1 Million Pages

1. First, accept the fact that you are not perfect and that nobody else is perfect, either. This seems self-evident, but a surprising

number of people expect themselves to get everything right the first time, often without instruction.

2. Drop your defensiveness. Feedback feels like criticism to many people.

When you are tempted to explain why you behaved as you did, and why you could not possibly have done anything differently, stop yourself. Take a deep breath and listen carefully. Think about what is being said to you; try not to think about how you need to respond. Being able to do this takes courage and practice.

3. Make sure you understand what you are being told. Ask questions about specifics. Ask for details and examples, and listen to them.

4. Restate in your own words your understanding of the issues that are being discussed, and clarify the issues before you respond to them. Clarify whether the person offering the feedback is requesting that you take some action in response to the feedback.

Showing that you are listening and understanding is often enough.

5. Decide whether a response is really necessary. If it is, take time to think about how to respond, even if it means asking to discuss the situation at a later time.

6. Recognize that even criticism usually contains useful information.

7. Treat criticism as feedback offered in an unskilled manner, and respond to it as if it is offered as a gift. This takes practice - do the best you can.

8. Always thank the person offering you feedback.

9. If you suspect that someone has information about you or your behavior and is not offering to share it with you, ask for that person’s feedback. Be certain to accept the comments non-defensively and with appreciation, even if you are unhappy with what is
being said. The more often you do this, the more you will learn about yourself.

10. Once more, say thank you and mean it!

Excerpted from lesson 11, “The Integrity Course.”
Copyright 2006 Laurie Weiss, Ph.D.

My name is Frank M. Ahearn and I am a skip tracer, a skip tracer is someone who finds people, my clients range from private investigators, lawyers to finance companies. Typically, the people I search for have done something to someone like cheated them out of money, cheated with a mate or some other type misdeed.

A skip tracer is usually the last line of defense; we come in when the client has exhausted all means and cannot locate a subject. A good skip tracer picks up the phone, calls family, friends and neighbors for leads to the subjects whereabouts.

The face of skip tracing has changed with the new law passed it prohibits people from calling telephone companies and creating a subterfuge for information. The phone companies have always been a well of information for skip tracers - those days are over.

Interestingly enough, the internet is a great place to locate information and I’m not talking about the database companies that sell regurgitated information for $9.99. Those databases are good for a starting point in your investigation but be cautious the information provided has never been checked or confirmed - your buying a piece of a persons history with no real proof of what is true or untrue, buyer beware.

The question now is how one finds all the good information online. The answer is in how you search for your subject, simply putting their name in Google or Yahoo does not give you what you need. They key is the sites you hit and how you manipulate the subjects name. For example, Zabasearch is an excellent web site for information, you can put a person’s name, search it by city, state or national. You can even search it by year of birth if you have or only last name with a first initial. What is good about Zabasearch besides being free is you can pick up a subjects month and year of birth, sometime a phone or cell number is located.

The next step is after you located some information about your subject from Zabasearch and it appears credible, take some time and hit Superpages, run the addresses you located in the reverse listing, run the name in the Whitepages area and if you pick up a phone number run that through the reverse listings as well. Through Superpages, you may pick up a spouses name or a parent’s address the subject may have resides at some point. Take the names you located and go back to Zabasearch and run the names, you will be surprised at what you find.

The inability to pretext phone companies have certainly put a damper in the skip tracing and investigative world, however, people can still be located with out pretext. It’s not easy nor is it quick, there is a lot of chipping away at the stone. From my perspective as a skip tracer, I have to become more resourceful and figure out where people have left information behind that I can utilize in my skip trace.

Look at Myspace, people load up information beyond belief. They put up birth dates, occupation, some list high schools, colleges, fraternity, even better some list, cities, states, family member’s names and email addresses, not to mention photos. One skip trace I worked where an investigator was doing a disability case on a subject. By manipulating the subjects name I located his Myspace account, the subject had videos of himself ridging dirt bikes in an amateur competition. Remarkably enough, the subject listed his next motocross event on his Myspace account; the investigator was there to video tape.

