“We prioritize people over everything,” says Ben Callahan, President of Sparkbox, an Ohio-based company that designs and develops responsive websites and applications. Ben says putting employees first is embedded in Sparkbox’s culture, and has been from the start. One of the most fundamental ways he nurtures talent and retains his leaders is by investing in the "whole person." Invest in [ Read More ]
It was the first time in 13 years as a business owner that Barry Chandler had faced this kind of emotional challenge. For the first time ever, Barry was feeling a sense of loss. It had been two years since Barry sold his subscription services and marketing agency. He had built the organization from the ground up. As part [ Read More ]
“There is a difference between positional authority in a company and pure leadership,” says Clay Mathile, Founder and Chairman at Aileron and Former CEO and owner of The Iams Company.Leadership, excellent decision-making, and great ideas can come from anywhere in the company, when you train and empower everyone to make decisions that serve the company’s strategy. That’s why Clay says, [ Read More ]
In 2008, Nick Sarillo’s team at Nick’s Pizza & Pub made the decision to abandon its expansion plans for a third restaurant, and refocus on its existing two. (Based in Illinois, Nick’s Pizza & Pub is one of the top ten busiest independent pizza companies in per-store sales in the nation. Today, it has margins nearly twice that of [ Read More ]
One hot and humid Saturday morning at Tasty Catering, a supervisor, Steven, noticed one of his team members was loading Indiana-bound equipment onto a truck headed for Wisconsin. Seeing what would be a costly mistake, he yelled, “What is the matter with you? How dumb can you be?” to his colleague. A culinary worker named Hugo Rios-Tellez was one [ Read More ]
“If you can’t communicate openly, with candor, how is collaboration even possible?” says Bob Johnston, CEO and chairman of the board of directors for Front Burner, the management company for The Melting Pot Restaurants, Inc. Bob's learned that there is great power in creating an environment where employees share their ideas, opinions, and can problem-solve together in a transparent way. "The Good, The [ Read More ]
When she first launched Student Maid, Kristen Hadeed would create long, comprehensive to-do lists for all her employees. Student Maid is a cleaning and concierge company, but not your typical cleaning company: they only employ students, helping team members grow into self-managing professionals who value flexibility, accountability, and autonomy. With the best of intentions, Kristen says she was doing all the discretionary [ Read More ]
For years, Wes Gipe, founder of Agil IT, believed that successful leaders were always strong, always knew what to say, and always had all the answers. “As a business owner, and particularly one that hadn't been involved in a lot of other businesses prior to starting my own, I had this picture in my mind about what a leader should [ Read More ]
The morning of September 17, 2004 started like many other days for businessman and entrepreneur Barry Shore. At 55, Barry had just returned from a trip overseas with his 17-year old son. Barry is the Founder and CEO of Dlyte.com and is a successful serial entrepreneur across a variety of industries. Despite waking up physically strong, by the end [ Read More ]
Every business owner has something that’s kept them up at night. For Bernard Dalichau, President of Lavender Home Care Solutions, it was the thought of losing his employees. “I put so much effort into hiring them, and I put so much effort into developing them, the fear of losing people was a huge anxiety point I had,” he says [ Read More ]
“The wisdom of the decision has nothing to do with the power of the position," says Clay Mathile, Founder and Chairman at Aileron and Former CEO and owner of The Iams Company. When you train and empower everyone to make decisions that serve the company’s strategy, that's when innovation and problem-solving can happen regardless of someone's role within the company, says [ Read More ]
Planning and setting direction for the future of your business is integral to professional management. As a result, succession planning and sustainability are a natural part of implementing the DOC model.Even though many business owners/founders produce a forward-looking vision for their company, fears or uncertainties can hold back the process of planning for a successful exit. If you don't figure [ Read More ]
