In this guest post, Steve looks at three big business that are looking very healthy in 2012. While many large corporations are going bust or laying off staff, these three are doing well and are on the rise. Financial troubles are usually caused by excess waste. Six Sigma is a proven method for streamlining corporations. The successful manufacturing process works just as well in the office and by going lean you can avoid having to cut staff or operations to save money. Lose waste not assets. With Six Sigma Green Belt Training you will possess the necessary tools to implement the Six Sigma methodology in your business.

The world is very uncertain at the moment and fewer companies every month are turning a profit. It is important to take inspiration the companies that are and try to adapt to their business strategy. Just looking at the small things like their mission statement and business ethos will give you a good idea about their vision.

Keep an eye on marketing campaigns and try to envisage what sort of customers they are trying to attract as after all, all companies target a niche and no one truly targets a mass market. In terms of companies doing things right here are a few examples. They are also great companies to keep an eye on in 2012 as they are very much in the public eye. These 3 companies are bold and ambitious so what they attempt may not work for everyone, but you should note that a heck of a lot of preparation goes into anything they do. Read the rest of "Top 3 Businesses to Look Out for in 2012"

In this guest post the author looks at three examples of people who took their tax for granted, something that with the right work methodology learnt through Six Sigma training would have been easily avoided. 

Nobody likes to see their hard earned cash depleted by taxes and, it seems the better off the citizen, the further they’ll go to avoid paying their share. However, the IRS are not afraid of taking on celebrities they suspect of doing some creative accounting and when they do they usually win. Here’s a look at three of the strangest examples:

Judy Garland

Despite being remembered by most of us for her portrayal of Dorothy in the Hollywood classic, ‘The Wizard of Oz’, Judy was also in another musical that should have garnered critical acclaim, a remake of ‘A Star is Born’. By all accounts it would have been a massive success, had it not been for the idiocy of the studio.

Upon hearing strong initial reviews, the studio realized they had a potentially high grossing film on their hands…So they cut out half an hour of material.

Their logic was that this would allow cinemas to show the film a couple of extra times a day, boosting the takings. Critics were appalled, declared the new version a disaster and it duly flopped.

However, Judy had already been spending as if all was well. When the tax bill came, she couldn’t afford it, lost her home and no amount of heel clicking could get it back. Read the rest of "Tax Evaders: 3 of The Strangest Cases"

This guest post picks out the top 9 (plus one special mention) financial bloggers from FinCon 11. All of these blogs are worth reading for financial advice as shown by their readership levels. One of the best ways to invest your money is in training. Once learnt, a new skill provides opportunities within businesses as well as an incentive for employers to take notice. Businesses to invest in training are providing a framework for the future. Why hope that employees learn skills from each other over a long period of time when the same could be learnt from professional trainers in a week? Training courses may seem like high upfront costs in what is a troubled financial period but a great deal is saved over time as trained employees are more productive and can bring more to the table. Many financial advisers recommend implementing Six Sigma as the best way for streamlining a business and cutting costs. The benefits of Six Sigma are timeless and can transform a business making large losses into a market leader. So invest in some Six Sigma Training today and then read the 10 blogs featured in this post…

Financial blogging is an industry unto itself. It seems some of the most sought after advice sites on the internet are those that deal with financial matters. True, we all want to live a better life. A life free of money hassles and nothing but luxury, but do we really want to get there without putting in any effort of our own? Some people do, but to be fair most people reading these blogs are only trying to find a better way to manage their personal finances. And why shouldn’t they? Read the rest of "9 Rock Stars of the Financial Blogging World"

We’ve spoken many times about how businesses turn to Six Sigma to streamline operations, especially in a recession. That is why Six Sigma training is becoming every more popular as businesses look to ensure maximum productivity and profit. This guest post looks at the advantages of hiring an Interim Manager, and what they can do for your business. Many interim managers have Six Sigma qualifications as they show their credentials for implementing a successful, streamlining process. We provide Six Sigma training of all levels, including Green Belt training and Black Belt training, to individuals and businesses. Whether you want Six Sigma as a personal skill or your business is looking to implement it, we have the course for you.

