Some Points That Make Feedback More Effective
1. Focus on business outcomes, not personalities
2. Address specific behaviours and use examples
3. Discuss the impact of those behaviours
4. Tell them explicitly what you want them to do differently
5. Follow up to check progress and make adjustments

Commoditize Your Customers
Continually adding value to your products and driving the benefit / cost ratio higher makes it easier for your customers to adopt your solutions and more likely to become and remain customers. By adding more expertise into your products you make it possible for prospects with less to easily become customers thereby increasing the size of your addressable market. Not just feature bloat, this is constant improvement with simplicity maintained by increasing modularization.

Look Inside For Effective Hiring
Most hiring processes emphasize attitudes or skill sets and focus exclusively on the candidate. Better performance from a new hire is also greatly affected by the hiring manager’s self awareness. A manager’s people skills are more accurately assessed by knowledgeable observers, e.g. colleagues within the firm. Use an assessment tool to objectively help the hiring manager understand the candidate’s style and identify any gaps or misalignments.

First, a succession plan is a natural extension of good business principles. If you look past the family and emotional issues, this is exactly what you would do to manage and grow your business. As a practice, every manager should be continually cultivating the next level of employees who can assume greater responsibility. This way, the manager can attend to higher value issues and everyone can continue to advance their careers.

Next, a good succession plan provides value to the company and management now. Too many business owners make the mistake of thinking that succession planning is some extra work on top of what they’re already doing and won’t be utilized until some indeterminate time in the future. Knowing that your succession plan is aligned with your corporate strategic goals makes it easier to envision and more profitable to implement.

Finally, a well executed succession plan speaks volumes about the company and management to the employees, stakeholders, and even the marketplace. It enhances the culture and longevity of the business and highlights the stability, management depth, and discipline. It’s one of those signals that brings a level of comfort to anyone who would be impacted by not having (or having a bad) succession plan.

A good plan is active, in some ways, immediately. A hands-on, long-term approach begun well before a transition is forced by circumstances, is of immense value to the whole business, not just the two generations. The key is to engage the successor at the leadership level with a project that will build value in the business.

• Use high impact projects so that the successor really has to step up and also so the business reaps the benefit. This allows the CEO and Board to do a valid assessment of the successor under ‘live fire’ conditions.
• Create many opportunities that require the successor to not just meet other staff, rather to work closely with them. Leadership cannot merely be conferred, it must be earned.
• Let the staff know what the process is and how success is being measured. Getting their input throughout the process is extremely helpful during this process as well as for general business improvement.
• There is no perfect time to begin so just get started. Everyone will learn valuable, unanticipated lessons while working through the process.

Don’t think of a succession plan as it relates to death or retirement, think about management development and business growth. Properly implemented, the business can begin reaping the benefits of the succession plan right away and, in time, the actual succession will be completed with nary a hitch.

With too many people doing the same tasks there is no consistency. With such a diffusion of responsibility there is no single source of the latest information and no real accountability. When everyone is accountable, no one is accountable. You end up playing traffic cop, coordinating everyone else’s activity, and fireman, constantly responding to emergencies (often the same ones).

Ironically, sometimes the perceived solution is more growth. The knee jerk reaction to ‘everyone is too busy and stretched too thin’ is often ‘we need to get more people’. At this point, adding employees just means more chaos. Sometimes the obvious answer is not the best one.

Everyone needs to start doing less.

No, this doesn’t mean that everybody starts taking long lunches and leaving early. It’s possible to be more productive with less effort when you change the way you’ve been doing things.

Differentiate jobs
Instead of spreading all the workloads among multiple people, reduce the number of tasks each person does in favour of doing more of the same types of tasks. Efficiency and productivity will increase and errors and costs will decline. There is a basic principle of economics that says specializing the workers increases production both by person and across the organization. With the work now concentrated all the extra overhead for tracking, transmitting, and coordination is eliminated. By focusing on fewer tasks each employee can become increasingly knowledgeable, aware, and productive. In addition it is easier to find employees when you can give a more specific job description. They are also more likely to stay when you have a well defined career path that lays out opportunities for development and advancement.

Reduce the number of ways to do things
Often times CEOs are frustrated when they try to standardize their processes while there are still too many people involved. Don’t try and do this until you have begun to differentiate the jobs. Just as job differentiation makes people more efficient, standardizing procedures makes the processes more efficient. The other benefit to this exercise is that the work process becomes simpler, quicker, and less prone to error. Having a standard way of doing things makes it easier to begin each project, keep track of it, coordinate between departments, and provide a superior customer experience. Defining and documenting the processes should be the job of the person who is accountable for it.

