Matt May is the author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing and The Elegant Solution: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation. He is also a weekly columnist for the American Express OPEN Forum Idea Hub. …
In today’s fast-paced, ever-changing, technology-driven workplace, many people face the prospect of being replaced by a machine that can do their job faster and without error. But there is one thing that will remain the same no matter how many…
This summer, the Balihoo Blog, full of tips and trends in marketing, featured a guest post which I wrote. The post deals with the concept of engaging your franchisees, members, or dealers when implementing a marketing strategy. It also mentions…
I have been focusing a lot on blogging this summer. In fact, I just wrote a guest post for ReputationDR Weblog in which I discuss how you can prevent an angry business customer from ruining your online reputation. ReputationDR specializes…
I recently came across a great report by Hay Group about the power of climate in the workplace. Hay Group, www.haygroup.com, is a management consulting firm that helps people within an organization become motivated to perform to their best ability. …
The BAF Signal, written by Bradley Friedman, is a blog that focuses on time management but also has a variety of posts about other interesting topics such as social media. Recently, I wrote a guest post for The BAF Signal that…
There are four stages to a company’s participation in a business group (co-op, buying group, franchise, or dealer network): Curiosity, Felicity, Reality, and Maturity. Stage 1: Curiosity This is the very beginning. This is where the company/person is investigating. During…

Imagine a well-run franchise as an orchestra. All of the musicians are attentive, working together and following the conductor’s lead to make a beautiful piece of music. Then, imagine what it would be like to be part of such a…
I just recently had a conversation with a very senior franchise executive. He made an interesting point, he said that I have 85% franchisee satisfaction, is there a real ROI in improving that number. He went on to say that…

Is there an economic benefit to increased engagement? That’s the question at hand. I don’t know of any measures that directly calculate the economic benefit of having engaged members or franchisees…or customers for that matter. Yet there are studies that…