Competitiveness

The Three Most Important Rules in Business

Success - The Three Most Important Rules in Businessby Chris Banescu –
From my years of experience working for different companies and teaching various graduate business courses, I developed three rules that management must practice in order to achieve long-term profitability and success. Follow these rules, and a business can remain healthy and prosper. Ignore them, and failure is virtually guaranteed in the long term.

Rule #1 – Always Meet and Exceed Customer Expectations.
Meeting and exceeding customer expectations is the most important but often overlooked rule of business. The only way a company stays in business is if the customer is satisfied with its product or service. This generates profit, builds long-term stability, and meets the challenge of competitors. Meeting expectations should be considered the baseline for company performance. Exceeding expectations should be the ultimate goal. [Read more…]

It Isn’t the Economy, Stupid

Wendistry | by Wendi McGowan | May 2009

“Many companies that have gone bust didn’t die because of the recession. They failed for one reason: They treated customers poorly.” – Joel Spolsky

It’s your brand culture…. the fact that you treat your customers poorly and you blame it on the “economic recession.”

Take Circuit City, for example. Out of business in January. Most people didn’t even bother with their going-out-of-business sale. Why? Because you’d have to actually deal with CC unknowledgeable employees, and overpriced merchandise, and unbearable garage-sale-like experience. [Read more…]

Making the Most Out of a Bad Economy

Inc.com | by Michael Alter | Mar. 31, 2009

With all this economic gloom and doom, business owners are no doubt finding it a challenge to stay positive. What some might not realize, though, is that along with the challenges of a downturn comes huge opportunity.

When times are good, it’s easy to overlook problems and inefficiencies in your business. After all, a small crack in the windshield isn’t much of a problem, and it’s easier to ignore than to pay for a costly replacement. That’s the wrong attitude, especially during leaner times that call for closer scrutiny of business operations. Eventually the crack becomes larger and more inconvenient, and you might have to shell out for a much more expensive ticket than if you would have just fixed it in the first place. [Read more…]

Surviving the Downturn: Lessons From Emerging Markets

The Wall Street Journal | by Martin S. Roth & Richard Ettenson | Mar. 23, 2009

As Western companies struggle to navigate the worst economy in generations, here’s one piece of advice: Look at places where volatility is business as usual — emerging markets.

In these countries, companies have learned they can’t just hunker down when bad times strike. They have to go on the offensive. In Eastern Europe, South Africa and Latin America, managers look at tumultuous times as a chance to implement bold, creative ideas, outflank rivals and boost their business. [Read more…]

Street Smarts: Surviving the Recession

Inc.com | by Norm Brodsky | March 2009

It requires conquering your fears and making the right choices. Many business owners won’t do either

Fear can be a motivator, but it can also lead you into bad decisions, particularly in times like these. I have no doubt that a lot of business owners have spent the past couple of months implementing cost-saving plans and survival strategies that will weaken their companies and damage their long-term prospects. They’ve done it because they’ve been afraid, and fear makes us shortsighted. With the economy falling apart around us, we forget that recessions always end. Yes, some businesses will go under, but some companies will emerge stronger. If you want yours to be among the latter, you need to be careful about which costs you cut and which deals you offer your customers. [Read more…]

US Companies Pay the Highest Taxes in the World

US High Taxes Corporations Businesses It may come as a surprise that US companies pay the highest taxes in the world. Yes, you read that right! American businesses, large and small and across all industries pay from 35% to 41.6% of their income in combined state and federal taxes. The 41.6% maximum rate is scheduled to rise to 46.2% in 2010 when President Obama’s promised tax increases are implemented. Compare that to socialist France where companies pay only 34.4% in taxes, to China where the rate is 25%, or Russia which levies a mere 24%. Corporations in Ireland, Europe’s fastest growing economy for the last 18 years, pay just 12.5% in taxes.

Because of its dual taxation system, US businesses and individuals are required to pay both state and federal taxes on their income. When combined both these taxes range from a minimum of 35% in states like Nevada, South Dakota, and Wyoming that do not tax business income, to a maximum of 41.6% in Iowa, the state with the highest corporate tax rate of 12%. [Read more…]

Fool’s Golden State

Investor’s Business Daily | February 19, 2009

The world’s leading maker of microprocessors plans to create 7,000 jobs in new and expanded plants that will churn out computer chips 30% more powerful than the current generation of chips. But California-based Intel won’t make them in California.

Instead, the company is expanding in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico. Anywhere but California, which is now so unfriendly to business, even its home-grown firms don’t want to expand there.

This is bad news for the Golden State, which has one of the worst business environments in the country. And it won’t be helped a bit by the recent budget deal reached between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrat-led legislature. [Read more…]