choose to work for you?

The Entrepreneur’s Foundation

Author - Terri Wilcox - September 2018

The basic Merriam-Webster definition for entrepreneur is “one who organizes, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise”. The Resultants tend to question that definition. If you take it at face value, then all owners would be considered an entrepreneur. However, from our perspective, that definition is too general. Our experience working with owners of small and medium-sized businesses…

What to Do When You Hit the Ceiling

Author - Peter M. Beaumont - July 2018

We all have or will hit the ceiling at some point when we are not sure how to grow ourselves or our business. We just seem to lose momentum. This can make us feel frustrated and in some cases, ill-equipped to lead or push through. However, "maxing out" is a normal part of growth. It is not always on the…

People Strategies in a Full Employment Economy

Author - Jerry Olson - June 2018

How One Company Achieved a Nearly-Full Employee Capacity During a Full Employment Economy Like many businesses, an RFB client was having a difficult time hiring for a few key positions that pay well but are hard to fill. As a small business, having 12 open positions was severely affecting their productivity. Fast forward one year and they have achieved and…

Why DIY with EOS: How Self-Implementing Companies Achieve Success

Author - Steve Wilcox - May 2018

The Entrepreneurial Operating System®, more commonly known as EOS or Traction, has helped thousands of business owners get what they want out of their business. While “what they want” may be unique to every owner, the process and system is the same - making the goal more achievable regardless of industry, geography and company size. The EOS model consists of…

Right People. Right Seats. What Does it Really Mean?

Author - Paul Moen - April 2018

We often hear company leaders credit their success to having “good people,” but what does that mean? Simply put, it’s about getting the right people in the right seats, which is easier said than done. Paul Moen explores this concept a bit further in his article featured on the BankBeat guest blog.

What Can a Franchise Teach Us About Our Own Business Model?

Author - Chad Haldeman - March 2018

Franchise operations account for almost 10% of small business transactions in the U.S., which is no surprise knowing what an attractive acquisition target they can be. So what is it that makes a franchise such a target for buyers? RFB Business Advisor, Chad Haldeman, answers this question and more in his Irish Titan guest blog post.

The Leadership Gap in the Green Industry

Author - Terri Wilcox - Feb 2018

Are you feeling the impact of an industry-wide leadership gap? In her article originally published in the February issue of the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association (MNLA) Scoop, Terri Wilcox identifies five leadership challenges that many business leaders are facing as over 3.6 million Baby Boomers set to retire in the next few years. Check out pages 18-23 for insights…

5 Tips to Improve Team Issue Solving

Author - Terri Wilcox - Feb 2018

How good is your team at solving issues? Are they disciplined about going after a solution as quickly as possible? Problem solving is a required skill for any team and the recipe for success is made up of: the belief that “my team owns the problem”, the courage to make decisions amidst complexity and lack of information, and the openness…

Adjusting Your Succession Planning Mindset

Author - Chad Haldeman - December 2017

Succession: Learning a Painful Lesson As a young division leader of a large media organization, I had assembled a strong team of managers who had performed together at a very high level for some time. We were making it happen! However, there was one manager, a fairly recent hire, who had strong technical knowledge but was out of step with…

Leading People: The Foundation of Business Strategy

Author - Jerry Olson - October 2017

In his article originally published in the October issue of the Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC) Digest, Jerry Olson explains how business success is built on a foundation of people working together as a great team toward a common goal. Unfortunately, only about 20% of employees feel they are part of a great team. Great teams require strong…

The Surprising Secret to a Great Transition

Author - Chad Haldeman - July 2017

We see a lot of company founders who are contemplating a transition out of their company. Some get lucky early in life, but in the vast majority of instances where a founder is getting a significant offer, it is not his or her first rodeo. In fact, most owners have had multiple failures and modest business successes before their first big…

RFB Case Study – a CEO’s Journey

Author - Jerry Olson - April 2017

Mark Poss, CEO of Big Fish Works, chose Resultants For Business to help him and his team identify and execute strategies as they navigated their disrupted media industry. Beyond top and bottom line concerns, they are working to change the culture, attract and retain the right people and engage their customers in new and different ways. I talked with him…

The Danger of Re-Selling Another Company’s Product

Author - Colette Belisle - April 2017

On the surface, it seems like a great idea to become a distributor of a popular product. After all, if it’s already proven to be a popular product elsewhere, why not bring it in as another offering? As the case study below demonstrates, the danger is that in the long-term, re-selling may not increase your company’s value. In fact, it…

How Understanding Addressable Markets Can Increase Company Value

Author - Colette Belisle - Dec 2016

Let’s say your company just designed a revolutionary machine for harvesting wine grapes. Or if you don’t drink wine, then imagine the hops in your beer, the beans in your coffee or the leaves in your tea. You arrive at your first vineyard, excited to demonstrate the speed and precision of your tractor only to find that extreme frost has…

5 Ways to Get Your Business to Run Without You

Author - Bill Wermager - Dec 2016

Some owners focus on growing their profits, while others are obsessed with sales goals. Have you ever considered making it your primary goal to set up your business so that it can thrive and grow without you? A business not dependent on its owner is the ultimate asset to own. It allows you complete control over your time so that…

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