Ideas

Question: I'm the CFO at a small, privately held manufacturing company, founded in the 1960s. The...

If you consider yourself an entrepreneur, you probably consider yourself highly productive as well.

I am privileged to work with people who are categorized as the best of the best, the top 5 percent of all performers. Most people think that a top performer is lucky because he or she was born with an exceptionally high I.Q. or special talent, but high performers achieve results that others do not because they develop and maintain success habits.

Ever have a sales situation where you've come to realize, usually quite late in the game, that you're going to lose? And to make matters worse, it appears the customer is about to buy from someone he or she will later regret buying from? Frustrating, isn't it?

Not tying performance reviews to pay raises is a sore spot for me, and has been for many years. I thought that in these times of tough but enlightened management, this dinosaur practice was behind us. I'm sorry to report it isn't.

The Eisner American Museum of Advertising & Design announced recently that it will close its facility located at 208 N. Water St., Milwaukee, once the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) constructs its new dormitory in the Historic Third Ward.

Lakeland College, located in Sheboygan County, recently replaced the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as the host of the Milwaukee Center for Economic Education.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University were recently awarded a $135,000 Industry/University Collaborative Research Center (I/UCRC) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a water technology center.

During the 18th century, British sailors were rewarded with an extra ration of rum after a successful voyage. Now that your employee and management teams have successfully navigated the turbulent waters of the economic tsunami, how will you reward them? How will you maintain motivation, morale and reduce the anxiety associated with the recession?

Question: "Employee morale is becoming a concern. Some of us remember a time (not so long...