The primary desire of family business advisors, like myself, is to see family-owned businesses live on for many generations. But some family businesses are beyond saving and want to die peacefully. Those businesses need hospice. Hospice is a service and philosophy of care for terminally ill patients. Hospice has four primary goals: Relieve the pain...

Columbus never achieved his goal but we celebrate the outcome of his failure. Columbus was obsessed with finding a westward route to Asia from Spain. Finding it would enrich not only his Spanish patrons, primarily Queen Isabella, but himself as well. Columbus attempted and failed four times to find a westward route to Asia. On...

It took the dentist and his assistant only 10-minutes to perform my scheduled treatment. But I spent 60-minutes in the chair staring at a computer screen. What are the root causes for me wasting 50 minutes waiting for my treatment to be completed? To answer that question, I’ll use The 5-Whys method I was taught...

  We can chuckle at the cartoon, but its message is profound. During my recent speech to the Dallas-Fort Worth Institute of Management Accountants, I alerted them that their career competitors are no longer accountants that you can outrun or outwork. Robots, Siri-type Artificial Intelligence (AI) devices and computer algorithms have entered the accounting profession....

“I wish there was a Waze app for navigating my business and career.“ When driving I use the Waze app on my cell phone because: It offers me alternative routes to my desired destination. It routes me around unexpected obstacles, like accidents. It re-routes me to my desired destination if I make a wrong turn...

“Competitive advantage is now based on what you know rather than what you own.” Mary Adams Have you noticed that your customers, your boss, your co-workers, your friends and your family all share something in common? They all value what you know, not what you own. If you’re a plumber, the customer values your ability...

What’s your daily nut to crack?  That’s a question I often ask business owners. What I’m searching for is, “How much do you need to sell today to break-even?” Fixed costs are the shell. Inside the shell are tasty profits. Break-even is sales revenue number your business must surpass to make a profit. Most business owners...

Good ideas don’t always spread. Wilt Chamberlain was a great basketball player but terrible free throw shooter. The average NBA player shoots 75%. Wilt made only 51% of his foul shots over his 14 year NBA career. The 1961-62 season, however, was different. During the 1961-62 season someone taught Wilt how to shoot free throws...

Budgets are boring. They’re easy to create. Simply take last year’s spending and multiply it by an inflation factor or an across-the-board budget cut percent. Voila, you’ve got a budget. Easy activities rarely determine an organization’s success. Creating a budget is relatively easy and not mission critical. Strategy is mission critical. Strategy determines success or...

“People are far more interested in what works than what’s true.” This quote by Andy Stanley reminds me of my college macro-economics professor. Professor Hayashi repeatedly said, “In theory, this is how the market is supposed to work.” My professor taught what was true but failed to tell me what works. He taught sound theory....