In these tough economic times, good value is more important to many people. And that doesn’t just apply to your lifestyle or what you can afford at home.

Good value has a major impact on business, especially when you’re considering the recruitment of a new member of staff and you need to justify the expenditure to your organisation.

Why use Interim Management?

Interim Managers provide businesses with competent, informed guidance on how to make significant changes to service or direction. Strategic changes are becoming more commonplace as companies try to streamline or adapt to the harsher economic climate and, as key facilitators of this change, Interim Managers are becoming a more popular hire.

But hiring an Interim Manager costs money, which seems a little counterproductive. What you need is to make sure you’re spending money to make money, and not just draining revenue on an additional resource that ends up counting for little.

So what’s the best way you can ensure a good return on your investment to justify expenditure? Read the rest of "How to Get the Best Value from Your Interim Manager"

This guest post takes a look at the interesting story of General Motors’ bailout. After their Government bailout, GM were forced to streamline operations. Many of the businesses that survived the recession, or even prospered throughout, used Six Sigma to streamline their business and make sure they were protected. Six Sigma training is essential for the successful implementation of the methodology from Green Belt training right up to training for Champions and Executives. 

Starting in 2007, car sales in the United States began to decline due to the impending recession. Rumours circulated throughout the mortgage and other industries that several major companies were on the brink of collapse. If this was true, the question became how would this affect other companies? How many jobs would be lost? This led to a general decline in the retail industries, especially on large ticket items such as cars.

The Beginning of the Crisis

It was generally believed that the United States manufacturers were much more affected by the crisis than overseas car manufacturers such as Japan due to their business practices. There were three main problems with General Motors.

First, the majority of cars built by GM centered around SUVs and large pick-up trucks. When the increased gasoline prices of the 2002-2008 period made these cars far less desirable, GM failed to respond. The companies had enjoyed much better profits on these large cars and did not want to return to smaller cars with less of a profit margin. The idea was that selling fewer large cars would still generate better income than selling a lot of small cars. Instead, the industry was left without car sales.

Second, many of the buyers of these cars were paying for them by obtaining second mortgages on their homes and were actually over their budgets. When the mortgage industry collapsed, so did the financing for most new cars. Since many of these companies had financed their own brands, not only did cars accumulate at dealers, they also started building up in repossession lots of their own companies. Read the rest of "How the Recession and Bailout Affected the Workers of GM"

Few businesses escape the reach of a recession but there are ways to protect your business and try to minimise any losses as this guest post highlights. One highly recommended way to beat the recession is by implementing Six Sigma. It’s no surprise that all of the companies on our Top 10 Most Profitable Businesses 2011 use Six sigma! 

The face of business is changing every day, which is why most employers are looking for ways to protect their business during the economic crisis, and keeping it going on into the future.

Many business owners are discovering that unified communications means better customer relations and an increase in sales. If you are looking for some ideas on how to protect your business in a changing world then you might want to consider some of the following:

Tip 1. Business Plans

The well known saying that if you fail to plan then you plan to fail is never truer than in the world of business. If you are concerned for the future of your company then business continuity plans should be at the top of your list.

In the current economic climate, in which businesses are closing every day, customer retention is becoming a major headache. Those businesses that manage to hang on to their clients do so because they provide a superior product or service to their competitors, even if it is not the cheapest. Read the rest of "Five Top Tips for Protecting Your Business in a Recession"

This guest post demonstrates that businesses that lose money can not survive – even giants like Nokia. The Six Sigma methodology is designed to reduce costs and stop companies leaking money. Six Sigma is all about streamlining processes to achieve maximum profit and minimum failure. A stronger focus on Six Sigma may have, and may yet still, save Nokia from a Microsoft buy out. After all, both Microsoft and Apple are on the list of Top 10 most profitable companies in 2011 and they are keen supporters of Six Sigma.

