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Ken Richardson

Ken Richardson

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Columns and organizations

Published work by Ken Richardson

  • Article

    Learning to Love “The Numbers” — One Key to Improving Your Margins

    “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” — Albert Einstein A lot of businesses suffer because their owner-operators have a fear of numbers, a problem that is more common than assumed. This often leads to sloppy accounting practices that undermine profitability, but it doesn’t have to be t...

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  • Article

    Understanding Reciprocity: Essential for Success in Business and Life

    “Pay every debt, as if God wrote the bill.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson Behavioral scientists have conducted extensive study of the “norm of reciprocity,” a social convention that governs exchanges between human beings. Its importance in various business functions (sales, leadership, teamwork, and bargaining) is often undere...

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  • Article

    Getting America Back in Touch with Reality: Essential for Economic Redevelopment

    “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Walt Kelly A quick review of the news makes it evident that America is currently facing both internal and external challenges that are unprecedented in the lifetimes of most of us, and innumerable polls indicate that Americans feel that we’re lacking the kind of leadership require...

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  • Article

    Bringing Leadership Development Programs into the 21st Century

    “Leadership is no longer about possessing certain personal characteristics, but about the ability to set goals and achieve desired results.” Linda L. Martin Leadership development programs are everywhere, all promising spectacular results if you’re willing to shell out the cost. Despite this fact, it’s generally agree...

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  • Article

    Two Root Causes for Business Failure: Arrogance and Authoritarianism

    “By my count, more business leaders have failed and derailed because of arrogance than any other character flaw.” -Harvey Mackay We’re imbedded in a popular culture that cherishes self-esteem, and a prevailing belief is that thinking highly of oneself is the first step on the road to success. This view is oversimplifi...

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  • Article

    In and Age of Complexity and Rapid Change, Wisdom is More Important Than Ever

    “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” — Albert Einstein In our technology driven information age, we’ve accepted that clinging to old ways of thinking and doing things can be detrimental to business success. But information technology used independently of the timeless and...

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  • Article

    Self-Defeating Behavior: Common (and Costly) in Business

    “Sometimes you hit a point where you either change or self destruct.” -Sam Stevens We all know of the antics of people such as Bernard Madoff, or Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling of Enron, who wrecked their own multibillion business concerns through behaviors that seemed bizarre to most of us. But these are just spectacular...

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  • Article

    America’s Troubled Educational System: A Threat to Our Economic Future

    “America is the best half educated country in the world.” Nicholas M. Butler Historically, education has been touted as the key to success in America, but for decades our educational system has been in decline in ways that range from the subtle, to the blatantly dysfunctional. In the meantime, the costs of education a...

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  • Article

    Improve Your Profit Margin by Using Your Time Wisely

    “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” John Wooden Benjamin Franklin said, “time is money,” and spoke truth in doing so. But far too many businesses suffer because of the mismanagement of this invaluable resource. It’s the one thing that we can never replace and in an age of co...

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  • Article

    The Limits of “E Marketing”

    “Technology is a queer thing. It brings you gifts with one hand, and stabs you in the back with the other.” C.P. Snow Emarketing consultants have raked in billions by promising potential clients dramatic increases in visibility and sales, but some businesses have spent large amounts of money only to be disappointed wi...

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  • Article

    Five Common Errors That Cost Sales and Harm Business

    First Law on Holes: When you’re in one, stop digging! Denis Healy There’s no shortage of advice regarding new things we can do to improve our sales, but sometimes our problems are coming from things we need to STOP doing. Despite the current focus on positive thinking and affirmations, one problem that holds sales rep...

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  • Article

    People, Product & Process: Improving Your Business By Asking the Right Questions

    “Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” Voltaire “Strategic thinking is like showering— you have to keep on doing it.” Olan Hendrix Reevaluating strategy is an essential activity for success in any business. Each year, however, thousands of entrepreneurs struggle unduly or fail altogether because th...

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  • Article

    Human Error in Business Systems: Costly and Pervasive, but Avoidable

    “Error is a hardy plant; it flourishes in every soil.” Martin F. Tupper With the current emphasis on positive thinking and affirmations, people often overlook one of the biggest drains on profit margins— human error. Outside of engineering circles, it rarely gets discussed. But acknowledging, understanding, and incorp...

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  • Article

    Improve Your Business By Being Brutally Honest With Yourself

    “No persons are more frequently wrong than those who will not admit they are wrong.” François de La Rochefoucauld It’s much easier to see what others are doing wrong than it is to see our own shortcomings. This is not a profound insight— it’s a well-known fact. The best business leaders are those who are able to accep...

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  • Article

    Improve Your Profit Margin by Sharpening Up Your “Emotional Intelligence”

    “All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust.” Bob Burg Using hard data such as productivity and profit margins, psychologist and business specialist Dan Goleman has demonstrated the importance and power of “emotional intelligence” as a determinan...

