Our very own Denise Cain hobnobbing with the locals in Tokyo on her recent trip.

The Marketing Success of Mailchimp

Today in the October 5th New York Times there was a wonderful article published about the success of a small business called MailChimp and how they accomplished this while taking the road less traveled. According to the article there are two ways to create a business. The first is the typical way a business gets started; a young entrepreneur comes up with an innovative idea, next is the creation of a prototype along with participating in a start-up boot camp. This then leads to small investors hopping on board; which leads to the creation of a Kickstarter. If everything works out and the product is successful it’s time for the founders to enter the haphazard mode called expansion. This usually translates to selling off the company piece by piece for huge chunks of money from venture capitalists. Then, once a few years have passed, if all goes well, the founders hit it big time and then BANG their set. The second and less well known option is just ...

Why Study Risk Management?

As I read the newspapers, listen to news radio, watch TV news, stream business and general news, one of the words that shows up most frequently is “risk.” Risky decisions, risk-weighted analyses, risk-focused audit, cyber risk, climate change risk, to name a few examples. Several business people have told me they just want to run their enterprises and, unless risk taking is explicitly part of the business model (as for an investment fund or insurance firm), they just don’t have time to worry about risk. This preference, while understandable, appears to be at odds with the frequent media references, so I decided to consult some experts. The 2018 International Standard on Risk Management ( ISO 31000 ) says that t he purpose of risk management is “the creation and protection of value. It improves performance, encourages innovation and supports the achievement of objectives.” Another widely recognized industry initiative ( COSO 201...

Communicating Organizational Change

Organizational change is a common occurrence in today’s work environment. In your career, you will probably have to lead the organization through changes such as mergers and acquisition, restructuring and layoffs and new management and strategy implementation. One of the key ingredients for successful leadership during periods of organizational change is a well-planned and executed communication strategy. The change will not be successful if it is not communicated effectively. Carefully consider the following six steps when communicating an organizational change: 1. Consider the audience. Gilda Bonanno As with any communication, first you have to consider your audience. Who will be on the receiving end of this communication? In most cases, you will have several groups, including the managers, individual contributors, support staff and others impacted by the change. Each group has its own needs and you have t...

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