Nokia has been in plenty of economic trouble lately. They are losing their sales footing in their own backyard to Samsung and Apple. If losing their own market is not bad enough, they also have rumours from banks that they will be sold to Microsoft. Read on to find out the details here in this short article.

Bankers Are Predicting Defeat For Nokia

The Danish Bank Danske is the largest bank in Denmark. They are of the opinion that Microsoft is close to taking over the mobile section of Nokia. Nokia is a large company, but losing money by the millions per day. They recently gave up selling smartphones with Symbian on them in a trade that brought Windows Phone 7 on their handsets. The trade was supposed to save their plummeting sales, but so far, nothing has materialized. The bad news seemed to arrive with the inclusion of a Canadian for CEO of Nokia. His decisions were costing the company ten million dollars per day during the month of July. This ended up with a third quarter loss of $151 million dollars for Nokia. Read the rest of "Some Banks Believe A Nokia Sellout Is Nearing"

In this post our trainer Tony Walton explains why Business Process Management is not a quick fix but a permanent solution for businesses looking to excel during worrying financial times. Business Process Management Training is essential for businesses who want to improve their business processes without bringing in expensive consultants.

As the financial crisis goes from bad to worse and new customers are becoming as hard to find as an impoverished merchant banker, it’s time to take a long hard look in the mirror.

Ah….that smile isn’t quite as spontaneous as it used to be, the suit’s looking a little crumpled and unfortunately, it’s true, I’ve put on a few inches around the waist despite my weekly trip to the gym.  It’s clear something must be done.  Where are Trinny and Susannah when you most need them?  But really, is it a make-over I need or something more permanent?  A life-style change perhaps?

Well, that’s how it is for many businesses; if they dare look in the mirror.  Their images are looking a little tarnished, customer satisfaction isn’t quite what it used to be and, there is way too much fat around the middle.  When the customers were queuing out of the door and down the street we could get away with it but, in these days of austerity, it is becoming increasingly harder to do so. Read the rest of "Business Process Management – Makeover or Life Change?"

In times of recession, many businesses struggle and some go under. A rapid downturn in sales is forcing many companies to re-evaluate priorities with regard to their continuous improvement initiatives.

Six Sigma, however, allows businesses and organisations the opportunity to identify problems before they get worse and establish processes to improve and make better quality products faster and more efficiently.

The fact that the Six Sigma processes will co-ordinate the leaders and managers in the company will help to focus the organisation on improvement.

One of the main problems that will be identified is that revenue will be down due to the recession. The Six Sigma process will begin by listing data as it currently stands in order to analyse it and work out how much revenue is actually being lost. Mapping out all of the business processes is an effective way of seeing exactly how the recession is affecting business. Read the rest of "Six Sigma in a Recession"

Technology provides us with many tools that help us run a business more efficiently. Hardly any company doesn’t use email or have a website. Many are now utilising cloud computing to streamline their processes and data management. Without today’s technologies, a lot of our business capabilities wouldn’t even be possible.

It is important to stay current with technological advances to keep up with competitors and give your business the best chance possible. But in the end, how effectively you lead and manage your business will be the biggest indicator of its success. Did you know that technology can also help you be a better leader? Here are ways your leadership can improve with effective use of technology.

Feedback

Technology makes it easier for your employees and clients to give you feedback on your business and leadership skills. After all, whether or not you are a good leader is entirely subjective and solely based on the opinions of those you lead. You can use technology to get valuable feedback from them.

Encourage your employees and clients to email you with any questions or concerns, and ask them to let you know what you’re doing well, also. You could incorporate an automatic form for entering feedback on your website and encourage people to use it for positive and negative remarks. You may get more helpful suggestions this way than with traditional communication. Read the rest of "How Technology Can Help You Be a Better Leader"