Start from customer and work your way in
Where to start is always one of the questions. Everything is connected so wherever you start you will eventually cover it all. Unless here is a pressing need elsewhere it’s a good idea to start with the most customer-facing part of the operation. Current customers, and prospects even more so, will experience a degree of comfort in working with your company. The easier it is to business with you and the less perceived risk the more likely you will be able to increase your customer count and project size.

You need to begin operating as a larger company before you can become one. Business growth is usually not smooth and making these and other changes will reduce the limits to your growth, allowing you to make the next big step. Most of this work can be done without major disruption of your business; it does take commitment and concentration.

Saving Knowledge
Many CEOs are aware of their coming brain drain – a sizable percentage of their workers nearing retirement age. Capturing their knowledge and expertise has become critical to long term success. Even though most CEOs believe that organizational knowledge is of vital importance, more than three quarters don’t even know exactly what their critical knowledge is, much less where it is and how to get it to where it creates value.

Three Lists
You should have three lists to guide you:
1. What gets you up in the morning
2. What keeps you awake at night
3. What you should not be doing

Innovate Your Own Way
Rapid continuous improvement inside your business is essential to survive on today’s competitive landscape. 94% of CEOs surveyed said that people and culture were the most important factors in enabling that type of environment. It turns out there are no universal best practices that work anywhere, every business needs to create its own process. The most predictive indicator of success is whether or not the CEO’s execution behaviour fully supports his or her people.

Build Your Management Team

A good management team is essential for operations and growth and also has a big impact on the value of a company. Anyone who is looking to buy, invest in, or lend to a business wants to know that it can continue running without interruption. Ideally you want to hire people who have experience beyond where your business is now so they can help you grow to the next level. Now is a particularly good time to find quality people who are coming available. Make sure and get everyone aligned and focused on executing your business plan (you do have a business plan, right?) and measure your progress against that plan. Ultimately your team should be able to run the business in your absence so when it’s time for your exit. For more on this topic see “Are You Important Or Valuable?”

Update And Document Your Processes And Procedures

Every successful franchise is built on its operations manual. In it every step of every process is detailed in order to make it easy for everyone to do their jobs. That way the work gets out the door without resorting to heroic efforts each time. You’re probably not going to franchise your business although the principle is the same. The secret to effectively documenting your processes and procedures is to make sure you put in the work necessary to get all the details recorded. Not the type of task that most entrepreneurs enjoy doing although no one said you had to be the one to do it.

Get Your Documents In Order

Over time businesses accumulate agreements, contracts, leases, copyrights, bylaws, and the like. With time, evolution, modification, and business growth some of these may be out of date, incomplete, or misfiled. Take some time to organize these and make sure they’re up to date. It’s also a good opportunity to verify that everything is still applicable and to renegotiate, update, or cancel as necessary. During the sale of a business the buyer will examine all these documents. Even if there are no problems, disorganized documents make the buyer nervous and consequently bid less for the business.

Do Your Estate Plan

No, strictly speaking your personal estate plan is not part of your business. Your business, however, is part of your estate. Certain personal issues, like when you want to retire and how much money you need, become goals inside your business. The earlier and more comprehensively you get things set up the more control you have and the more you and your family are protected. Being able to position yourself and your assets properly can save you and your family lots of money and aggravation down the road. For business owners especially, doing the proper planning can be complex, requiring a special approach. For more details on this see our Company Blueprint™.

Doing these four things will give you a good start on getting to the next level. You’ll have easier growth now and more value in the future.

Even more than usual, growth comes from constant adaptation. Now is the time to take advantage of the huge opportunity that exists while the market and competition are in a state of flux.

You need a short term approach that doesn’t distract you from your long term strategy and goals and still has an immediate impact in times of uncertainty. Leverage your skills and knowledge with other perspectives and resources and focus on those things that will produce immediate impact and lay the groundwork for future progress.

Here’s how we recommend you approach these situations

Start with the fundamentals of your business. Tighten up operations, make doubly sure you have the right people in the right places, and focus on cash flow. Taking this approach helps in two ways. It reduces slack and inefficiency so you capture as much from your existing activities as possible. Over time in every business inefficiencies creep in and there’s no urgent call to stamp them out. Now is a good time to do that. Often you can do it with existing staff and no extra costs. Second, it gets everyone focused on execution with a clear understanding of how they add value to the business. Having a clear focus reduces uncertainty which reduces stress.

