Innovating in a Shaky Economy, Shaping your portfolio

September 1, 2011 By

 

This is Part Four of a Five Part Series with Tyler Pyburn, Host at The Pulse Network, and Stephen Saber, Chief Executive Officer at The Pulse Network, on how to innovate during a shaky economy.

 

Like I stated in my previous post, this is a discussion on an article by Stephen Wunker on the Harvard Business Review’s Blog Network titled, Five Rules for Innovating in a Shaky Economy,

 

Shaping your Portfolio

Picture your business like you picture your portfolio.  There are different ways a person manages their portfolio based on the changing circumstances in their life; the same should be done for business.  What type of circumstance is your company experiencing?  Once you have zeroed in on the issue use how you would manage your portfolio as your reaction.  I gave the example of a business owner that is living quarter to quarter, the reaction has to be high risk high reward because the only other option for the owner is out of business.  Yes, on some sense you will be gambling with your business but a CEO’s job is to identify the risk and rewards and judge whether or not the solution is will have a viable outcome.

 

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Check out the entire series from start to finish, Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four.

 

Think I missed something on the post?  What some more advice on how to innovate? Let me know by commenting on this post, or by reaching out to me on e-mail: ssaber@thepulsenetwork.com
Filed Under: Business Instruction, business strategy, Debt, Debt Managment, Marketing

Innovating in a Shaky Economy, Experimenting with Business Model

August 30, 2011 By

 

This is Part Four of a Five Part Series with Tyler Pyburn, Host at The Pulse Network, and Stephen Saber, Chief Executive Officer at The Pulse Network, on how to innovate during a shaky economy.
 

Like I stated in my previous post, this is a discussion on an article by Stephen Wunker on the Harvard Business Review’s Blog Network titled, Five Rules for Innovating in a Shaky Economy,

 

Experimenting with the Business Model

A business model cannot be a static notion within a company. Exploring a business model may come off very risky to some but when the customers are facing economic challenges and are being forced to change their spending habits it becomes the best time to experiment.   A rough economy creates a change in what customers expect a company to offer and if you as a CEO are willing to mess around with your business model then the sky is the limit.

 

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To finish up the series, I reveal how managing your business like you manage your own life can help rethink what you are doing.

 

Check out the entire series from start to finish, Part One, Part Two, Part Three.

 

Think I missed something on the post?  What some more advice on how to innovate? Let me know by commenting on this post, or by reaching out to me on e-mail: ssaber@thepulsenetwork.com
Filed Under: Business Instruction, business strategy, Debt, Management Tagged With: , ,

Innovating in a Shaky Economy, Add Services

August 26, 2011 By

 

This is Part Three of a Five Part Series with Tyler Pyburn, Host at The Pulse Network, and Stephen Saber, Chief Executive Officer at The Pulse Network, on how to innovate during a shaky economy.
 

Like I stated in my previous post, this is a discussion on an article by Stephen Wunker on the Harvard Business Review’s Blog Networktitled, Five Rules for Innovating in a Shaky Economy,

 

Adding Services

via mywelcometothecity.com

Most business leaders know that adding on a service to your product typically results with in the customer not wanting the said service.  Customers know why they like your product and how they like to use it.  But in a rough economy, where every dollar counts, customers have to re-evaluate the ways they engage in all aspects of their life.

 

via freshpeel.com

 

Adding services does not mean change your business model, it means supplementing your revenue with incremental dollars to expand your portfolio.  Services are a low risk, high reward scenario because it will help your company get through the gruff economy whether it creates a new product line or cash flow, neither of which hurt your bottom line.

 

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In part four of the series, I will explain how experimenting with your business model is a risk worth trying.

 

Check out the entire series from start to finish, Part One, Part Two.

 

Think I missed something on the post?  What some more advice on how to innovate? Let me know by commenting on this post, or by reaching out to me on e-mail: ssaber@thepulsenetwork.com

 



 

 

Filed Under: Business Instruction, business strategy, Debt, Debt Managment, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Innovating in a Shaky Economy, Buy a Vowel

August 24, 2011 By

 

This is Part Two of a Five Part Series with Tyler Pyburn, Host at The Pulse Network, and Stephen Saber, Chief Executive Officer at The Pulse Network, on how to innovate during a shaky economy.
 

Like I stated in my previous post, this is a discussion on an article by Stephen Wunker on the Harvard Business Review’s Blog Network titled, Five Rules for Innovating in a Shaky Economy,

 

Buying a Vowel

via sirkrunch.tripod.com

Buying a vowel is the best analogy in the entire article because it is a great way to explain getting to the end game without putting too much in.  Just like the show, instead of trying to solve the puzzle with just a blank slate, try spending a little money to shed some light on how to solve it.  Once you start to think of it as small incremental ways to manage your process then you will insure your success when it is time to get to the bottom of the puzzle.

 

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In part three of the series, I will go further into how to challenge yourself to build upon what you already have.

 

Check out the entire series from start to finish, Part One.

 

Think I missed something on the post?  What some more advice on how to innovate? Let me know by commenting on this post, or by reaching out to me on e-mail: ssaber@thepulsenetwork.com
Filed Under: Business Instruction, business strategy, Debt, Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Innovating in a Shaky Economy, Re-visit Big Projects

August 22, 2011 By

 

This is Part One of a Five Part Series with Tyler Pyburn, Host at The Pulse Network, and Stephen Saber, Chief Executive Officer at The Pulse Network, on how to innovate during a shaky economy.

 

via innovatrs.com

The economic state of the union can be described as shaky, at best, and has forced companies to start rethinking how to diversify their budget.  There are two routes for you as a business leader to go, either you retreat or you innovate.  Innovation is critical for businesses right now and I happen to stumble upon a great article by Stephen Wunker on the Harvard Business Review’s Blog Network titled, Five Rules for Innovating in a Shaky Economy, that does a fantastic job at giving a leader some ideas for how to do it.  While the article is a great read I felt that he missed out on some things, therefore for this series I plan on further expounding upon the concepts laid out and help foster some more knowledge on how to innovate your business.

 

Re-visit the Big, Inflexible Projects

The concept is magnificent because in this marketplace everyone of your projects needs to have a answer for the question, is the investment I am putting in worth the return.  What makes the answer so worth while for a business leader is it forces your managers to become creative and discover if there is a better or different way to do the projects.

 

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In part two of the series I will define what the article means on buying a vowel.

 

Think I missed something on the post?  What some more advice on how to innovate? Let me know by commenting on this post, or by reaching out to me on e-mail: ssaber@thepulsenetwork.com

 

 

Filed Under: Business Instruction, business strategy, Debt Tagged With: , , ,

Debt in Business

August 12, 2011 By

 

Tune in every Thursday at 9:40 a.m. ET for TPN Finance where Stephen Saber, CEO of the Pulse Network, roams every topic a business leader could encounter from business ethics to social media’s ROI.

 

How Americans are feeling on the AA+ rating

 

The S&P downgrade has thrown American consumers in a tizzy of worry.  However, for business managers, debt is essentially an cheap way to gain access to capital.  Howbeit, the concept of using debt to ones advantage does seem negative but when it is broken down it does not come off as profiting off of tragedy.  In the end, debt is just a risk reward game and it comes down on the business owner to balance the scale.

 

Ways to gain access to Debt

 

 

In this episode of TPN Finance I illustrate what debt really means for business leaders, how to capitalise off it, and even what the current S&P downgrade could mean for small businesses.


Filed Under: business strategy, Debt, Debt Managment Tagged With: , , , , , ,