Sticky Solutions

Sticky solutions to your everyday business challenges Question: For the past two years, I have been working on a special project for the CEO. With a small team reporting to me, we opened three new offices around the world and more than doubled our workforce. The work was grueling, but I believed that the CEO would continue to recognize my efforts and reward me with advancement.  When the project closed last month, I was told that I’m no longer reporting to the CEO and my staff would be reassigned.  I was also told that it’s not personal, but simply a reorganization. I feel like I’ve been ...

Business in Focus: Houwzer

A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence "Would you like a career with a stable and steady income? Then being a real estate agent is NOT the job for you.” That’s a description of what it’s like to work in the real estate industry according to a recent article posted in Redfin. It's also a model that Philadelphia-based Houwzer founder, Mike Maher set out to break. A 2018 Gallup survey found that Americans perceive real estate agents as having very low standards of honesty and ethics. Part of that distrust is due to the fact that the very people who advise you through the ...

Message From Our Founder

Welcome to the forty-first issue of CEE News! A few years ago, my mother and I were rummaging through an antique store in North Bend, Oregon. We came across stacks of Life magazines, and dug through them until we found a copy from January of 1962 – the year that I was born. I had expected to find quaint articles on fashion – with tweed suits and coordinating pillbox hats à la Jackie Kennedy – or a feature of one of movies released that year like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Miracle Worker, or Lawrence of Arabia. Instead, the edition was devoted to nuclear fallout shelters. Against the ...

Sticky Solutions

Sticky solutions to your everyday business challenges   Question: I manage a finance team for a company in Indianapolis that just completed a merger. We’ve grown from 12 to 18, and I want to help the team get to know each other and put away our differences as quickly as possible. Can you recommend one or two simple exercises to help me get the ball rolling? (more…)

Business in Focus: Pike Place Fish Market

A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence     The city of Seattle, Washington, is home to the world famous Pike Place Fish Market where fresh fish have been hawked for nearly a century.  The open air market is known for its team of fun loving fishmongers who hurl customers’ selections from the ice packed displays at the front to the scales in the back. The story of the market’s success is rooted in the story of its former owner, John Yokoyama. Its future lies in the sure hands of four former employees to whom Yokoyama sold the market to in July of 2018. The ...

Message From Our Founder

Welcome to the fortieth issue of CEE News! “There are two kinds of people who come into the E.R.,” my friend Jenny who worked in hospital patient logistics once told me. “There are the people we see regularly who feel that every little ache or pain is a medical emergency. They call for an ambulance to bring them in as if it’s an extension of Uber. Then there are those on the other end of the spectrum (like you),” Jenny implied. “People who come in with a piece of wood duct taped to an arm they broke weeks ago that they tried to reset themselves,” she says while holding her arm at a ...

Sticky Solutions

Sticky solutions to your everyday business challenges   Question: My boss has a reputation for being a visionary.  Working with him is never dull, but he comes up with new ideas every day, and there’s just no way that my team can keep up.  It’s exciting and even fun to work with someone so creative, but it can also be overwhelming to deliver on everything he thinks up.  What advice do you have for supporting someone who is an idea generating machine? (more…)

Business in Focus: W.S. Badger

A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence Heading back to work after you’ve just bonded with your newborn can be agony. In 2006, a new mother at New Hampshire-based W.S. Badger was hoping to make the transition easier when she asked if she could bring her new baby back to work with her.  That question launched an innovative family-friendly program at Badger where healthy body care products – from mustache wax to baby products – are packaged and sold online and at retailers including Whole Foods and Wegmans. (more…)
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