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  • Article

    Several Societal Trends That Threaten America's Future

    “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Walt Kelly Innumerable surveys and polls indicate that a large majority of Americans feel that our country is “going in the wrong direction,” and express deep concerns about our future. Few however, are very specific about exactly what’s wrong, and are able to do little more than...

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  • Article

    Improving Your Sales Skills: Six Principles to Keep in Mind

    This article is about sales, but its focus is on principles, not tactics. There is a difference, and it’s important. Tactics are scripted ruses that are intended to increase sales but usually don’t. In contrast, principles are timeless and unchanging truisms regarding how people perceive, respond, and relate to one an...

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  • Article

    The Ability to Listen: An Invaluable But Underdeveloped Business Tool

    “Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” Bernard M. Baruch The ability to communicate our ideas to others is essential for success in business. Less often discussed, however, but just as essential to effective communication is the ability to listen. As simple and obvi...

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  • Article

    Four Errors That Can Bring Down Any Business

    “Error is a hardy plant; it flourishes in every soil.” Martin F. Tupper As a long-term analyst of business and industry, I’ve witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly in regard successes and failures in enterprise. Human beings are prone to error by nature, and successful entrepreneurs know this and are wary of their...

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  • Article

    Making 2013 a Renaissance Year for You and Your Business

    “The plans of the diligent lead to profit, as surely as haste leads to poverty.” Proverbs 21:5 2012 was a year defined by uncertainty regarding issues over which business leaders had little or no control. Many coped by adopting conservative strategies and taking a “wait and see” attitude. 2013 is all about resurgence...

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  • Article

    Pottstown: Ripe for Redevelopment, But Needs a Unified Effort

    “Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” Helen Keller Once a hotbed of manufacturing, Pottstown’s more recent history has been characterized by a sluggish economy and high unemployment. But its eventual revival is a certainty, as it has far too many assets to remain in the doldrums for long. Taking adv...

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  • Article

    The Mysterious Stock Market: As Psychological as it is Financial

    “The dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it’s going up.” Warren Buffett Action, intrigue, uncertainty, elation, and exasperation. I’m not talking about the latest box office thriller; I’m referring to the stock market. Despite its perplexing ups and downs, it affects us all, no matter what business w...

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  • Article

    Making Every "Business Minute" Count: Maximizing the Dollar Value of your Time

    “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” William Penn Two things that business owners have in common are that (1) we survive by translating our time into dollars and cents; (2) the clock is more often an enemy than a friend. There are ways, however, to rethink how we look at both our priorities and our time...

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  • Article

    Facebook Fiasco: The Relationships Between Business, Technology and Ourselves

    “In the business world, the rear view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” Warren Buffett “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.” Yogi Berra At the time of this writing (late August, 2012), Facebook was estimated to have lost over 50 BILLION dollars in market capitalization since the time it “went public” on...

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  • Article

    Getting Your Ducks in a Row: Organizing Yourself for Success and Prosperity

    “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” Robert Collier There are two agreed upon facts of life regarding the future of the American economy: (1) the bulk of our jobs are going to come from small businesses, and (2) small business failure rates are appallingly high. Taken together, these fac...

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  • Article

    Implementing the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People

    “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.” – Jim Rohn First published in 1989, Steve Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was an instant bestseller that earned its author international acclaim. Despite profound economic, techn...

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  • Article

    Coping With Tough Economic Times By Unleashing the Power Within You

    “More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has ever been taken out of the ground.” Napoleon Hill Consider for a second the titles of two bestselling books on success in business: Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich , and John C. Maxwell’s How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life...

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  • Article

    Despite the Digital Revolution, Business is Still About Relationships

    “The best computer is a man, and it’s the only one that can be mass produced by unskilled labor.” Wernher Von Braun Anyone notice the proliferation of seminars and workshops on the use of digital technology as a means of enhancing business success? They seem to be everywhere, and happening all the time. Social media i...

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  • Article

    Organizing Your Finances for Simplicity and Prosperity

    “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Albert Einstein For most of my adult life, financial planning was one of my least favorite things to deal with. I used to feel that I was swimming in information and was apprehensive regarding the potential for making bad decisions. Recently, however,...

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  • Article

    A Mind for Business: How Successful People Think

    Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right! Henry Ford Despite the economic downturn, lots of Americans are not just surviving— many are doing exceedingly well, showing that “the dream” is anything but dead. And it’s not just “the rich getting richer.” Many new entrepreneurs are establishin...

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  • Article

    Developing Your Business To Business Sales Skills: The Art of Cultivating Relationships

    All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust. Bob Burg We’re all aware of how the age of digital technology has changed the ways people do business, and it’s incumbent upon anyone who wants to succeed to keep up with change and be aware of technolo...

