Episodes

According to data gathered by SCORE, 77% of small businesses use social media to help build brand awareness, facilitate customer service, and increase revenue. For example, data from Meta shows that 83% of Instagram users say they discover new businesses and brands while using the platform. And according to Forbes, small business owners have jumped on the train, but it also appears many owners are buckling under the added social-media marketing workload. Worse yet, most do social media marketing...

Our work environments were evolving before the pandemic, but when the pandemic hit, everything changed. As a result, companies are obligated to completely rethink their work environments, processes, and employee relations. New ways of working have become commonplace, and new environments and processes are emerging. As a result, new working models will predominate, meaning that firms will have to speed up their change management to keep up with changing technology, customer expectations and emplo...

Career development is the short-term actions that on takes to learn a skill, fine tune a strength or development a weakness. Career growth refers to the big picture, the overall progress of someone’s professional life. It is defined by the different roles and responsibilities we take on throughout our career journey, and this journey can go in several directions, but it is very rarely linear. While it’s easier to manage our own career development, growth is a bit more complicated because it can ...

According to Shopping Local Research 2022, 78% of consumers use the internet to find information about local businesses more than once a week (up from 69% in 2020). However, 21% of consumers use the internet to find information about local businesses daily (down from 34% daily). This means that businesses that do not have an excellent online presence could be missing out on reaching new customers. But Building a digital presence for a local business isn’t the same as developing one for a nationa...

Since May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has harmonized the rules on the processing of personal data, both private and public, across the Europe. Similar regulations have since popped up worldwide, with the US following suite with similar regulations like CCPA in California and regulations in most of the 50 US States. One of the unique aspects of these regulations, especially the EU’s GDPR is it is not only directly applicable in all EU member states but anyone who does ...

Our guest podcast guest says, People who discuss digital transformation often focus on new technology with a presumption that the working population will embrace it enthusiastically. But human beings are still instinctively dominated by fear, a single complicating reflex which will always be the default response. In simple words, humans are hardwired to resist change. Our brain resists change as a threat which releases reactions such as fear, fight, or flight. These are difficult responses to de...

Scaling artificial intelligence (AI) across industries, enterprises, and even small and medium businesses can create an excellent competitive advantage, but it’s not enough to invest in cutting-edge technologies and algorithms; you need to rewire your organization. From decision-making to data analysis to operations, if you want to extract value from AI, you need to understand it and how to best use it. Our guest today is an expert in extracting value from data and AI. He helps organizations und...

According to the team at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School, the most powerful cyber countries in the world are as follows: United States, China, UK, Russia, Netherlands, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Israel. Now some of these do not surprise us, but some do. Like the Netherlands, with 17 million people or little Israel, with 9 million, size and location play a role. But what is the most important thing is the human factor. People...

The voice of the customer plays a critical role in today's competitive markets. It does not matter if it is customer feedback on a product, service or individual; when companies do not get feedback, they cannot improve customer satisfaction and may lose their competitive edge. The other key factor is that people who leave feedback expect something to happen. Again, it does not matter if it is a call, e-mail or note, but people like to know they are taken seriously. As a result, businesses are in...

Talent management is about how employers recruit and develop a workforce that is as productive as possible and likely to stay with their organization long term. When implemented correctly, this process can help improve the business's overall performance and ensure that it remains competitive. However, when not implemented correctly, it can result in high turnover and lack of innovation, and a company can lose its competitive edge. But developing a talent-centric organization is not easy. The pri...

Sales and the customer journey. Are we giving salespeople the right tools to help them succeed? Years ago, sales were about pushing the customer in a direction and convincing them to buy. Today it is about discovering the customers’ needs and proving to them their return on investment. Today we also have the tools to help sales persons guide them through the process and show the customers facts, not fiction. This episode explores the customer journey, beginning with customer contact and sales. T...

Leadership expert Chris Pearse used an analogy in his Forbes article in 2018 on “Leadership in Crisis” This analogy made us think about leadership. It brought to light the mistake we often make in leadership today. Although not in exact words, he said if you want to grow a pumpkin, you need four elements, earth, water, sun, and a seed. While growing that pumpkin, your focus is on those elements, not the pumpkin. With the right focus, result will be a great pumpkin. In leadership, most of the tim...

