Top Management Story

Writen by Marco Terry

Running a successful trucking company requires three things.

1. Finding truck loads of freight
2. Moving the truck load from point A to point B
3. Managing all the little details so that 1 and 2 happen successfully

Sounds easy, doesn't it? However, most trucking companies fail because of the little details that go wrong. Repairs are missed, so trucks stop working. Drivers are not paid on time, so the drivers quit. Fuel is not paid for, so the trucks stop moving freight. Although the problems may look entirely unrelated, they are connected. They all indicate that there are cash flow problems. What is worse, your company may be doing great and invoicing a lot, and still have cash flow problems. That is why most owners don't find out about the problems until it is too late.

Trucking companies need money to keep running. Actually, they need more money than traditional companies. Money to pay drivers. To pay for fuel and repairs. To run their business. In the transportation industry, you surely need to spend money to make money. Otherwise, try hauling a load in a truck that does not have fuel….or a paid driver.

The biggest cash flow challenge that trucking company owners have is waiting up to 60 days to get paid for their freight bills. Slow paying clients can limit your cash flow and potentially drive you out of business.

Fortunately, trucking companies have a great financing option that is easy to qualify for. It is called freight bill factoring. Freight bill factoring provides you with immediate money for your freight bills and eliminates having to wait to get paid by your clients. It provides you with the necessary funds to repair your trucks, pay your drivers and keep up with fuel expenses.

Freight bill factoring is really easy to do and set up. And more importantly, once you set it up, it can provide you with ongoing continuous funding. This enables you to turn invoices into cash almost immediately, and use the money to grow your company.

Growing your trucking company does not have to be a financial challenge. Freight bill factoring can help you finance your way to success.

About Commercial Capital LLC Moving truck loads of freight? Need business financing? Use freight bill factoring to finance your growth. Call Marco Terry at (866) 730 1922 for a consultation and a quote.

Writen by Kal Bishop

What do creativity managers do?

Replace the word management with the word optimisation.

That's what creativity managers do: they optimise the quality of the idea pool (creativity) and the implementation process (innovation).

There are many methods of optimisation and the creativity leader must be aware of all of them, in other words, he or she must synthesise them for optimal effect.

Areas [within creativity] that need managing include motivation, organisational culture, organisational structure, incremental versus radical effects and processes, knowledge mix, group structures, goals, process and valuation.

Areas [within innovation] that need managing include idea selection, development / prototyping and the art of commercialisation.

It is worth noting that 4000 good ideas result in 4 development programs, which in turn results in 1 winner.

The role of Knowledge

The knowledge mix influences creativity output. There are many ways to look at it.

First, does in-depth knowledge of a field enhance the probability of a breakthrough or is that likely to cause blinkered vision? Another way of looking at it, can an individual with no knowledge in a field make a significant contribution to it?

There is much interesting data, for example, the most valuable creative product appears at around year ten of an individual's engagement in a domain. Also, when peer influence is reduced, novel, diverse and valuable products tend to appear sooner.

Second, how to we maximise the level of tacit knowledge? Tacit knowledge is all that cannot be easily coded (explicit knowledge) and includes experience, intuition and the like. Tacit knowledge makes up a far greater part of the knowledge base. Solutions include utilising frameworks, creating networks, collaborating, bridging and so on.

Learn more…

Download the MBA research, learn about this topic at http://www.creativity-management.com/

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Kal Bishop, MBA

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Download the MBA research, learn about this topic at http://www.creativity-management.com/

Writen by M'Hamed Cherif

Gentle assertiveness is founded on tolerance and respect for others. It entails the need for envisaging the possibility that others may have good reasons to see things differently. Truly assertive people are creative and accommodating, while aggressive people transgress the rights of others. Gentle assertive people assert their opinion, but they also recognise the importance of carefully listening to others. When confronted with assertive people, it is also important to remember that are good reasons not to be subdued and to let others push you over. These reasons can be summed up by 'you have your views, I have mine'. In any event, assertive behaviour denies others the monopoly of holding the truth without questioning, while permitting the free expression of your opinion with tolerance and constructive dialogue.

In her acclaimed book, entitled 'Mapping the Mind', Rita Carter draws on the latest in brain imaging to give extraordinary insights into how the brain works. I vividly remember a shocking point made by the author who asserts that reality is a construction of our mind. She says, "There is no definitive picture of 'out there', only a construction in our heads triggered by the external elements we are best equipped to register". So, an individual's perceptions, views and thoughts are formed by their genes and by how their brain has been modelled by experience. People have elaborate recognition systems to identify, imagine and name things.