We have a four step process that augments your own efforts with some additional resources. Combining our process and expertise with your intimate knowledge of your business produces results that neither could alone.

Identify
We begin with the issues you already know, then work to find the inevitable hidden roadblocks and blind spots. We look both inside your company and outside to the market and competition as well. Our perspective gives us a vantage point to see influences and connections that you don’t. Our diagnostic process has been refined over years of helping CEOs grow their companies.

Prioritize
There are always too many things to do and there is no sense in just adding extra tasks on top of your current workload. Combining the high value findings with your existing plans ensures that your efforts reap the maximum benefit. You need to be able to adapt and make changes quickly in order to stay in control.

Plan
We work together to design a short term action plan that will make an immediate impact. The plan includes specific “who does what by when” tasks so everyone knows their part, no one gets overloaded, and everyone can see how they support the progress of the whole company. We also check to ensure that this short term plan fits properly with your overall strategy.

Attack
As quickly as possible we begin implementing the highest priority solutions. Metrics are put in place to objectively track progress. Speed of execution makes a huge difference when you need immediate results. We and our network of resources are available to help as needed.

Making and executing a good plan is essential to navigating when you can’t predict what’s coming. It gives you the foundation that is key to being able to adapt quickly and to seize opportunities. It’s also a good idea to get some outside perspective from a peer group, a colleague, or an Advisor. If you’d like to explore how we may be able to help you with this, email me at John AT InterSource DOT net

As strange as it sounds, the more important you are to the daily running of your business the less it‘s worth. When you started your business you had to do everything, that’s the way of a startup. Now that you’ve grown quite a bit your activities may actually be diminishing the potential of your company. As the founder and CEO, the buck stops with you and in some respects you are the keystone of the organization. Remember though, when you remove the keystone from an arch, the whole thing collapses.

If you have the final say on most (all?) decisions, are the ‘go to’ person for problem solving, or hold key customer or vendor relationships then you are the bottleneck. The natural tendency is to add to your load as the company grows. You work harder, faster, and longer and pretty soon you’re like the kid who pushed his bike all the way to school and was late because he didn’t have time to stop and get on. The more you are ‘doing’, the less you are ‘managing’, and the less growth capacity you have.

Even if you don’t have your hands in everything being the only source for some very important items makes you a ‘single point of failure’, an engineering term for one element that will shut down an entire system when it stops working. That is a risk with potentially catastrophic consequences.

In a recent interview, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said ‘a CEO’s main job … is to see the need to change before anyone else does’. If you are enmeshed in the daily operations of your company then your head, inbox, voice mail, schedule, and office are filled with small details and your focus is mostly tactical. You become efficient at the expense of being effective. One of the biggest CEO complaints is ‘not enough time to think strategically’, to see those trends and opportunities that could really impact your company.

The other effect of this situation is that you’re stuck. You can’t take a real vacation without losing business and if something serious happens you’re in big trouble. Spending all day at the beach with your laptop and cellphone may be nicer scenery than the office and you’re not really away from work. Being tied so tightly to the business reduces your options and face it, one of the reasons you have your own company is to be more in control, not less.

Two more strikes when it’s time to sell your company:

Instead of being able to take your pile of cash from the seller and ride off into the sunset you will have to stick around for awhile to transition with the new owners. You’ll have to transfer your knowledge, change the habits of your employees, and hand off those important relationships. At best you will be expensive and hard to replace. If you’re too important the buyer will see you as a risk factor and reduce the price or demand better terms. You may have to resort to an earnout – where now you get to work for someone for a few years and hope to get value from the future performance of this business that you no longer own.

Strike two is the doubt that is planted in the buyer’s mind. If you haven’t built systems to leverage and scale the company and you haven’t sufficiently mitigated risk they are now concerned that there may be things that are not obvious that may also be kind of shaky. Likewise, if your departure would have a significant impact on continuity, culture, and employee productivity there would almost certainly be a dip in productivity and profitability.

So if you’re not as ‘important’, how much more valuable can you be?

