The lessons and inspirations of sports and the sporting life have always had a deep hold on the business psyche. Some of my favorites here include the joy of competition, the virtues of teamwork, and of reaching Peak Performance through overcoming adversity and then sharing our “Best Stuff” with the world. And these days the “Hot Lesson” that sports has …

Especially this time of year – when so many of us are assembling and committing to our professional resolutions and goals, questions arise as how to best develop financial (growth, revenues, and profits) projections for our businesses. Questions including: Should projections be “realistic” – i.e. feel “doable” and in line with past results or… …should they be “aspirational,” not hot …

I met this week with partners from the Newport Board – an organization of former CEOs and senior executives that “guides companies through No Man’s LandTM” – that unfortunate place where the vast majority of businesses eventually settle… …doing well enough to press on but not even close to being either a) a source of significant cash flow for its …

Last week, in Las Vegas we had the opportunity to participate in a 2 – day “Mastermind-type” strategic session with a gathering of technology and Internet entrepreneurs and executives from around the globe. It was an impressive group – leaders of companies with average sales of $8 million and competing and prospering in industries than run the gamut – from consumer …

For the first time, with the power of business intelligence dashboards, smaller businesses can harness the power of big data to more efficiently and profitably manage their companies. Some readers expressed skepticism that this “stuff” actually works. That it is just more “noise” that causes entrepreneurs to get “lost in the weeds” versus long-term thinking and planning. There is some …

The confluence of Big Data and high quality, low cost software-as- service (SaaS) programs and applications for virtually every business purpose has made the path clearer than ever as to what entrepreneurs and executives must do to build real equity value in their companies. It looks like this: First, utilizing great tools like John Warrilow’s Sellability Score or Dave Lavinsky’s …

According to statistics from BizBuySell, less than 1 out of 5 of businesses marketed for sale are able to find a buyer and to consummate a successful transaction. Even this depressing statistic vastly under-estimates how few companies are able to attain a successful exit, as the great majority of the over 6 million U.S. business owners are never able to even consider listing their …

Written by Jay Turo on Wednesday, May 6, 2015 Over the past few weeks, I have written about the amazing growth and financial progress of Business Intelligence (BI) companies like Domo, Birst, and Looker and how their rise to prominence and value signifies a shift in how we think about the best way to manage and value an enterprise. I …

The power of business intelligence tools and technologies (BI) to provide managers and leaders accurate, real time visibility to the performance of all aspects of their companies – marketing, sales, operational financial – along with “automated” insight as to how to improve them has made BI one of the highest ROI arenas of business management in the world today. This …

Written by Jay Turo on Wednesday, August 12, 2015  Over the past few weeks, I have had the good fortune to speak to many executives and entrepreneurs about how the “Humans” in their companies grapple with data and information technology to improve critical work processes and business results. These processes include “New School” ones like formulating, launching, and managing multi-channel …