Our relationships with things, even quite simple things, are multifaceted and subjective. Each facet of a memory of a thing may be stored in a separate, appropriate area of the brain. Recognition of that thing rolls off the end of a long and complex assembly line. So, what you have in mind is not a faithful reflection of the outside world, but rather a unique construction of you own mind. In other words, your conscious imagining of a thing is probably different my own view of that same thing. For concepts, ideas and thoughts, these have most probably different meanings for different people. Hence, some humility is in order in accepting differences of views. In turn, you have the right to expect others to recognise the legitimacy of varying views. In general, such a state of mind is conducive to enhanced assertiveness, as you find it natural to have own views.

The illusions of thought and prejudices that pollute our unconsciousness are yet another reason why you should expect others to respect your right to have own views. Our brains hold pre-programmed theories about the world. They are to some extent hard-wired into our brains. They have been engraved in our brains because they had served some useful purpose. So, these prejudices help us deal quickly and practically with complex challenges. If your throw a dice six times, the probability that you get six times the same face is the same as any other combination of faces. Yet, you choose 'six times one' for your bet? I really doubt it ! These prejudices are like sensory illusions, like a knee jerk. Our essential prejudices are created by the layout of our brain, the bulk of it laid down during our lifetime, bearing the fingerprints of our own experience. You ought to keep in mind that the views of the other person reflect to a large extent their past. An assertive person is usually conscious of this relationship between own views and own heritage.

Sarah and M'Hamed CHERIF are part of the Cutesolutions' team. Cutesolutions is a Belgium-based provider of innovative training (i.e. e-learning & CBT) on personal development and business management. Available online courses cover assertiveness, leadership, communication, speaking with impact, creativity, project management and other topics. For further information, please contact us at:

Cutesolutions
30, rue Josse IMPENS
1030 Brussels - Belgium
Tel. +32-2-2155157 Fax +32-2-2156416
ibl.belgium@telenet.be
http://cute4u.net:8082 or http://www.cute4u.net

Writen by Rosemary Johnston

As a manager our role is to:

1. Establish the vision, or our contribution to the vision.

2. Establish the plan and forecast for our management contribution, be it $1million or $1billion.

3. Gain endorsement of the plan and forecast, by the vision holders.

4. Manage the plan and reality to the vision-contribution.

This is very simple on paper.

Assuming we have achieved the first three, let's focus on the fourth as it is vitally important.

Firstly, too many managers make a subtle twist here and manage the deliverables to the plan forgetting that the vision is the ultimate goal! To tweak the plan as we go, means we may readily exceed our contribution to the vision within the time frame. This is a wonderful over achievement, there to for the having, if our eyes, ears and hearts are open to the possibility!

My client had a plan to deliver sales of budget for the year. Nearing the end of Q3 they found they had exceeded budget substantially and could set a new target 25% over the previous budget. All it required to be done was to continue to sell at the same levels. There had been no product withdrawals by the competition, no category killers by their own company, just an extraordinary and consistent performance.

Her focus was on the vision not the plan, the plan would have enabled her to relax in Q4 and focus on a killer Q1. The vision meant she could change the contribution now.

Secondly, compliance is the ability to have others deliver the vision. Our client's staff can be joined into the vision, be left out but still be expected to deliver it.

IT consultants have delivered huge IT project to enable technological advances in work processes for years. The average to poor ROI projects may have great IT but do not readily fit the culture or the creative energy of the company.

Again a subtle but profound twist occurs. We focus on the technology to deliver the results and serve its requirements, rather than finding the model of delivery and have the technology serve it!

The business model is established and the technology serves it, and example.

A consultant to QANTAS found they had over 100 interfaces for the IT group to maintain and support – an enormous technical feat for their staff numbers! The issue arose as IT was too slow in partnering with the business units in making the decisions about the technology to support their initiatives.

He simplified the process of interaction to a one page intranet form and 24 hours for low budget projects; and, one page intranet form and rapid interaction for more complex projects. The businesses found it easy to engage IT and IT added value by delivering better technical help and support for their initiatives.

As a result no new interfaces were introduced, and, many were retired or relegated to less essential operational areas. Millions of dollars and man hours were also saved.

Is your management two dimensional and falling over for you, or three dimensional, challenging, interesting and dynamic?

This article may be reproduced in printed or web format, provided the resource box below is included.

Rosemary Johnston is a professional corporate and personal coach. Working with executives from some of Australia's largest and most successful companies for over 15 years.

Rosemary's new book, "How To Develop Your Leadership Style and Skills to Take Charge of Your Career and Life" is now available to download at her web site. Read about how you can share some of the success Rosemary has had coaching leaders in Australian blue chip companies. http://www.leadershipfirst.com.au