Another skip trace for a client was to assist in locating employment or business entities on a subject. My client had an email address on the subject, what I did was drop everything after the ampersand so the email became joebadguy77. Where ever the subject posted something online be it a Blog an Op-ed site or signed a web sites guest book I’m gonna get a hit. With this particular case, the subject was listed in Zoominfo, busted as we say in the business.

As time goes on, the laws will change and restrict more, and more how information is obtained, its important investigators and skip tracer reinvent the process of locating people and assets. We at AhearnSearch have drastically overhauled our skip tracing methods; there was a time we were paid for information, now we are paid for the process of searching for information.

I truly believe in time that pretext itself will be outlawed which will affect several industries, like banking, financial, investigative and including the legal industry of locating witnesses. My suggestion to all the Investigators, Repoman, Collectors, Lawyers and suspecting spouses either perfect your internet search skills or utilize a company like AhearnSearch for your skip tracing needs.

Frank M. Ahearn & Eileen C. Horan

Companies of all sizes are now implementing lean manufacturing. Businesses as small as a dentist office are blogging about using lean manufacturing techniques to improve the process and lower costs.

If a company is contemplating hiring a lean manufacturing consultant, they probably need one. If the expertise does not exist within the corporation, valuable time will be lost and money spent unnecessarily until the lean manufacturing consultant is hired.

If the company has lean manufacturing expertise in-house, the question then becomes one of execution and implementation. Can the in-house expert execute the lean implementation plan within the required time frame and budget? Additionally, will the expert receive the required management commitment to implement lean manufacturing?

It is common to see organizations hire a consultant and commit the resources that otherwise not be committed. Is that fair to the in-house consultant? No, but as they say, “it is what it is”. If it takes an outside lean manufacturing consultant to launch a system of massive waste elimination and value creation, does it really matter in the long run?

From a corporate view, all that matters is that the waste elimination occurs and value is created.

Lean manufacturing consultants are often good at motivating the organization into action. Sure, one reason is the corporation is paying for services so it is more compelled to make the most of it. Also, unless the lean manufacturing consultant is going to be paid to wander around, the corporation will probably make a concerted effort to implementation.

If the organization has an in-house lean manufacturing expert and top management commitment, the only reason to hire an outside lean manufacturing consultant would be for additional resources or ideas. A good outside consultant has seen many improvements in various types of organizations with different products. The consultant has undoubtedly witnessed or been involved with a few failures, and thus has the experience and knowledge to prevent or minimize it.

The first step in determining the need for a lean manufacturing consultant is an operational analysis. All areas of the organization should be assessed, including manufacturing, maintenance, engineering, shipping, purchasing, administration, and sales. The magnitude of the waste should be quantified.

Upon completion of the assessment, the need for a lean manufacturing consultant will become transparent.

It is critical for the organization and managers to keep an open mind. This cannot be mandated, but encouraged through written examples, benchmarking visits to and from other companies with successful lean manufacturing implementations.

It is not uncommon for a good lean manufacturing consultant to reduce cost of good sold by 10%. This extremely large number should not be shown to the entire organization up front. It shouldn’t be hidden, but any large number would initially bring fear into the organization.

All lean manufacturing implementations should be preceded with a promise of no job loss as a result. The company should be up front and hones about waste elimination, job combinations, and position elimination, but should also commit to keeping all employees through the process.

Obviously, potential outside circumstances would not permit a guarantee, but if a corporation wants total involvement and maximum success, they will not put people out of work as a result of a lean manufacturing initiative.

When positions are eliminated through lean manufacturing tools, those employees should become part of the 5S or kaizen teams. This only increases the resources and focus enabling more waste elimination.

Almost all successful lean implementations will lead to business growth, enabling the displaced workers to again become direct labor.

When companies “do the right thing”, they are almost always rewarded. The excellent morale and pervasive commitment will fuel additional business, products, or markets.

