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MORAL ARMOR'S Irrational Parenting, Part II
Handing Down Malignancy. Children may begin bright and eager to face the world, but are often inundated with the conditioning of their fear-ridden predecessors speaking of lost dreams—taken by no one in particular. Their guardians appear...

One Foot In Each Camp
One Foot In Each Camp © 2002 Elena Fawkner You have a full-time job but secretly you yearn to break free of the corporate shackles and strike out on your own. You have a great idea for a business but you need the income from your job to pay...

Thai women odded business beats the odds
My Thai, Direct Importers celebrates 3 year anniversary milestone. Wilmington, DE---May 1, 2003—My Thai, General Partnership, a Delaware based direct importer which started operations May 1, 2000, offers quality handcrafted products...

Why Don't They Just Get It Done: 7 Performance Tactics for CEO's
Why Don't They Just Get It Done: 7 Performance Tactics for CEO's Otan Logi - Tactical Advisor Associates Buckling under the weight of chronic corporate restructuring, and frustrated by performers who don't respond to carefully crafted strategic...

Why Small Businesses Fail (or Fail to Thrive)
Tammy, a skilled and gifted horticulturist, called me to discuss what she needed to know to start her own florist and landscaping business. She had been in the horticulture industry for 10 years and was incredibly skilled at working with flowers...

 
Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business - A Book Summary

This article is based on the following book:
Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business
"10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning"
By Ram Charan
Published by Crown Publishing Group, 2004
ISBN 1-4000-5152-5
198 pages

The days of ruthless downsizing and drastic cost cutting are long gone. Nowadays, companies have realized that the best way to earn profit is only through growth – profitable growth. In this book, author Ram Charan provides 10 tools anyone can use to hurdle obstacles and achieve profitable growth.

These tools are:

1. Revenue growth is everyone’s business, so make it part of everyone’s daily work routine.

2. Hit many singles and doubles, not just home runs.

3. Seek good growth and avoid bad growth.

4. Dispel the myths that inhibit both people and organizations from growing.

5. Turn the idea of productivity on its head by increasing revenue productivity.

6. Develop and implement a growth budget.

7. Beef up upstream marketing.

8. Understand how to do effective cross-selling (or value/solutions selling).

9. Create a social engine to accelerate revenue growth.

10. Operationalize innovation by converting ideas into revenue growth. One of the most critical points discussed is the need for re-orientation of thinking. Most
businessmen and executives think about growth as “home-runs” and more often than not disregard the “singles
and doubles”. Managers often look forward to the big breakthrough or the grand new product without realizing
that home runs don’t happen everywhere – sometimes, they
don’t even happen in a decade.

Instead of aiming for that one grand home run, aim for singles and doubles. This is a surer and more consistent
path. Of course, it is important to note that while aiming for singles and doubles, one should not exclude
home runs. These singles and doubles come from an in-depth analysis of ALL the fundamentals of a business.

Another factor to be considered is the difference between good growth and bad growth. Managers should dispel the
myth that growth in whatever form is a victory. Although growth (both good and bad) builds revenue, only good
growth increases not only revenues but also improves profits and is sustainable over time.

Bad growth, on the other hand, lowers shareholder value. Unwise mergers and acquisitions are examples of bad
growth. Price cutting to gain market share without cutting costs can also be detrimental to your company’s health.

Here are some questions that can help you diagnose whether or not you are part of a growth business:

1. What percentage of time and emotional energy does the management team routinely


Around The Jazz Internet: May 18, 2012
Ten albums for newbies, the hated Cabaret Card and composer/arranger Gil Evans' centennial.

The Harmonica-Playing Baron Of Belgium
Whistling guitarist and harmonica master Toots Thielemans has played in everything from Charlie Parker's band to commercials for Old Spice. In his childhood home of Brussels — really, throughout his homeland — the celebration of his 90th birthday is on.


devote to revenue growth?

2. Are there just exhortations and talk about growth or is there actually follow through?

3. Do managers talk about growth only in terms of home runs? Do they understand the importance of singles and doubles for long-term, sustained organic growth?

4. How much of each management team member’s time is devoted to making effective visits with customers? Do
they do more than listen and probe for information and then try to “connect the dots”?

5. Does the management team come into contact with the final user of your product?

6. Are people in the business clear about what the specific future sources of revenue growth will be? Do they know who is accountable?

7. Would you characterize your company or business unit’s culture as cost cutting or growth oriented? If the answer is one or another you need to start doing both. Do people in leadership positions have the skill, orientation, and determination to grow revenues?

8. Does the company practice revenue productivity? Does it think through whether there are ways to more effectively use current resources to generate higher revenues?

9. How well does your sales force extract intelligence from customers and other players in the marketplace? How well is this information communicated and acted on by other parts of your organization, such as product development?

10. How good are the upstream marketing skills- that is, the ability to segment markets and identify consumer attributes- in your business?

About the Author:

Ram Charan is coauthor of the landmark Fortune article "Why CEOs Fail" and an adviser on corporate governance,
CEO succession, and strategy implementation. He was named as Best Teacher by Northwestern's Kellogg School and as a top-rated executive educator by Business Week. He is
author of Boards at Work, coauthor of Every Business Is a Growth Business, and a frequent contributor to Harvard
Business Review. (6/2000)

By: Regine P. Azurin

Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.

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Wisdom In A Nutshell

About the Author

Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.