… and to those who have and continue to serve our country across the globe.
“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. ”
– Oscar Wilde
These days, when you ask a business executive “what’s on your mind,” pricing is on the short list. Is this the right price for this item? Am I getting the markup I need to be profitable? How much will the price affect the buying decision? Does the economic environment require that I drop my prices? Are they too high? If I lower some, won’t I need to raise others? What if the mix changes and the higher priced items don’t sell and the lower ones do? What’s my competitor doing? Why do people shop here in the first place? Ad infinitum.
Pricing is both omnipresent and eternally vexing. It’s at the core of a profitable business, the management of the supply chain and the strength of your brand. In its most pernicious form, however,
Read the full post »
Many of you have seen my earlier posts – the Stanford research or the NY Times summary about how multitasking fails to increase our productivity … the very enemy it’s sworn to eliminate.
In an HBR blog, Peter Bregman reports what he found when he did NOT multitask for a week and discovered some lost pieces of life’s puzzle. I’m going to try it myself to see what I discover and report back to you.
What about you? Why not give it a go? It’s a slow week anyway, isn’t it?
Like we need more bad news in or about California … but the Chief Executive organization’s survey of Best and Worst States for Business 2010 finds the Golden State’s golden egg is actually something else that’s been painted over … if you catch my drift. We’re not just last for 2010 – we’ve been #51 for the last 6 years in a row!
You can see here how the CEO’s grade the states in such categories as regulation, workforce quality and living environment and see the real disparity between California and say, the average state grade or #1 Texas.
We’re long overdue to weed out the private industry bashers in Sacramento and renew the powerful business community in this state – and it couldn’t start too soon!
Once in awhile, it’s nice to see your advice echoed in the halls from someone like Warren Buffett. Since my early investment and venture capital days, I have promoted the concept of a simple “terms sheet” to set down the deal terms between the companies involved, making sure that the businessmen understand the business issues first.
Your attorneys serve an valuable role but it’s invaluable for both sides to be very clear about the business objectives
Read the full post »
No surprise that California’s continuing budget problems resulted in a significant drop in funds available through the California Small Business Loan Guarantee program.
Why? Because a chunk of its trust fund was used last year to help plug the budget gap … more gamesmanship by our elected reps in Sacramento.
Oh, the horror!
“If the people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.” – Michelangelo
These days, one of the things I hear most often in my conversations with CEOs is their confidence that growing revenue and reduced expenses is all that’s needed to restore performance and financial stability. That’s the simple cure to overcome the travails of the last 18 months. “If we can just get back some of the sales we’ve lost and hold down our expenses, we’ll be profitable again and have the cash flow necessary to resume normal operations.”
Unfortunately, that scenario is unlikely to unfold as scripted. As a result of depleted profits and depressed cash flow incurred over the last 18 months, the financial resources to support revenue growth are at the lowest level in years.
Read the full post »
I’m a relentless advocate for outside board members in family businesses, in large part to divorce the value of objective business discussions from subjective family dynamics. I’ve seen a family member derail an important conversation because his baby brother … some 30 years ago … wrecked his bicycle.
Jeff Bussgang, an entrepreneur and now VC partner, provides in a recent Business Week article, a good reminder of the value of having a “Truth Teller” on your Board of Directors.
If you’re running a family business, do you have any outside board members? If so, are you glad you do? If not, why not?
I wish had the time to write about all that’s on my mind about the SEC charges vs. Goldman. The crux of my most recent post was that institutional investors – not individual investors – have few excuses for making unsuccessful investment decisions except their own lack of due diligence or the fact that what they thought was a good decision … wasn’t.
I’m happy to see that Warren Buffett agrees as he told his rapt audience in his comments at Berkshire Hathaway’s recent annual shareholder’s meeting. Of one firm, ABN Amro, Mr. Buffett said: “It’s hard for me to get terribly sympathetic when a bank makes a dumb credit bet.”
Read the full post »
Welcome to Exkalibur. I’m Lary Kirchenbauer, President of Exkalibur Advisors, Inc. Please take advantage of our resources to help you build your business ... and let me know what more we can do to serve you.
Read my latest column from the NY Times affiliate, the North Bay Business Journal.
Lary has been a tremendous asset to our company. His experience and knowledge provides our young company with the type of financial and business guidance needed to facilitate our continued growth. In addition to Lary's efforts in raising capital for our company, he has assisted Multimedia Live in both extensive business planning, as well as continual ongoing monthly financial and strategy analysis of our business. I have found this to be an invaluable service.
Ken Burke, CEO, Multimedia Live, Inc.
