Business Agility is more complicated than simply being willing to shift gears all the time. Everyone has heard the fable about the tortoise and the hare. Conventional wisdom says that slow and steady wins the race. A strategy may not be perfect, but if one executes it patiently and consistently, it may outperform better initiatives that don’t get the benefit of time. However, in today’s rapidly changing bu...

Much has been made about human jobs that will potentially be replaced by automation and artificial intelligence in the coming years. But where does that leave businesses that base so much of their success on intimate, human connections? And how can owners who are already struggling to stay in business today contend with the prospect of having to future-proof their companies? I reached out to three owners, Ben Landers, C...

Business owners who wish to increase their growth trajectory should be mindful of succession issues and make solid plans to ensure that the next generation of leaders is ready to take over. Manager training is a critical part of the mix, but should your business engage in formal or informal training, and what type of mentorship should you encourage? I spoke with three business owners about their strategies for getting th...

As a long-time partner of Staples and Xerox, I just traveled to New York City to spend National Small Business Week with the two organizations, learning how they’re helping small business customers and entrepreneurs be more productive with the new multi-function self-serve machines in Staples stores across the country. By 2030, more than half of American professionals will no longer go to an office every day. Gett...

Last week, SilkRoad presented a webinar, Employee as Consumer: Building a Differentiated Experience Through the Lifecycle, with HR Daily Advisor. We talked about the consumerization of HR, the creation of a meaningful employee experience throughout the lifecycle, and how design thinking, talent activation, and employer branding play into it. At the end of the session, Jennifer asked: How do you create an experience that...

We started talking about the consumerization of IT several years ago, as employees began to demand technology solutions at work on their own terms, via their own devices. It was natural, then, that the discussion eventually moved to the consumerization of HR. People now expect an experience at work that is comparable to the experience they have at home via apps like Netflix and Amazon. To be more explicit, employees are...

In the summer of 1996 after my sophomore year of college, I started an internship at a nonprofit technology association in downtown Washington, D.C. Until that point, I’d only worked in retail and had no idea what to expect. I asked my father and a professor for advice. Remarkably, 20 years later much of that guidance still resonates. Doors open based on who you know In the late 90s, these were physical doors...

It’s not a new concept. In the late 1790s, American statesman Thomas Paine called for a universal payment of £15 per year to all his countrymen in exchange for the right to hold private property. First suggested over 200 years ago, the idea of universal basic income never quite went away, and in many circles, it’s actually picking up steam. Progressive Finland is officially the first sovereign na...

It's a new year, and if you're like most owners, you want to use it as an opportunity to level up your company. Employing new business technology is one way to help your enterprise and your employees be as efficient and productive as possible. But technology for technology's sake could hurt. We are so inundated with new solutions that it's difficult to assess what's truly important. I discussed this i...

There are two primary ways to procure skills that don't exist in your organization. The first, building expertise, refers to training current employees in the new areas. The second, acquiring expertise, involves either hiring new employees or partners or merging with another organization so that the requisite skills are instantly available. Understanding this distinction can be important to how you formulate your 2017 g...