Tag Archives: Management

Fire Your Worst Customers

How valuable are your customers? Maybe a better question is how valuable are your best customers? The quest for the most valuable customers started in the 19th Century with Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto. Pareto found that 20% of your effort will generate 80% of your results, called the 80/20 rule. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by Ethan Lyon | Monday, January 30th, 2012 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Web Site Evaluation

Web site evaluation entails a review of user experience and key communication points. To build your website for the long run, continually assess, update, tweak, and upgrade your content. At Sparxoo Agency, our team has developed a standard process for … Continue reading →

Posted in Branding, Digital Marketing, Featured, Market Trends, Strategy & Trends by Amy Kenigsberg | Monday, August 22nd, 2011 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tips to Manage Your Manager

Most people, whether they like it or not, are managed at some point in their career. To create a productive relationship with your manager takes a keen understanding of their management style. Continue reading →

Posted in Featured, Strategy & Trends by Ethan Lyon | Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

How to Maximize Your Sales Force

Just as your sales team needs guidance, a manager should as well. Sales HQ recommends sales managers have mentors or coaches to guide and provide them with encouragement. The website suggests a coach should be a trainer, motivator disciplinarian and confidant. A coach should preferably be an industry veteran with significant sales experience and be someone to mentor you through your personal challenges, help you be a more effective leader.

Sales guidance is one of several ways to become a successful sales manager. Continue reading →

Posted in Strategy & Trends by Ethan Lyon | Friday, October 15th, 2010 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Top 5 Traits of a Great Salesperson

Imagine walking into a room of 100 strangers and trying to sell a future, uproven concept. Now imagine walking into a room of 100 of your best friends to try and make the same sale. With the strangers, you need to take time to break the ice, build rappoire and establish credibility. With your friends, you already have a certain level of trust built up so it will greatly accelerate the discussion. As a sales person, your value is directly linked to the value of your network, and your ability to successfully expand your network of influence. Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by David Capece | Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Top 5: Hiring Top Talent

There is a guiding philosophy that human capital can be an organization’s most important asset. In sports, managers are counted on to provide leadership in managing the team. From Joe Torre to Vince Lombardi, several standout managers have been able to deliver consistently great performance. Similarly, star performers are game changers on the field. In the business world, we all know about Steve Jobs and his track record with Apple. We recently worked with a client with a client to transform a 60 person department. Change started from the top through the selection of a new executive lead. From there, we had a mandate to redefine the group’s purpose, reprioritize their efforts, and inject new skills and talents. We share some tips on how to transform an organization through the hiring of top talent. Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by David Capece | Monday, October 19th, 2009 | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Narrating Your Company’s Future

Most quality programming gets pushed aside for subpar, “WipeOut” type shows. Arrested Development is one of those quality shows that was canceled to make room for “the next big thing.” Spending hours watching a show I never enjoyed while it was on air, in the early episodes, I noticed the narrator addresses… Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by David Capece | Thursday, October 8th, 2009 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Effective Leadership Strategies for Chief Marketing Officers

CMOs have to balance their responsibility to drive business performance and brand development over the long-run, with the need for short-term results. In the quick-turn world of CMOs, sometimes tactics drive strategies. Seth Godin does a nice job of illustrating a world dependent on tactics in “when tactics drown out strategy.” Everyone needs results NOW, so CMOs are often stuck in the loop of trying to drive immediate results instead of creating a plan that could work but may take months to come to fruition. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by Ethan Lyon | Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

When Risk / Reward is in Your Favor

Entrepreneurs, and especially pioneers, often travel unknown roads. During the journey, we face opportunities and challenges in pursuit of meaningful rewards. During good times, the rewards take center stage, and we are often tempted to take on more risk. During the lean years, risks become the central talking point, and we become scared of taking any risk. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by David Capece | Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Top 5 Ways to Collaborate

At Sparxoo, we have an agile team is creatively stretching into new territory. We have tried several collaborative tools to collaborate on projects, but few have stuck. In this week’s top five, we will discuss collaborative tools that have worked for us. Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Ethan Lyon | Monday, May 18th, 2009 | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Insight RoundUp: Feb 27

As we saw this past week, Google is not infallible (though many of us think so). It had, what many are calling, a hiccup. The Gmail servers went black. Does this tarnish the future of cloud computing for Google? The “what ifs” are frightening if the cloud one day evaporated and all personal information and software vanished. But Google’s user-base if far from that conclusion. Why?

Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by David Capece | Friday, February 27th, 2009 | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Art of Motivation

Beyond storytelling, people like to pursue ambitious and groundbreaking projects. So let them know what you’re up to and let them know about the challenges. Don’t be afraid of failure. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by David Capece | Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Startup Survival Guide

With the economy shrinking, 2009 is the year for bootstrapping. Stay ahead of the curve with these 10 tips to help you make it through the tough times. The lessons you learn from bootstrapping will make you that much more successful when the market turns up. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by David Capece | Friday, February 20th, 2009 | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

TrendWatch: The Real Deal

In an age where one man can steal $50 billion, transparency is elemental in business communication. Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Ethan Lyon | Thursday, February 19th, 2009 | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Aspiring to Greatness vs. Getting it Done

It’s not enough to have ideas without execution, and it’s not enough to deliver predictably mediocre results. It’s the two ingredients together (aspiration and achievement) that make a powerful combination. Given the current economy, you can find outstanding options on reasonable terms. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by David Capece | Saturday, February 7th, 2009 | Tagged , | Leave a comment