The Recombobulation Area

For most who travel through Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport, we see a sign as we exit airport security identifying “The Recombobulation Area.” We probably take that sign for granted – perhaps we shouldn’t. First a little history. Recombobulation is somewhat of a made-up word, wryly invented by Barry Bateman, Mitchell International’s now-retired airport manager. According…

Why are you in business?

My best motorcycle buddy is Tom Myers, a partner at the law firm Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, headquartered in Milwaukee. I met him more than 25 years ago. In my first meeting with Tom as his client, he asked me a crucial question: “John, what is your goal for the business?” I didn’t really understand…

How to Teach Decision Making

So you want your people to make good decisions? One of our RESULTS.com clients asked me to recommend a process to would help his people make good decisions, even when he could not personally be there to advise them. The CEO travels a lot and wants to give people the freedom to make decisions in…

Realizing the awesome power of the BHAG

I am inspired to write this article today, because of Elon Musk and his incredible team at SpaceX. Today, April 8th  SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk accomplished two incredible feats. First, they successfully launched 11 satellites into space on a single rocket, the SpaceX Falcon 9. This was followed by the successful landing of the…

The Power of a Brand

Greetings from Nosara, Costa Rica! (Yes, I AM bragging.) It’s February 19th, I am sitting at a quaint and tiny local beach restaurant sipping a Mojito, appreciating a beautiful breeze off the Pacific, “feeling the burn” of a delicious 85 degrees, and watching the local fishermen negotiate the sale of fresh catch from their boats.…

The awesome power of the BHAG

I am inspired to write this article today, because of Elon Musk and his incredible team at SpaceX. Today, December 21, 2015, SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk accomplished two incredible feats. First, they successfully launched 11 satellites into space on a single rocket, the SpaceX Falcon 9. This was followed by the successful landing of…

Do you have a real strategy?

Many companies claim to have a strategy, but all they have done is an exercise in goal setting. This is a mistake. Here’s how to create a “real” strategy. Research from the Harvard business school shows that (up to) 90% of strategies fail due to poor execution. This assumes your company even has a “real”…

Best Practices to Achieve your BHAG

The work we do at RESULTS.com gives us the rare privilege of being able to study thousands of businesses, working closely with them to identify the right goals and approach to developing a successful business strategy. We observe what works, and what doesn’t work in the real world, across a variety of industries. By having…

Top 5 Marketing KPIs

They also believe that marketers are not focused enough on results to drive incremental growth. My observation is that most companies seem to have a pretty good handle on the sales function of their operating model. They track things like appointments, meetings, orders, and conversion rates in their CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, and it…

Planning with Purpose

“Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.”  Cardinal Richard Cushing Greetings from 32,000 feet over Salt Lake City, Utah…. Today, I visited a factory with one of my clients who is a key supplier, and experienced an incredible tour by the materials manager, Bob. In this plant, this materials manager isn’t a…