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  • Article

    Six Keys to Succeeding in Business

    "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." General Colin Powell Passing by the shops, storefronts, and warehouses that once housed thriving businesses that are now closed, I always think of those that failed unnecessarily. Given the business I’m in, it alw...

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  • Article

    Success as a Choice: Working Smarter During Tough Times

    “The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” Vince Lombardi Having worked with numerous successful business leaders, I’ve become aware of several commonalities among them. While it’s true that they come in all shapes, sizes, a...

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  • Article

    Using Goals to Take Charge of Your Life and Your Business

    “Success is how high you bounce after you hit bottom” General George Patton I recently had two conversations with sales reps from different construction companies, both of which serve the same market in the same area. One complained bitterly about the bad economy and what it is doing to his sales and to his company. T...

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  • Article

    Dealing With Tough Times: How Successful Leaders Do It

    “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” Benjamin Franklin Working with various business leaders in these troubled times has given me valuable insights into why some do well during economic downturns while their competitors who serve the very same markets struggle or go out of business. Of course they actuall...

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  • Article

    Satisfying Customers by Putting Employees First: How Successful Leaders Produce Results

    “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Jack Welch I recently had an exchange with the president of a very successful manufacturing firm who expressed something that I have no doubt is responsible for the results she gets. “I put...

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  • Article

    An Emphasis on Strategic Planning: One Sign of Effective Leadership

    “He who fails to plan is planning to fail.” Winston Churchill A lot of discussions of leadership focus on the qualities that define success, and such discussions certainly have their place. We must keep in mind however, that qualities such as “vision,” “determination,” or “empathy” are not actual behaviors, but abstra...

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  • Article

    Leaders Innovate While Managers Imitate: A Not-So-Subtle Difference

    “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson Anyone who has paid attention to business management over the past several decades has got to be fascinated by the sheer number of trends that have been touted as being the wave of the future. A look back...

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  • Article

    Managing Complexity, Chaos and Change: The Value of Systems Thinking

    “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.” Abraham Lincoln “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Yogi Berra Thriving in business at any level is tougher now than any time in recent decades, and the challenges to individual business leaders are increasingly daunting. While it used to be argue...

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  • Article

    Personal Growth as Leadership Development

    “Imitate Jesus and Socrates.” Benjamin Franklin, on humility. It is universally agreed that leadership is the single most influential determinant of the success of any organization. On the other hand, it is also agreed that our business, government, and educational institutions continue to perform in ways that are les...

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  • Article

    Persuasiveness Is Not Leadership

    “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader .” John Quincy Adams One of my favorite business related books is Robert B. Cialdini’s Influence: Science and Practice . I regard it as a “must read” for people involved in sales, negotiation, and marketing. The book i...

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  • Article

    With All We Know About Leadership, Bad Bosses Still Proliferate

    “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower I was recently perusing books related to organizations and workplace issues, and was struck by the number of titles that alluded to problems with people in leadership roles. Anyone who has lunc...

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  • Article

    Success Versus Excellence: Beware the Former, Pursue the Later, and You'll Achieve Both

    As a long-term student of effective leadership, I’ve noticed a pattern that appears frequently but doesn’t get that much discussion. The pattern that I find curious is that spectacular successes are so often followed by dramatic declines or even miserable failures. I’ll get into some specific examples shortly, but fir...

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  • Article

    Common Sense: Just How Common Is It, Really?

    “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” Mark Twain I was recently in attendance at a seminar on business leadership in which the importance of “empowering workers” briefly became the focus of discussion. This is by no means a new issue. We know that excessive restrict...

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  • Article

    The Problem of Arrogance: One reason Why Leaders Who Fail, Fail

    “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Proverbs 11: 2 One of my favorite fables has always been Hans Christian Anderson’s story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Its message is simple, yet profound— thinking too highly of yourself can put you out of touch with reality and lead you to make...

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  • Article

    Effective Leaders as Applied Psychologists

    “A servant cannot be corrected by mere words; though he understands, he will not respond.” Proverbs 29:19 Surveys of business leaders continue to indicate that the vast majority of them wish they could get more out of their employees than they do. At the same time, excessively high percentages of workers consistently...

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  • Article

    The Problem of Human Error in Business Systems and Rock 'N' Roll Bands

    “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Alexander Pope Let’s talk about the first part of Mr. Pope’s quote— human error. I once worked with a group of construction electricians under a team leader whose virtues included an ability to anticipate and minimize critical mistakes on the part of his crew. He saved our compan...

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  • Article

    A Catalyst for Change: The Pottstown Mosaic Community Land Trust

    “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” Martin, Luther King, Jr. It’s always a pleasure to encounter examples of sound business thinking, especially in endeavors that are noble and community minded. Pottstown’s Mosaic Community Land Trust, which has dedicated itself to improving the...

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