Join The Alternative Board (TAB) Fort Worth today!
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| TAB Fort Worth Anniversaries |
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Dec./Jan. Anniv.
Will Atkinson - 401
Tony Ford - 501
Janee Harrell - Member at Large
Jay Meadows - 501
Richard Minker - 501
Jeremy Sweek - 401 Tyler Trahant - 402
Dale Westerfeld - 501
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| Hear How We Help Our Members |
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| Event Details |
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Attend Business Bites Lunch 'N Learn - 12/9/09
Please plan to join us for "Could you be looking to government funding for your corporate training initiatives?" on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at 11:45 AM at TECH Fort Worth.
Since 1987, the Federal Government has set aside $750 million per year to invest in training the American workforce. There are also many training programs at the state and local level. The money is distributed each year to companies in the form of grants.
If your organization is not taking advantage of government training grants (please don't confuse these programs with the recent corporate bailout programs!), then you could be leaving significant money on the table.
At the end of the Business Bites meeting, there will be a very brief overview of an interesting product. Your next telephone can now give you a face to face conversation with your staff in another office here or in another state.
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Watch for Upcoming Events
1/29/10 - Achieving Balance Creates Business Success Workshop at TCU
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| Schedule a TAB Speaker for your Organization |
| The Alternative Board (TAB) of Fort Worth possesses a Speakers Bureau comprised of individuals from various companies and industries. The range of topics is varied (finance, the environment, new technologies - such as LinkedIn business network, ethics, energy efficiency, and small business management, to name a few).
Click here for a list of topics.
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| Quick Tips |
Don't Let Phone Time Hang You Up
Do you drop everything when the phone rings? Stop letting the phone interrupt you and start managing your time by using a professional phone answering service. You set the parameters, you dictate what gets through to you and what doesn't and you maximize the use of your time.
Ken San Pedro
The Carpet Cleaning Guy
Long Island, NY
Consistency In Operations Adjusting your operations every time business gets better or worse requires too much misplaced effort. We try to operate like we're breaking even or worse, losing money, all the time. Don't be one of those companies that doesn't operate as tightly when business and profits improve. It's to your advantage to be consistent and to operate like things are bad all the time.
Danny Selman
Lone Star Pet Supply
Schertz, TX
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| TAB in The News |
For a full listing of press hits, please visit our In the News page. |
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| Now Available: Click on the above book cover to order your copy of The Wall Street Journal business book best-seller the 9 Elements of Family Business Success by Allen E. Fishman, Founder and Chairman of The Alternative Board®. |
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Member Highlight
Focusing on the Bigger Picture
Dale Westerfeld, CEO and Owner, Essner Manufacturing (TAB 501 Board)
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 TAB has provided me with several important benefits that have helped me focus more on the bigger picture of my business. The interaction with fellow TAB members, as well as the one-on-one meetings with Ed, are invaluable both in terms of knowledge gained and the accountability to them. Knowing that I have a meeting once a month also helps bring discipline to accomplishing what I had set out to do. Plus, getting to know and work with some of Fort Worth and Tarrant County's best is a lot of fun.
Through TAB I was encouraged to go through a more formal and encompassing strategic planning process than I had ever done before. One of the benefits of this was in clarifying the plan I had been utilizing and making some key additions to it. A much more important result was that many more people at Essner were involved in its preparation and review, and this made it much more understood and effective for us.
Essner Manufacturing produces precision sheet metal fabrications and machined parts, with an emphasis in the defense aerospace industry. Essner provides its customers with a wide range of services, ranging from individual detail parts to turnkey assemblies, all manufactured to customers' specifications. Formed in 1939 by Ward Essner, the organization has approximately 70 employees and is celebrating its 70th birthday this year.
Essner is an AS-9100 certified quality organization, which controls all facets of the Company's operations and has been instrumental to Essner's growth. It has emphasized lean manufacturing principles to eliminate waste and control the quality and on-time delivery of parts to its customers. Essner operates out of a 74,000 square feet manufacturing plant in the Carter Industrial Park in South Fort Worth.
"Thanks for expediting the brackets we needed. There were 12 aircraft ready for deployment to Iraq waiting on seats from us, and these brackets were the last piece of the solution. Quick actions like these help us sleep well at night."
- Joseph E. Cates II, Chief Operating Officer, Skyline Industries, Inc.
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Relativity Adjustments in Pay |
If pay cuts are needed, take the opportunity to make relative adjustments instead of across-the-board reductions. If you believe you are paying an employee more than they should be making in relation to the rest of the staff, this is the time to dial down their compensation. It's never an easy thing to make pay adjustments but, if you need to, now is the time to bring everybody's salary to the right level.
