Flagstaff Business & Online News | Northern Arizona Local Newspaper
Flagstaff Business News is a newspaper and online news source covering Northern Arizona's most influential business leaders and delivered to high income residents and local businesses.
This month is the five-year anniversary of my stepping away from being a full-time corporate CEO and starting my career as a professor and Executive in Residence at Northern Arizona University. Five years ago, I wondered how I would stay current on what was happening in corporate America, so that I could continue to teach […]
Most of my columns are based on experiences I’ve had with my former companies. Most of my organizations were in business-to-business selling, so my experience with retail is relatively limited to personal buying experiences. That being said, I think many of the practices I used still apply to today’s small business, or any retail business. […]
My column last month was titled, “Five Habits of Great Managers.” I always re-post my columns on social media and that column had by far the most views of any column I’ve ever written. In addition, I received a long list of emails about the topic. One of the most interesting questions I received was, […]
This was an interesting week for me at Northern Arizona University. Two things happened that reminded me our successes are not the result of our individual work and effort. Our successes are the result of others who have reached out and helped us climb the career ladder. The first thing that happened was a student, […]
I have been extremely fortunate during my life to have had a wide range of jobs, from delivering newspapers to helping the poorest of the poor in Kenya to leading a $130 million public company. One of the greatest opportunities and challenges is being an executive director/CEO/president of an organization. With all the personal and […]
As a manager, one of the worst things we can hear is, “I’m quitting” from one of our employees. Our immediate thought is that we are already over-worked and understaffed. Then we start thinking about the hassle of recruiting, and trying to find someone qualified to accept the pay for the cost-of-living that exists. Let […]
A couple weeks ago, I had lunch with a local CEO that was going back and forth over firing an employee. She was reluctant for two reasons: the employee was in a key position and she was worried what impact it would have on the organization and senior team. Also, the employee had been loyal. […]
This week I had a student in my management class ask which job taught me the most about running a business. As I thought back it, I realized it was probably my newspaper route in Ohio, delivering the Ravenna Record-Courier. I’m not sure which is more unfortunate; the fact that fewer and fewer people read […]
Over the last several months, I have received emails or have had students stop by my office and ask what it takes to become a CEO. I really don’t know if there are steps to get there, but in my experience, if you are a great leader, you will eventually become a CEO. I’ve put […]
Buy Your Employee Lunch on the First Day and Last An interesting thing happened to my son, Ross, recently. After graduating from college with two degrees, he has decided to return to school. This time, at a trade school that will train him in the science of Non-Destructive Testing. As part of the school, he […]
