Black In Business

What a surprise to see the economy could grow at a faster pace but we need skilled workers. How can this help blacksinbusiness? It could mean descrimination will be less in those jobs where supply of skilled workers is low and demand is high.

I am in the business of recruitment and own a search firm,www.grnoakpark.com.I am new in this business but have already found that for my speciality, good people are hard to find. Finding job orders is easier but matching skilled medical business professionals is difficult. Please see the CNN report below for more insight

http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/04/news/economy/jobs_outlook/index.htm?postversion=2007010514

My last few positions in Corporate America I noticed a trend that would alarm shareholders. Company management spent less and less time understanding customer needs. For blackinbusiness readers, it is safe to assume the better we understand our customers, the more value we can bring to them. The more value we bring, the more sales and profit goes up. The more sales and profits go up, the more value shareholders recieve.

We all know, a corporate culture focused on the customer, is what every one wants. Corporations are filled with smart people, why have we becomed so internally focused? What gets in the way.

Leadership wants their team close with them. The leader does not want to screw up their  well planned day by being involved with customers.

My God, we have to have all day meetings so we know we are busy.

We have to present what we are going to do, and do it over if not done right

We need to explain, what happen last month, and recieve coaching, that the results are not acceptable, now fix them.

We need to monitor activity to ensure we inspect to get what we expect.

Some folk like to be around the boss, who is always in, so the boss will know they are good.

We have to read our email.

To different degrees, I think all companies have this issue. Some things that help are as follows.

Senior Management must travel to see customers. Have them assigned to large customers and have personal contact on a quarterly basis. This will help to elevate the level of contact within your top customers and make them feel more important.

The top staff members should adopt a region and commit to a few days a month of field travel with in that region. 4 days a month is a good start. This will also enhance field communications if the staff member can attend a sales meeting as well.

Front Line managers in sales should spend 3 days a week traveling with their sales people and being a coach. The sales manager should recruit in house staff to visit their customers and travel with their sales people.

The sales people need to make their customers and prospects their number 1 priority. Their selling time must be scacred.

Senior staff and Senior management must commit to removing barriers to field travel. This means, any unecessary meetings, reports or deadlines. Front line management and sales people must commit to a plan of action for every prospect and customer that will result in growth.

Ask your  self,is your company internal or external in focus. Blogging is a great way to build community with your customer base but far too few companies blog today. If you are not blogging and are internal in focus, your chances for sustainable success is less than if you are blogging and are external in focus.

The increased time with customers should make in house meetings more productive. You will introduce better products because your design goals will reflect true customer needs.

Your customers and employees will trust and respect your judgement more but most important, at the end of the day, your business will improve. 

What does this have to do with business? As citizens of the world we must be informed. We depend on our media and brag about freedom of the press. I recieved a couple of interesting comments on my”Murder of a World Leader” post. Jo provided  an outstanding link that I want to share. Very interesting.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/2779.shtml

I did my first post 10/16/06. A barbershop business, if you missed go back and look in the archives. This is one of my favorite posts.

This entire journey started over breakfast with entrepreneur extraoridinaire Chris Baggott, co founder of Exact Target Marketing and Chris Baggott best email practices. Chris worked for me and has always been a special talent. Picture this here we are businessman to businessman and Chris says J.D., you know what blogs are don’t you and I say yes. Lucky for me Chris explained the entire thing to me and we started to blog. Without Chris there would be no blackinbusiness.org. Doug Karr had been my mentor and deserves thanks. I think I scared these two a little with my now deleted “questions to ponder post.” Too controversial and keep in mind I had no idea this would be received, but I knew the topic. I begged my friends to give me feedback and they have been generous in their assessments.

I want to thank Jaime Parks, Mike Sanson, Shawn Hessinger and Chris Cree for their early endorsements of my site. They have provided me the courage to carry on.

The blog community is an amazing place and I have read some important as well as some funny, thought provoking and many great posts. My blog roll is made up from people whose work you may enjoy as well.

I have 45 posts and some if you missed you may want to look up such as:

10 rules for Black in Business success

Diversity

Affirmative Action

Reverse Discriminatiion

Start your engine

Greatness is a state of mind

Keep Hope Alive

Blog Roll

Divya Uttam

This young woman from India is remarkable for her business acumen. Her blogging to fame is full of information and knowledge. She is gifted. Check it out, a word of caution from Divya, “If your business model on the web is boring and your website sucks you are already out of business.”

G Lilly Jr.

Mo Bettah Marketing

A blog giving free education in the life of a 30 something year old entrepreneur.

I love his style, wit, intellect and passion for excellence. Read G Lilly Jr’s blog and you will learn about business. Diamonds are forever, this brother touches the sky.

Liz Strauss

Successful Blog

Incredible written communication skills. A compassionate voice on blogging, branding strategies, writing and more than a blog ideas. I love Liz’s energy.

Twinsherry

My Rainbow Cafe

Artfully done by an author that is supportive and giving. Visit you will enjoy.

Political Grind: Bi Partisan

Politics

www.politicalgrind.com

Good Stuff!

David Mcqueen- davidmcqueen.blogspot

Brother from U.K. Nice topics, remember we are citizens of the world.

Denise Aday

Adayva.com

Virtual Assistant- She handles the details and provides good solutions, she is the go to person.

The CAT- www.designers-who-blog.com

Tuluum

TriniGourmet.com

If you like great food or just love to cook, check it out.

Media Lizzy

Media Lizzy-blogspot

Insideconderedcarp

A dazzling use of written expression combined with life’s lessons make this blog tick. Good sense of humor.

www.Grnoakpark.com

My executive search business. Hey I need some business. Send some resumes I specialize in health care.

Ted Demopoulos

Author blogger- Darthmonth Graduate

Ted is heavy. He took time to give some advice. Ted is a classmate with a good friend of Mark Cruise. Mark was a great salesman for me and now remains great in software sales.

beninwangi

The Benin Epilogue- AfficareReadyforbusiness.blogspot.com

Another international brother.

Jennifer Carr

Brooklyn in da house! Jen blogs about commentary/culture/media/history/class politics/art/race/identity/music/community. Give her a look I like the topics.

George Bush had overwhelming support to go to war and bomb Iraq with shock and awe. It was considered un American to exercise our Bill of Rights, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The country band from Texas, The Dixie Girls found out when they said,”George Bush makes them ashamed to be from Texas.

Now that support has lessen and the true purpose of war exposed,a hit on Saddamn, how many more of us are ashamed to be American. Hangings are a part of America’s history with heckling mobs, in the past the man at the end of the rope was a blackman.  See the BBC story below to see how one of our allies reacted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6233951.stm