What is American is cultural, and culture is a shared thing; it’s not something that divides us. Businesses of all stripes operate according to standards and norms. They also must obey applicable laws. Things such as customer demands, product and service specifications, as well as public policy, set the rules for business behavior. The proper …
In business, and no matter what we do, we need others. Entrepreneurs and small business leaders seem to be the epitome of American “rugged individualism”. They find opportunities, take risks and strike-out on their own. We tend to be enamored with the image of a person who goes his or her own way. These notions …
In business, success is something that must be measured. Running a small business is not – by a long shot – easy. And for the small business leader, “failure is not an option”. In large corporations, there are whole departments dedicated to procurement, manufacturing, logistics, marketing, sales and all the rest that goes into running …
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Let’s protect Michigan’s democracy and free markets. Free markets, which can be thought of as the systems within which entrepreneurs are free to start businesses, have their roots in principles of democracy, or “rule by the people.” If one starts a business, and it flourishes because people are free to buy the business’s products or …
Small business leaders play an important role in our democracy. It’s hard running a small business. And these days, it’s getting much harder. Inflation, supply chain issues and labor shortages are but a few of a long and growing list of headwinds faced by small business leaders. It’s enough to get folks to show-up for …
It’s time to rethink advancing sustainable business. In the world of sustainable business, we talk about and attempt to enact practices that go beyond “maximizing shareholder value”, which is doublespeak for profit taking. Going beyond organizing business around just profit taking is an essential dimension of sustainable business. John Elkington, in his book, Cannibals with …
Autocracy is not one of them. The Michigan primaries are now behind us and we’re headed into the election season. In the coming months, we’ll be making decisions about who will lead Michigan. Never before, in our lifetimes, have these decisions been more critical, and that’s not hyperbole. The trends we see in our body …
Without democracy, we’ll not find the answers we need. One way to think of sustainability, whether in business or more broadly, is as collective human behavior that does not destroy the Earth system. The Brundtland definition of sustainable development reflects this notion: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations …
It’s not just for magic: It’s all around us. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting and investing is being touted as the way to shift business behavior away from simply maximizing shareholder value (i.e., profit only) and toward sustainable, or triple bottom line – people, planet, profit – value. The idea behind ESG reporting is …
Deming’s wisdom is more important than ever. If you’re not familiar with Dr. W. Edwards Deming, you’re probably not alone. Many of us have forgotten who he was and the profound influence he had on corporate leadership, especially here in Detroit. In the day, Deming was largely thought-of as a quality systems guru. In truth, …
