We’re excited to introduce an innovative new concept we have created to meet your training and development needs. The ProFound Business Enrichment Consortium offers top-tier trainings in a group setting on a monthly basis at a great price.
Designed for small to mid-sized businesses in the Northwest Arkansas area, the Consortium offers three primary benefits:
Relevant, business-impacting trainings that will help develop and motivate your employees;
A powerful network of professionals who are looking to grow their own skills as well as find solutions for their workplace;
Engaging and experienced trainers who will ensure each monthly session is valuable and applicable.
All of this comes at a significant value. Because by sharing the costs of training with other companies, each company gets the same training experience at a much reduced price.
You can also join the Consortium now by clicking here. Special discounts are available for those who join by August 15! Classes start in September.
We were honored to be featured recently on the front page of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. It was an opportunity for us to tell about some of the recent changes at our firm and our outlook for 2009. Call me a contrarian, but I am optimistic about our prospects. Perhaps it is because I am determined to learn some lessons from the past while still keeping a razor-sharp focus on where we are headed for the future and how to make the most of those opportunities. Here’s my thinking.
First, let it be known that I appreciate a good lesson from the past. During last fall’s economic meltdown, I came across an article in the McKinsey Quarterly that caught my eye and certainly fits the bill for my desire to learn what history can teach us. The article is titled “Learning to love recessions” and the subhead reads “Most companies battened down the hatches during the recession of the early ‘90s. But the more successful competitors pressed their advantages.”
The article had much to share, but the key take-away was this: companies who invested wisely during a recession in those things that would help them over the long-run, rather than reacting to a slow-down in the short-run, came out ahead in the end and were worth at least 25% more than their unsuccessful challengers who simply hunkered down.
According to the article, here are a few of the right moves to make in a recession:
Make strategic acquisitions of competitors or compatible companies;
Spend more on selling, communications, branding, training and other activities that will increase business opportunities, employee capabilities and, eventually, long-term market share;
Invest in R&D and innovation to extend a market position and product/service offerings;
Have cash reserves built up that will open up options like these when money is tight for everyone else.
Great thinking for those of us facing the current recession. But now here’s where my attention turns toward the future. While it’s tempting to feel overwhelmed about what’s going on around us and worrying about tomorrow, I try to keep our team focused on what they can control and how we can take some measure of control over our own destiny. Here’s what I tell them. People are still doing business – even in a recession – and they are always searching for partners who will help them succeed, maybe more so now than ever. For us, it’s our clients and prospects who are searching for agency partners who can help them build their relationships, their reputation and ultimately their business results. So keep your head in the game, your focus on the client and your work on the mark.
If we can do that, we’ll be the one they choose. Article used with permission from Northwest Arkansas Business Journal
