Resolving Business Conflicts and Disputes

By Rick Boxx Over the years, I have the privilege – and challenge – of mediating in several disputes between business partners. In most cases, seeking to resolve them is not pretty nor easy, but very necessary. When someone begins to feel slighted by their partner in some way, the relationship can turn ugly quickly.
Tags:  Business, Conflict, Disputes, Resolution

More Than ‘Just A Job’

By Robert J. Tamasy Why do you go to work? To earn a paycheck? We all do that – it is good to have the money to buy food and clothing, put gas in our cars, pay bills, maybe invest a little for the future, and hopefully have some cash left over for fun activities. But is that the only reason you go to work?
Tags:  Job, Business, Career

Building A Values-Based Business

By Rick Boxx One of the most underestimated tools for any successful business enterprise is the foundation of values upon which it has been built. If a company’s goal is simply to make high profits, to close a lot of sales, or even to deliver huge quantities of products or services, it can lead to problems with the end serving to justify the means.
Tags:  Business

Three Paradoxes of Business

By Rick Boxx Have you ever taken time to examine your personal worldview and factors that have formed it? Our worldviews are critical since they shape the ways we think about the world and how we respond to it. In that light, many commonly held views on business run counter to the biblical worldview, and we would be wise to understand how these perspectives conflict. Here are a few of them:
Tags:  Paradoxes of Business, Business, Profit, Partnership, Position

Reeling From Rotten Reorganizations

By Rick Boxx Constant reorganization was one of the biggest drawbacks I have experienced in working for large organizations. Every year, usually around September, the budget process would begin. Rumors would start about the expected casualties as budgetary cutbacks were being considered.
Tags:  Reorganization, Business, Biblical Principles

Overcoming Employee Discontent

By Rick Boxx Businesses are often so driven by the bottom line – maximizing profits – that they are reluctant to increase payroll costs. Such a strategy might boost profit margins over the short term, but can have a disastrous long-term impact on the people who perform the work to make the company profitable. On numerous occasions I have observed that this overemphasis on the business’s bottom line can cause considerable discontent in lower-paid workers, like we have seen repeatedly in the news as workers speak out and protest in a quest for higher wages. Numerous factors can affect a worker’s sense of contentment on the job, but feeling undercompensated is one of the greatest causes of discontentment.
Tags:  Business, Employees, Leading, Managing, Employee Discontent

Spanning the Generation Gap

By Robert J. Tamasy In recent years it has been my privilege to write several books telling the histories and legacies of multi-generational, family-owned companies. Two of these trace their beginnings to the early 1930s, and today they are transitioning into a fourth generation of family leadership. Their stories are inspiring.
Tags:  Generation Gap, Business, Mission, Values

The Purpose of Business

By Jim Mathis In 1968, at the start of a class on financial management at Kansas State University, my professor entered the room and wrote on the board, “The purpose of every business organization is to increase the wealth of the owners.” This statement appeared on every exam. Owners of a publicly traded corporation are the stockholders, the professor explained, so the purpose of a publicly traded corporation is to increase the value of stocks or dividends to benefit them.
Tags:  Business

Monday Manna - The Bottom Line Friend or Foe

By John D. Beckett Gunter was reeling. The unexpected turn of events had caught him totally off-guard. After all, the board of Mastech had brought him in as CEO to move the company forward. He knew he had been selected not only because of his proven business skills, but also his genuine care for people. In fact, Gunter had always regarded his commitment to his employees as one of his greatest strengths as a leader.
Tags:  Leaders, Leadership, Bottom Line, Business

Monday Manna - An Unorthodox Marketing Strategy

By Rick Boxx In the business world it seems normal to emphasize a company’s unique qualities and capacities. We try to define our “niche,” promote our strengths, and show how we differentiate from our competitors. It is less common, however, for business leaders to publicly acknowledge their weaknesses. They are either ignored or, even worse, disguised or concealed in hope that no one will recognize them.
Tags:  Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Unorthodox, Honesty, Business