Insight, Reach360 to Host (anti)Cost Accounting Seminar March 24

Insight Strategic Concepts together with Reach360 back office solutions will again partner to provide an opportunity for area businesses people to learn from the experts.

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“Product cost” is probably the most cherished sacred cow in industry. It is also the most damaging concept.

The idea is that as long as the selling price is higher than the cost of the product/service, the company is making money by producing and selling that product/service.

If that is really the case, why is it that for almost any company that loses money the reality is that for everyone of its product/services the selling price is higher than the product/service cost?

On March 24th at 8:00 AM at Elcona, Reach 360 and Insight Strategic Concepts offer you the opportunity to hear world renowned speaker Dr. Donn J. Novotny outline and explore the theory that the standard practice of cost accounting is actually Enemy #1 of Productivity.

Get more information & RSVP

Overcoming Conflict

Conflict is a natural and normal stage of progress in the formation of relationships.  When you have the right tools and are resolving conflict with someone where mutual respect and common values are in place, resolving conflict can be a very enlightening and rewarding process.  Unresolved conflict, however, negatively impacts a person’s job, family, and health. 

Most conflict lingers because people are afraid to touch it.  They are afraid that some catastrophic explosion will result from directly addressing specific incidents of conflict.  Conflict is not anything to fear, it must be viewed as a welcomed part of achieving great solutions.

Each situation is unique to the people involved and respect for the process and other person is important for success.  However, we’ve developed steps for dialog to demonstrate the types of considerations to be made when committing to resolving conflict.  The flow of sharing and understanding can bring great clarification when resolving conflict.  Read the full article here.

Job Matching

Employee confidence with leaving their job is growing, despite the economy.  People are going to competitors who are better employers, redesigning their careers, fining their own niche either within a company or out on their own.  Organization make great strides in measures to analyze the capability and capacities of their business, leaders often fail to take such measure for their employees.  Research shows that employees who can utilize their natural talents in the workplace are happier and stay longer.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful for each of your employees to have a job that matched their style, their instincts, and gave them daily satisfaction?

Introducing job matching.  Job matching is a process of organizational strategy development, job structuring and talent identification.  It is a collaboration process involving the entire organization and all current and potential employees.  While this may sound overwhelming, it really breaks down into two key developments:  1) define your organizational goals and expectations and 2) know your people.

To assist in this process.  Insight Strategic Concepts® developed a process by which an organization can align its own strategy with the unique talents of each employee.  Utilizing a process of goal development, talent assessments, and feedback loops, your organization can finally match the perfect person to the perfect job.

Read the entire process for more information. 

Mind Your Interview

Research shows that the mind is divided into three parts, relating, striving and thinking.  Understanding the three parts allows us to understand how a person relates to others, strives to perform, and thinks to process information.  When an organization conducts an interview, the employer only gets to see a portion of how that person relates to others.  How that person will actually perform in a role is still unknown.

We here at Insight® developed a process for mapping the parts of the mind to better assess how the interviewee will fit into the company. We call it the Whole Mind Candidate Assessment Process.  Insight® can gather resumes based on criteria and provide support to assure that given your budget, job requirements, and internal recruiting skills, you are adding the right people to the right jobs.  Now you can view the complete interview process that assesses all three parts of the mind for final job candidate selections.

The Leadership Journey

Leadership.  It’s a word that’s used often but truly seen of few.  There are thousands of books written on leadership:  leadership styles, becoming a leader, how to lead, etc.  But leadership doesn’t come from a book, it comes from the way we live.  Leadership is a journey, not a destination. 

Rather than another article on leadership, we found an article from 2008 that peers into the lives of Tom Coughlin and Bobby Knight.  Both leadership journeys are easy to conical through their sometimes rocky and sometimes great moments in sports history.  These two didn’t read about leadership, they lived it.  Go to the full article to read about Coughlin and Knight’s leadership journeys.

Take the Guesswork out of Hiring

Getting the right people into the right job is one of the most important processes of any business.  Often, this is done by reviewing job descriptions and resumes, and hoping for some kind of match.  After hiring, you hope the person’s skills and abilities will be up to your expectations.  It’s a lot of guess work.

What if you had the ability to determine what type of instincts a person possesses, what type of instincts are needed for a particular job, and then assessing and matching the person to the right job?  Well, we do with the Kolbe™ Index Assessments.  Kolbe A measures a person instinctive approach to problem solving.  The Kolbe B and C Indexes align company expectations and requirements for a specific job.  Put the three together and you are removing guesswork and objectifying the hiring process.  Matching the right person to the right job, that’s just smart business.  Link over to the entire article to read more about the Kolbe™ assessments.

Growth Trends Leading to 2011

Growth is a simple concept.  Increase output, increase sales, increase growth.  While many business leaders know they need to stay focused, the mentality is still to be everything to everyone in order to grow.  This not only creates chaos within the organization, but wears people thin.  In the end, there will be no growth and no business.

To be successful, business owners must integrate their passion, strategy, people, and work systems into a focused solution with targeted customers, not an easy task.  To help give your company direction, we have outlined eleven growth activities that will carry business owners through 2011.

Idea Recession

OK, we at the tail end of a recession (or already out, depending on who’s talking).  Productivity is moving up, but at a very slow pace.  This could be a time of great innovation. A time to try new ideas, new ways of working, greater drive and curiosity to problem solve.  However, rather than looking at the economy optimistically, leaders seem overwhelmed.  Many leaders appear to be just muddling through, hoping another bubble will come along on which they can retire.

Those that are able to find their ambitions and the next great idea will be the ones to rise ahead of the economic recovery.  As a leader, you must drive the commitment, purse and passion of your business and set the fire under your employees.  Now is not the time for status quo, it’s time for innovation.

Innovation does not have to be the next great technology.  It can be as simple as new organizational initiatives and driving towards strategically developed goals.  BLOOM™ can help you align your company with its strategy and reinvigorate your organization.  Find out more about Gearing Up Ownership and the Idea Recession.

Case Study: Logo Boys Lost

Logo Boys is a Northern Indiana Image Center company that provides embroidery, screen printing, web stores, and an in-house creative promotional and design center.  While excellent at imaging, they were lacking in marketing.  Sales were down as they tried to connect to a market – though they weren’t sure what comprised their target market.

Strategist Shelley Moore, founder of Insight Strategic Concepts®, in collaboration with Insight’s Pathfellow® Heiden Creative, aided Logo Boys in examining four areas crucial for growth:  Passion, Strategy, Collaboration and Process.  Through years of working with companies such as Logo Boys, Shelley found that once an organization understands the integration of competencies, unique market strategies, and alignment of people with organizational strategy, growth will happen.

In the end, Logo Boys achieved record months of sales.  Logo Boy increased about 10% per month over the previous year monthly sales.  Often times the skills for success are there, they just need a boost from an outside expert.  Here is the entire case study so you can learn more about the Mapping process Shelley used with the Logo Boys.

Characteristics of Successful Teams

The word team evokes a different thought in different people.  It might be teaming up for a new project at work, it might be a sports team working together to win a game, it might even be an American action adventure television series – the A-Team.  Each idea is correct.  All describe a cooperative unit working together toward a common goal.

In business, we use that word team frequently.  We have business teams, management team, problem-solving teams, new product development teams, and even the team you work with every day.  However, organizations often fail to provide teams with the tools, resources, and decision making ability to accomplish their purpose.  This results in the employees rolling their eyes with a sigh and saying “not another meeting.” Action items don’t get accomplished when team can’t function properly.

Here is an excellent article on How Teams Operate.  It’s from 2008 but it continues to ring true today.