Germany's “Umwelt Bundesamt” talks about the new “Green Economy. “They claim the present economic system is destroying our natural resources with the result of eroding the prosperity of future generations. They say that “Business as usual” in industrialised countries’ are resource-intensive, and with emerging countries following suit, it is not a feasible course for the future, which is why transforming into a Green Economy is necessary. . But this is Germany; what is the rest of the world sayin...

A company’s greatest asset is its people. It does not matter how innovative your product or services are; the people who stand behind the products and services interact with the customer and continue to innovate to move a company forward. In March 2020, as companies struggled to move their workforces remotely, employers also faced “The Big Quit”. As a result, many companies struggled to retain employees, but those companies that forged a collaborative and flexible culture thrived. In this episod...

On February 22, 2022, the world shifted when Russia invaded Ukraine. Now five months later, we still witness devastation in Ukraine and the attack on democracy. We are seeing criminal acts as Russia uses war tactics that target civilians in the hope that the solidarity and will of the Ukrainian people will be broken. We are also feeling the wars impact the world economy. So when and how will this end? No one has a crystal ball, but we can examine the direction the world's most robust and influen...

Digital Marketing has become very complicated. Consumers have changed their behavior, Google is constantly polishing their Core Web Vitals, and new media channels are popping up daily. At the same time, we have other trends like stricter personal data restrictions while new technologies are emerging, and AI is becoming more prevalent when it comes to targeting audiences. This makes digital marketing trends hard to keep up for SMB’s and even for brands who dedicated digital marketing teams. But i...

Today we are facing the “Big Resignation”. All over the world, companies are struggling to find personnel, and no one can answer why this is happening. Possible reasons are wage stagnation amid the rising cost of living, long-lasting job dissatisfaction, safety concerns around COVID-19, and the desire to work for companies with better remote-working policies and new work-life balance values stemming from the pandemic. Some economists have described the Great Resignation akin as a general strike ...

Consumer Behaviors have drastically changed in the last 24 months. We can observe the changes in foot traffic ( in-person behaviour ) when we are at the grocery store, airport, or simply walking in any city centre. Still, we do not always see the changes in consumer behaviours online. We all know how our own search behaviours have changed, but unless you own a business with an e-commerce shop, you may not know how your customers search for your products or services. You may also not be unaware o...

We live in a world where change and transformation are the new normal, but sometimes we make decisions and go about change as we have always done. Today have more data and information available than we have ever had in the past, but we do not always use it when making decisions or initiating change. When it comes to transformation, many companies and organizations tend to look outward rather than inward when inward is where they should be looking. An organization's digital footprint can tell us ...

When executives speak about diversity, you often hear them say, yes we are good at meeting our targets around diversity. But diversity is not about numbers; it is about fostering a culture of innovation from a mix of people with different experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds where they can contribute to achieving a common goal. It's about DEI, which is more than just diversity it’s about equity and inclusion. It is proven that companies that foster DEI outperform companies that do not. But...

Today, customer experience is more important than ever, and the first person the customer meets in the customer journey is usually a salesperson. But customers today are more informed than they were in the past, which means the average salesperson can no longer fly by the seat of their pants when conducting a sales call. Today, the salesperson needs a lot of knowledge and a whole new set of skills. In this episode, we talk to a customer experience expert about how companies can manage their sale...

Cultural forces are always at play in today’s Global Economy. Although effective management of cultural differences is not necessarily a guarantee of business success, understanding and deepening one’s knowledge of the other culture is vital to the success of any venture. Culture influences communication, decision-making, negotiation, resolution of conflicts, the management of cross-national alliances and diverse teams. Without understanding the impact culture plays in any business transaction. ...

According to a poll by Manta, the majority of small business owners agree that online marketplaces have positively impacted their sales. Nearly 70% of small business owners stated that marketplaces like Amazon and eBay have helped them increase sales, although about 30% believe they have had a negative impact. In addition, most small businesses (81%) believe that online sales are critical to their company's success, but most rely on their websites. Only around 20% of use e-commerce solutions as ...

When people search online for products or services, if your website is not visible on the first page of the relevant keyword searches, you might not get traffic from the search engines. Google, the most widely used search engine, and other search engines provide the most significant area of opportunity for inbound marketers. According to SearchEngineWatch.com, websites on top grab 36.4% of the traffic missed by lower-ranked websites. If you don't rank highly in search results, you probably won't...