In the cutthroat world of business, every company is consistently vying for the interest and attention of consumers and constantly looking for ways to expand their market. This is the main reason why advertising and marketing corporate branding is a key factor in the success of any business entity.

Some people assume that corporate branding is only important for people who are relatively new players in the corporate arena. Since they are the ones who desperately need to establish their identity and to make their presence known to both competitors and consumers as well. This is true. However, even old companies should realize that they too should give equal importance to advertising and marketing corporate branding.

It is a widely accepted concept that in order to build an excellent reputation in any industry, it is a prerequisite that the company should first work on establishing a specific identity. This would certainly vary from one company to another; depending on what image they would want to project. Advertising and marketing corporate branding strategies will significantly help the company in creating a highly effective and well-established corporate identity.

But still, not only the small and budding companies can benefit in advertising and marketing corporate branding. Since building the companys identity is not at all a short-term project than can just be discarded after a degree of success has been achieved. Creating an effective corporate branding identity is an ongoing process, a constant interaction between the company, the competitors, and of course with the consumers.

A well-managed company would take pride in maintaining not only an impeccable reputation throughout the years of its operations but also in being able to adeptly keep up with even the most imperceptible change in the markets preferences. This is one of the important factors that would ensure that the company would be able to maintain a firm footing in a highly unpredictable industry.

To be able to persistently adapt to the fickle minds of consumers and compete with other fresh and highly aggressively players in the industry, a company would need a very strong advertising and marketing corporate branding scheme.

It is important to keep up with the ever-changing market trends, and continually reinvent the image of the company according to what would be the top priorities based on the consumers perception. There are companies who have invested in constant market research and development to be able to come up with a good and effective marketing approach.

Since different industries would produce varying reactions on certain marketing stimuli, a success in one industry would not necessarily ensure its efficacy in another industry. It requires a custom made approach, backed up with extensive market and industry studies.

Creating a brand is more than just having a name and an identity, more than just having a trade mark and having a catchy phrase it is about putting all of these components together and making them work for you.

Branding Strategy Firms Putting Everything In Place

Knowing the branding concepts available for your use is a good thing, but its application to your specific case is another story. The key in any branding strategy is in knowing what solutions apply to your case, and eliminating those other approaches that may just add to your expenses with less return in the end.

Branding strategy firms provide you with services that free you from the hassle of gathering company and market data, analyzing results, and studying better ways to make your branding solutions work. With branding strategy firms, your company can concentrate on things it does best, like manufacturing operations or service operations, and leaving the marketing aspect to them.

Here are some of the branding strategy firms:

Killian Advertising

They offer branding services as company naming, product naming, advertising, graphic design, and many more.

The James Group

This branding strategy firm offers sales moment brand positioning, business and product naming, logo design, advertising campaign, customer and competitor research, customer value analysis, etc.

Keen Branding

This company involves itself in brand name creation, brand positioning, corporate and brand logo creation, name stylization, brand launch and implementation planning, brand & product strategies, brand building programs, and lots more.

Branding Strategy Firms The Advantage

Branding strategy firms can help you in coming up with the appropriate branding solutions for your company. Your companys branding issue is no easy task. It involves time and the use of funds and this holds true whether you should decide to do this internally in your company, or if you get the services of a branding strategy firm.

The advantage though with having branding strategy companies to do this specific aspect of your business is that they have under their belts the specialized knowledge on branding concepts and the valuable experience in coming up with successful branding strategies.

Branding strategy firms will be able to provide you with the best way to take a comprehensive approach to your branding and marketing needs. You wouldnt want your strategy to be uncoordinated and without focus not only will the consumers be lost on the main position you are trying to establish in the market eventually you will be lost as well on the direction you are taking.

Branding strategy firms know the value of every detail involved and will provide for an integrated and comprehensive approach that will be able to communicate your branding message effectively to the consumers minds & hearts, and subsequently resulting to your company being positioned appropriately in the market.