In one example, a local software firm was able to quadruple in size in two years. Much of that capability came from the work in integrating the strategy, operations, and growth plans with employees who knew exactly where they were going. When they sold out years later they got a huge premium because the business had been designed to grow even beyond where the founders wanted to take it. They sold their way out of a job and cashed in handsomely.

In another case a professional services firm took three years to build a management team, create the business processes, and run long enough to work the kinks out. Then the CEO/owner left, spending most of every year out of the area. Maintaining ownership and giving up management is something that many CEOs never consider or don’t believe is possible. In a founder’s mind they may be inextricably linked; in reality they’re quite distinct and not mutually inclusive. As an owner you can still collect profits and reap the benefit of future increases in value.

Some business owners have faced the decision squarely and concluded that they would rather moderate their expansion and keep their arms around the company whereas others are always reaching for the next rung. There’s no wrong way to do it, just make sure what you want and what you do are in sync. Your decision will help you focus your long term strategy and make sure you get the most out of your business.

JOHN HRASTAR IS THE FOUNDER AND CEO OF INTERSOURCE, A CEO ADVISORY FIRM IN MCLEAN. E-MAIL: JOHN at INTERSOURCE.NET

Reprinted with permission from the Washington Business Journal copyright 2009

Are we in a recession? Will we be soon? How long will it last? How deep will it be? The economists will debate these questions and conclude when it was – long after the damage is done. The more useful question is what should I do differently in my business during a time of economic uncertainty?

A recession or any type of economic slowdown is a turning point in a business cycle. More changes happen at turning points than during the stable times in between and it is easier to make change happen during these periods. Some rigorous analysis has been done on how companies perform during and after a recession and it turns out there are some things that winning companies do to come out ahead.

Studies

A recent study by Bain & Company found that twice as many companies made the leap from laggards to leaders during the last recession as during surrounding periods of economic calm. In fact, nearly a quarter of all companies with the highest or lowest industry rankings moved completely to the other extreme during a recession. Only half as many companies made such dramatic changes before or after the recession. The changes made at turning points tend to endure. Of the firms that made major gains in revenue or profitability during the last recession, more than 70% sustained those gains through the next boom cycle. The corollary was also true: fewer than 30% of those that lost ground were able to regain their positions.

In 1985 McGraw-Hill Research studied 600 business-to-business firms that maintained or increased their advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession. Those firms averaged significantly higher sales growth, both during the recession and for the following three years, than those that eliminated or decreased advertising. On average they grew their revenue over 3.5 times faster than those that reduced their advertising.

In six studies conducted by the research firm Meldrum & Fewsmith over the last 60 years researchers concluded that sales and profits can be maintained and increased in recession years and in the years immediately following by those who are willing to maintain an aggressive posture, while others adopt the philosophy of cutting back.

A 1990 study by the Center for Research and Development showed similar results, with more aggressive firms gaining 4.5 times the market share of their less aggressive competitors. These companies use the flux in the market to solidify their customer base, take business away from less aggressive competitors, and position people for the future during recovery. These businesses enjoyed measurably higher net income gains during the recession and even two years after the recession.

These findings show that recessions are not so much slowdowns as the best time to accelerate. A recession creates a number of strategic opportunities to make deals or to take advantage of weaker players and make advances in a company’s competitive market position. You should cash in on the opportunity that rival companies are creating. If you are courageous enough to stay in the fight when everyone else is playing it safe you’ll come out ahead – and progress made during a recession accelerates when conditions improve.

Marketing and Competition

As other businesses cut advertising and retreat from the market, each and every dollar you spend becomes more valuable and has more impact. With less competition for buyer attention, your firm stands out. Consumers don’t stop spending money; they simply spend it with more care. The mere fact that you’re visible during a tough economic time sends a signal of stability and strength and customers and competitors alike will notice. You may need to make some changes in your marketing approach. Don’t make the mistake of trying to attract a wider range of clients, focus even better on the niches you already serve well. Ironically, the more you focus your marketing, the bigger the opportunities become, and the easier it is to get a referral. ‘Everyone’ is not a good target market; it’s hard to communicate and even more difficult to generate referrals.

Pick off smaller clients from competitors
Don’t go for your competitors’ best clients; they’ll be working very hard to protect them. Instead, look for the secondary clients who aren’t as valuable and target those. There are a variety of online tools to find and connect with decision makers.

