The Wealthy Business - by EnergizeGrowth

Three Wealth Building Ideas for the New Economy - Direct from Davos

It is almost as if we were joined at the hip.

During the June 2009 World Economic Forum's Global Leadership Fellows keynote address, corporate governance expert Robert A.G. Monks shared some contemporary perspectives on the tightening links between government, human welfare, and the private sector.  

If you are in the process of planning your company's next move, his speech is a must read.

Who knew that Robert and I share the same views on building a wealthy company?  That is, a company that is highly valued because it is driven by strong values?

10 Tools to Tame the Wild Social Media Beast

Here is a social media story gone WILD. (literally and figuratively).

Return with me to 2007, when the chairman and CEO of a public company created an anonymous account in Yahoo’s online financial community. Over eight years, he posted over 1400 glowing comments about his company.  He also posted many negative comments about his number one competitor. His activities triggered a proxy battle, stalled merger attempts, and an FTC investigation.

This social media experiment gone WILD backfired—Within a 12-month period, their stock dropped 50 percent.

This story describes John Mackey, the CEO and chairman of Whole Foods Market.  Even though their acquisition of Wild Oats Market finally closed in 2007, Mackey learned some emotionally taxing lessons. And you can too.

Measuring Success, KPI's, and Company Vision - The Zappos Way

How does your company hold a strong vision and track progress amidst today's economic hailstorm? 

In my work with high performing companies, we find that they create two categories of indicators: "Leading indicators" and "trailing indicators."  In companies such as Zappos and The Beryl Companies, it is not uncommon for the CFO and CEO to maintain slightly different success "dashboards."  For example, the CFO is often responsible for tracking the more traditional trailing indicators  (such as gross margins, EBITDA, client retention rates, and average client spend);  whereas the CEO sees herself as the keeper of the culture.  In these instances, the CEO tracks specific changes in employee behavior, shift in client moods, and volume of unsolicited referrals.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh shares examples of how he assesses their progress and cultural health against their stated objectives in this 2 1/2 minute video.  He also shares what he wants Zappos to look like in three years. 

Video: Measuring Zappos’ success, cultural strength, and future growth opportunities