Information relevance

Short post today, but it's about decision making.  Often people get bogged down in too much information, making it very difficult to figure out what the best choice is in a given situation. In order to have clarity to make the right decisions it is important to weed out confusing information that should not affect the outcome and focus on the important information.  There are two main criteria for determining what information should be considered.

The ABCs of Activity-Based Costing

One of my favourite MBA classes has been managerial accounting. It's like solving little math puzzles and using them to make managerial decisions.  We've learned a lot this semester but one thing that is very useful is activity-based costing. I would like to take today's article space to explain the gist of this concept. I warn you in advance: For the first time since the Time Value of Money we may need to use... math.

5 ways to protect against competition

Happy Monday, everyone!  Have you ever had a great idea for a business, then after a quick Google search, you find there's someone doing something similar?  What was your reaction?  My reaction used to be "better think of a new idea."  Having studied some business cases I realize now that this reaction is a bit ridiculous.

Business Strategy Explained

I recently handed in a final report for my strategy class that I took this term.  Strategic Management is a huge topic, and an interesting one. Strategy or the lack thereof often means the difference between success and mediocrity in business, or at worst, the difference between success and failure.  Nevertheless, many people, even senior business executives, often have only a vague understanding of what strategy is.

Segmentation and Adoption of Innovation: The FaceGuard Case

This week I had my first non-school-related consulting project.  The client had read my blog and asked if I could take a look at a project he was getting ready to launch.  I was a bit nervous, as I'm just starting out, but I thought it went rather well.

Communication

Today I went to a workshop on negotiation skills.  It was a workshop that I helped organize, with an outside speaker named Ron Thiessen.The topic was negotiation, taught over two sessions.  Today's session was the groundwork and began with effective communication.