Board 402, TAB Greater Hartford, CT
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Q/A The Workplace Doctor™ Resolution of Conflicts
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Is your workplace a potential breeding ground for conflict? Left unmanaged, conflict can spiral out of control--wasting time, money and resources, damaging relationships, causing unnecessary stress, and eroding productivity, collaboration and innovation. Strong egos, difficult personalities, less people/resources to accomplish more work, or current economic challenges--all can contribute to differences erupting.
Causes may vary from misunderstanding and miscommunication, competition for resources, and dueling personalities with differing values and regard for others. If needs are unmet or interests threatened, conflict is triggered and the focus shifts from serving the organization's mission and clients' best interests to self serving games and misplaced turf issues, conflicting egos, fear and insecurity.
The resolution process may be impeded by not listening, fearing loss of control, fear of being wrong or approaching win-lose rather than win-win. However, when stakeholders choose to refocus on common mission and goals; share situations and concerns without blame; take ownership for their actions, reactions and inactions; and volunteer next step actions to collaboratively address both causes and symptoms, conflicts can be resolved, trust rebuilt and relationships strengthened.
Copyright 2009, Dr. Connie Sitterly, "The Workplace Doctor™" President, Sittcom, Inc., Management Training Specialists. Connie is an international speaker, trainer, executive coach, author, management consultant. You may reach her by phone 817.737.2893 , Connie's email |
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Institutionalizing Post Mortems |
It's important to remind clients about all the things you do for them that go above and beyond what they ask you to do. We have now started to put in place a formal review process that takes place after each project is completed. It is prompted when an invoice is sent out and it involves looking at everything we did that had an impact on the project. The result is a formal report that we deliver to the client along with the invoice.
Mark Rickard, Rickard List Marketing, Melville, NY
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| Up and Down: Today's Headlines |
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Consumer sentiment is up, various manufacturing indexes are improving, the economy is showing positive signs (green shoots), and the world's economy lives another day. I forecast headlines to follow which negatively express the opposite, while avoiding issues of substance whenever possible.
It's all true that the nation's mood is improving, but there are risks, fears, hopes and expectations we are all laboring to solve in any environment.
Be very careful of putting too much faith in what others say and think--others who are not seemingly accountable to their readers for what they say or how they say it.
For me, it is the time of year to be thankful because of all that surrounds: our opportunities, our families, friends and the society that has provided us with more rights and options than 95% of those living today or in the past. So, when our headlines roll forward, and the media and others begin yelling "fire" in our theatre - be circumspect, be patient and be thankful that we are where we are and keep making your options better for the future.
Enjoy your Holiday Season and be grateful for all that you have.
David H. Diesslin, MBA, CFP® Diesslin & Associates, Inc.
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Seeking New Representation |
If you are seeking new representation for your product and don't know who to use, try contacting some of your current customers and asking them if they have any suggestions. They may have some good ideas you never thought of, especially if they have the opportunity to suggest someone they believe would be good for your mutual business relationship.
Jerry Lawson, W.W. Wood, Inc., Pleasanton, TX
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Manage Your Clients' Expectations |
Don't be afraid to re-set the client's expectations when something occurs to keep from meeting the original terms of the order. All too often when we encounter delays to the performance of the order--whether they are from the failure of a client to supply needed information or a key supplier changing the delivery date of materials to be incorporated-- the change is not communicated promptly to the client as our staff tries to otherwise scramble. This may only compound the problem when the information must be ultimately shared on the actual performance period and conditions due to the delay.
Tracy Fisher, Covenant Food Marketing, St. Louis, MO |
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Pay Cuts Can Improve Morale |
A member of our board reported that, due to the difficult economy, he had to cut salaries 10 to 15 percent earlier this year. He explained to his employees that he had to trim costs because the company was losing money, but he did not want to lose any of them because he considered them all valuable to the company. As he was trying to avoid layoffs he reduced his own compensation as well.
What surprised him most was that not only did his employees understand and accept the situation, but in fact, this action seemed to create a kind of esprit de corps-people bonded together, rolled up their sleeves and seemed to work even harder than they did previously. The bottom line is, if pay cuts are needed and are explained properly, employees will not only accept the situation without balking, they may surprise you by their willingness to be part of the solution to getting the company back on track.
TAB Greater Hartford Board, Hartford, CT |
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Touted as the most valuable and beneficial business advisory organization in the world, The Alternative Board® (TAB) has been featured in leading business news sources from the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, the Washington Post, CNN and many others.
The essential and critical counsel and value The Alternative Board® consistently delivers to small and medium size businesses, and the immediate impact it brings to its client organizations is an essential element for any organization that intends to thrive. | |
ABOUT THE ALTERNATIVE BOARD®
The Alternative Board® is comprised of members who are business owners, CEOs or presidents who run businesses in non-competing fields. During a TAB Board meeting, you receive the benefit of the collective experience of the board members, who offer practical solutions to your problems-not theories.
You can learn more about TAB, which has been helping business owners succeed since 1990, by visiting TheAlternativeBoard.com |
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