Weed out your pipeline
Take a good hard look at your prospect pipeline. Some of those ‘maybe sometime in the future’ names you can probably put firmly into the ‘not going to happen’ category. Don’t waste your attention on opportunities you can’t readily close. Make sure your lead management system is getting the most from every prospect opportunity and not letting anything fall through the cracks.

Figure out where you get the most leads
While you’re examining your marketing efforts count where you actually get most of your best prospects. Unless you are already tracking those numbers there is probably some variance between what you think and the actual results. Now is not the time to be guessing.

Find good referral sources
When you know your best referral sources concentrate on serving them well to solidify and grow those relationships. Next, find more just like them. Make sure you have a proactive value proposition since your competitors are trying to get referrals from them as well. The best way to generate referral activity is to provide some real value first. You should have a separate marketing campaign dedicated to reaching other centers of influence such as attorneys, bankers, accountants, and other professionals.

Create marketing profiles
Clearly define and describe the types of clients you serve best and then design specific marketing and services to offer them that are tailored to their needs. Examples of typical customer profiles are: middle age empty nest couple; young families, people over the age of 80, family business owners, or people five years from retirement. Each of these is a robust market and they have very different needs. You wouldn’t talk to them in the same way, find them in the same places, or offer them the same products or services. Being more of a specialist also raises your expertise and demand. For a firm with multiple producers this is a great way to have both a wide range of offerings and focused specialties.

People and Culture

Your people are your competitive advantage; your customers can get all the same products at a number of other firms. They know what’s going on, they hear the news, and they have a lot of the same questions. It’s up to you as a leader to communicate the opportunity, the vision, and the plan that will make you all successful. Employees know they’ll have to work a bit harder which they’ll gladly do if they know they’re on a winning team. It’s easier to keep people moving than to get people moving so use this jolt to their routine to raise the bar a bit.

Keep training
When activity slows down it can be a good time to continue training all your people, not just producers. Doing so will get people thinking about productivity, help integrate any other changes you’re making, and send a message to your employees that you value them enough to invest in their future with you.

Clear deadwood
One thing everyone worries about during a recession is layoffs. Cutting people is often a knee jerk reaction that harms morale, reduces capabilities, and ultimately makes the business weaker. As you’re taking a closer look at your business you may conclude that some people may be redundant, non-productive, or negative. Easy times allow for some slack that lets people coast. When you need everyone rowing just as hard make sure you have the right people in the right seats. Too little turnover is just as bad as too much turnover so take advantage of some good people who are now available who can help your business become what you want it to be. Look to the hiring side first. Once you see what’s available it will be easier to make the transition.

Forge new habits
As businesses move from one level to the next, new sets of procedures and habits must be ingrained in order to support the growth. Allow for some time to transition and don’t slide back into the old way just because it’s more familiar. Regular communication and accountability are the tools to make this happen.

Get out
Be active and be seen in your market, community, and professional groups. Have everyone get out more to attend networking events, business mixers, and other events where your prospects are likely to congregate. Pick up new skills or market insights. Be a ready resource; now is when people are worrying and asking questions. Spend some individual quality time with your best referral sources and never stop asking how you can help them.

Operations and Strategy

Spend some time working on your business, not just in it. If activity has slowed some now you have more time to do those things you never get to otherwise. Don’t undertake a gigantic business transformation. Select small parts, analyze, improve, and keep going. Correct quickly once you start to see how well or not something works.

Stick with your strengths
Now is not the time to stray too far from your core specialty. This is not to say don’t innovate or adjust your offerings, make sure that whatever you do plays from your strengths. Focus is one of the keys to success from companies that have historically done well in recessionary times.

Make only sustainable changes
Consider any changes you make as if they’re permanent. Don’t react in a panic; only do things that are fundamentally good for your business. For example, if you just cut prices it will be hard or impossible to raise them again later. If you introduce a new service or product it should have long term value for your customers and your business. If it doesn’t it will be a distraction now and a drag later.

Be more efficient
Look for ways to make your internal operations more efficient, although not at expense of being more effective. Cost effective tip: ask the people who do the work, they already have some ideas. It’s easier to see and analyze your workflow when everyone is not buried in tasks. Streamline procedures, update and document systems, and cross train people; this doesn’t have to be expensive. Your carrier, broker dealer, wire house, or wholesaler may have facilities, technology, or services that are designed to make you more efficient, both for you and for them. Take advantage of those.

