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Products and Services that Address Deep Rooted Social Problems

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Perhaps you’ve read the game-shifting books The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, by C.K. Prahalad or The Business Solution to Poverty by Paul Polak and Mal Warwick. They prove that the most economically disadvantaged people on the planet create a great market for social entrepreneurs – AND provide a terrific testing ground for innovation and cost control. This can be part of your strategy.

These products and services become even more powerful through a lens of deep sustainability, co-solving multiple problems and incorporating multiple benefits. Two examples:

Let There Be Light

d.light’s simple three-item product line simultaneously addresses poverty, education, air pollution/toxic fumes/health risks, energy savings, carbon footprint, and more—and makes a huge difference in lives of its customers. d.light’s deeply holistic analysis of the problems faced by people in poverty led to developing inexpensive, durable solar-powered LED lanterns (sold on time payments) to replace kerosene, open fires—or darkness.

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About the Author

Shel HorowitzGreen/social change business profitability expert Shel Horowitz, “The Transformpreneursm,” shows you how profit by greening your business, turning hunger and poverty into sufficiency, war into peace, and catastrophic climate change into planetary balance. Shel’s 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World, highlights profitable and successful socially responsible strategies used by companies from Fortune 100 to solopreneurs.

Management Observation Program Best Practice 12 – Documented Management Observation Program

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StrategyDriven Management Observation Program Best Practice ArticleEffective performance improvement programs promote alignment of business operations with the organization’s vision, mission, values, and goals. Such programs consistently identify opportunities to improve high value-adding operations and to eliminate low value-adding activities. These programs themselves are highly efficient and capable of producing repeatable results. Documenting the business performance assessment process provides the framework necessary to achieve this level of focused execution consistency.

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Affordable Business Consulting – Experienced Advisors

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StrategyDriven’s radically different approach to management consulting provides you the access you want – no more and no less – to the business executives and senior managers who have the hard-earned experience needed to get the job done faster, better, and ultimately cheaper.

 

Ever wonder why your consultants’ teams are so large? Or question the value of high-priced ‘partner time’ especially when these individuals are not materially engaged in the consulting process?
 
From time-to-time, all organizations encounter a need for specialized knowledge, skills, or resources they don’t maintain on staff. When the need is temporary, the engagement of high-quality consultants is a great way to fill these gaps. But every dollar spent on consultants should go to bettering your company’s bottom line, not building-up your consultants’ businesses or paying for unnecessary overheads.

StrategyDriven offers you access to seasoned business leaders in the amount that you want, a few hours a month or fill time. You decide.

Combine this with our use of your staff, our vast array of fully developed methods and tools, and our elimination of high cost overheads such as bricks and mortar offices and you get superior advisory services at a dramatically lower cost.

But don’t take my word for it, try our services for yourself. When you signup for StrategyDriven’s Self Guided Insights Library, you’ll gain FREE access to hundreds of our how-to business management and leadership documents spanning topics from strategic planning to day-to-day business execution. Created by respected business leaders from around the world, these documents provide you with the real-world tested, immediately implementable advice you need to take your organization to the next level of performance.

Leaders: Build Your Pre-Resilience for Times of Crisis

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Your organization is going to face a crisis. This is not a question of IF but WHEN. Our world is too complex, markets too volatile, and technology too fast-paced for us to relax into complacency about organizational safety and normalcy.

What’s a leader to do? How is a leader to be ready? How can leaders prepare, knowing disasters are becoming commonplace?

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About the Authors

Harry Hutson and Martha JohnsonA 25-year veteran in senior human resources and leadership and development roles in four multinational companies, Harry Hutson is now an independent consultant. He has passion for talent development, change management, organizational integration, and – most of all – finding a way when people feel lost or confused and tough choices need to be made. He lives in Chapel Hill, NC and teaches classes in Executive Education and the MBA Program at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina.

Martha Johnson is a leadership expert who draws on the lessons she learned as an executive with a more than 35-year career in business and government. Johnson is former Administrator of the General Services Administration under President Obama and also served for eight years in the Clinton Administration. Her private sector career has spanned the information technology, architecture, strategic consulting, and automotive industries.

Choose the Best Equipment for Your Business with These Quick Tips

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Choose the Best Equipment for Your Business with These Quick Tips
Photo courtesy of MathKnight

Every business needs some kind of equipment to run. For some it might be computers, for others, it could be heavy machinery. Whatever equipment your company needs, you need to take the time to select the right products. There are several factors you need to take into consideration when you’re deciding. The initial and running costs are important to think about, and so is the efficiency of your business. You don’t want your equipment to slow down productiveness or to produce less than desirable results. Before you make any decisions, take these essential factors into account.

Deciding Whether to Lease or Buy

When you have to buy expensive equipment, you should think about whether you want to rent or buy. Cost is obviously the primary factor in choosing which one is best for you. If you want to buy, you’ll have to have a large sum of money up front. If you decide to rent your equipment, you can make smaller payments. However, you may feel that this is money going to waste. In some cases, you might have the option to rent to buy, meaning you will eventually own the equipment. You need to think about other factors too, however. For example, leasing means you can keep up with developing technology more easily.

Consider Your Requirements

Before you settle on what you’re looking for, you have to have a think about your requirements. It’s best not to start by looking at what other companies use and recommend. That can come later, but for now, it could lead you in the wrong direction. Different businesses have varying needs, so you can’t just copy someone else. You need to think about what you need your equipment to do. Which are the most important factors? Is it how fast they can do the job for which they’re intended? Is it their lifespan and how easy they are to maintain and repair?

Choose the Best Equipment for Your Business with These Quick Tips
Photo courtesy of Mixabest

Think Beyond the Purchase Cost

If cost is important to you, don’t just consider the initial price of your equipment. There is rarely a piece of equipment that won’t also cost you money to run and maintain. It’s essential to look beyond the base price and work out a lifetime cost of using something. For example, fuel efficiency is critical for heavy plant operations. It wouldn’t be much use if you saved on machinery but then had to spend a lot of money on fuel. A cheaper option could require repairs more often too, which would raise the lifetime cost of the equipment.

Comparing Your Options

Once you know what you’re looking for, you can start comparing what’s available. One of the best ways to make it easier is to look for comparison sites. You can also go to manufacturer and supplier websites, where they often have a product comparison function. Choose your most important factors to consider so you can weigh your options against each other.

Choosing the right equipment is essential for your business’s efficiency and bottom line. Make sure you put some time into your decisions.