Touch Points

10 Commandments of Business

Jim Collins is a self-employed professor, operating out of his management- research laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. Learn more about Collins's work on the Web (www.jimcollins.com).

In Sam Walton's biography, Made in America, My Story he outlines what he feels are the ten commandments of business:

1. Commit to your goals
2. Share your rewards
3. Energize your colleagues
4. Communicate all you know
5. Value your associates
6. Celebrate your success
7. Listen to everyone
8. Deliver more than you promise
9. Work smarter than others
10. Blaze your own path

By following his advice maybe you too can become a business giant!

New Photo

These new photographs of me weretaken a couple of weeks ago by a very talented woman named Wen McNally. I met her and her husband Sean (That Bald Guy) at my very first Wizard Academy Class in October of 2000. She has one of those magical eyes with a camera that sees things the rest of us don't and is now opening her own studio. These pictures were taken inside and outside Tuscan Hall at the new Wizard Academy site in Austin. So please check out her website www.wenmcnally.com and enjoy her work.

Cheers

Steve

Are You Taking Your Customers For Granted?

This is an article by Dr. John Self

A too common assumption made in the service industry is that your customers will want to come back after visiting once. In other words, you're assuming that they will be repeat customers. This is a dangerous and risky assumption.

I remember vividly when I was with a national restaurant chain. I had a typical just-open-it-and-they- will-come mentality. We were busy most days and evenings, but especially Friday and Saturday evenings, when a long wait was virtually guaranteed. I just knew that people were always going to want to wait to eat at the restaurant. It was inevitable. Of course customers would be there. Why wouldn't they?

Little did I know that same....

The Brain's Ear For Info

Jack Trout, 10.24.05, 9:00 AM ET

Have you ever been asked which is more powerful, the eye or the ear? Probably not, because the answer is obvious. I’ll bet that deep down inside, you believe the eye is more powerful. Call it "visual chauvinism," if you like, but it's a preconception held by many marketing people.

I’ll bet, too, that you ...