Make better deals
It’s a good time to negotiate pricing and terms on anything you buy, especially long term commitments. Rent, equipment leases, advertising, courier services, and outsourced services are some examples where, if you’re willing to commit in advance, you can lock in some good deals. Now is also a good time to consolidate vendors. Instead of spreading your business around several companies direct it to a few and get some benefits from them, maybe better pricing or preferred service. You will also save yourself the hassle of multiple invoices. Telecommunications, office supplies, and overnight delivery are good places to look.

Grow by acquisition
One of the strategic opportunities that arise in a recession is the chance to acquire other books of business. Owners who have been in business a long time may not relish the prospect of another hard year or two and opt to retire now. You can get the best deals, add a large number of customers, and be noticed in the business community as a dynamic, successful firm.

Social media

Email and instant messaging were new not too long ago. There was a time when websites were a novelty, now no one takes you seriously unless you have a good one. Since 70% of people who make a major purchase decision begin their research online you can’t afford not to have that presence.

The next way of using the internet, called ‘social media’ or ‘web 2.0’ is more interactive. Your first website was an online brochure – you posted it and people read it – there was no way for them to connect with you. Now the focus is on connecting and conversing with people and lots of web applications are sprouting up to enable that. Social media is a whole new way of using internet connectivity that is still evolving. It is inexorably making its way into businesses and it’s only a matter of time before things have changed as significantly as with web pages and email.

This is not another channel to use to push out your message. There is a conversation already going on out there that is relevant to your business. At issue is whether or not you participate in it. Tapping into this conversation affords you several opportunities. You can get to know people and build a relationship, learn what’s on their mind, and understand them and their situation before there is a recognized need. There are plenty of opportunities to demonstrate your expertise and character and you can garner introductions and referrals. While it’s no substitute for face to face interaction, it is a very efficient way to increase your reach and responsiveness.

The most successful practitioners in the financial and insurance industries work primarily on the basis of relationships, not transactions. All of social media is predicated on connection, conversation, collaboration, and relationship. In some ways it’s the ideal way to interact with people online. Getting involved, even a small bit, puts you way ahead of everyone else in your industry. You will make new connections you otherwise wouldn’t have made, just at a time when you most need them. You’ll have a presence in places your competition doesn’t even know exist and have a definite advantage with those already using these tools.

The dollar investment in social media is minimal; the applications are accessible for free. The investment is more in the time and attention of the right people to participate. Fortunately, in a recession you have more time and less money so it’s an especially opportune time to begin.

Conclusion

A recession really is a time of opportunity if you know how to take advantage of it. How your business performs now will set your course for years to come. Work from your strengths and stay focused on your core specialties. Make strategic moves towards new customers and markets either by organic growth or by acquisition. Don’t just react and make some changes you’ll need to undo later, have a plan and methodically execute it. Use this opportunity to improve your people and operations and get ready to take your business to the next level.

Author contact: john AT InterSource.net

If you buy into the ‘our people are our biggest asset’ philosophy – hard not to, especially in a service business – then surely there must be some connection between HR and profitability. It turns out there is a direct and significant correlation between HR practices and the company’s financial performance. Let’s start at the bottom line and work our way up.

According to the recent Cornell University / Gevity Institute Study, companies that use the most effective system of HR management practices experience revenue growth that is 22% higher, profit growth that is 23% higher, and turnover that is 67% lower than comparable companies not using those practices. The difference is even bigger in firms that face greater competition, are pursuing growth strategies, and are larger in size.

The best practices that produce these results revolve around three strategy sets: employee selection strategy based on person-organization fit; employee management strategy based on self-management; and employee motivation and retention strategy based on creating a family-like environment. Most people don’t realize there is a choice in how to manage employees; they just do it the way they’ve always seen it done.

These practices don’t emerge on their own, they need to be driven by the HR leadership. An HR staffer with only a compliance background and no business perspective won’t be able to effect these changes. As long as the HR department is only that ‘necessary evil’ then the opportunity for a strategic advantage will be lost.

Which brings us now to the top. A good CEO is always looking for the best way to maximize the short and long term performance and value of the business. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, there are now plenty of options available that enable the CEO to create the right combination of internal and outsourced capability. The goal is to have the best mix of compliance, daily operations, and strategic thinking about the human capital. A CEO who recognizes the strategic value of HR will have a competitive edge in the market – and more money in the bank.

[EDIT December 5, 2008]

You can listen to more detail on this topic in a presentation made to CEO/Business owners here.