blog | Wed, 07/04/2012 – 14:25 | By Chris LaVictoire Mahai How can you drive the best possible outcomes for your customers and your business? The most successful organizations control their performance chain rather than letting their performance chain control them. Back up a second – what is a performance chain? I define a performance chain as all the tangible and intangible elements that have to move from the moment you trigger demand until you have cash in the bank; all the ins and outs that have to work together and align to your target customer experience to drive the outcomes you want. When you boil it down to simple terms, a performance chain is really about flow. Everything has an in and an out. Think of your

Personal development has long been a very important part of my life. I believe it helps with the every day rigors of life; to me it is like a good multi vitamin! I just FEEL better when I am reading a book, working through a class or attending a seminar to focus on personal improvement. The following article touches on the benefits of taking care of yourself. It talks in depth about the importance of being in a place where we are prepared to be of maximum service. In other words, we have to take care of ourselves so that we can make the greatest contributions and have what is necessary to take care of those around us. I hope you are taking care of YOU. Reading some

OK- so how fun is that new square thing? You have to take your hat off to innovators in the industry and appreciate the fact that they have helped keep the credit card industry Fresh & Exciting. But make no mistake, TMC is definitely NOT going square! The only challenge with the various ‘One Size Fits All’ or ‘Simplified’ solutions in any industry, is that they typically lack the personalized type of service that we have created our entire business model around. For years, business owners across the country have thrived by offering alternatives to ‘the stack it deep and sell it cheap’ big box stores. Why? Because just like Zig Ziglar said years ago, ‘the bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price

I read an article recently in the TopPerformance newsletter (May 2012 edition) that really struck me as useful. So many times, we get bogged down in our daily work lives and lose our way. Perhaps this is why so many people have lost their passion for work or worse- for life! Finding our flow can really help us get back on track and accomplish those things that are the most important to us! For other editions of the TopPerformance newsletter go to:http://www.personalbest.com/Health-Wellness/Newsletters/TopPerformance-Newsletter.aspx “Flow” or “being in the zone” is a popular concept these days. The concept of flow was introduced by pshchologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1990’s, and ever since, people looking to get more out of their work have been trying to achieve this illusive state of

I recently went to a co-worker’s baby shower. She received a card that read, “A baby changes everything except its own diaper”. The card got lots of laughs but it got me thinking about how people react to change. In my professional life I have worked in several different industries and each one was very unique in how it communicated upcoming policy adjustments to employees and customers. Some were better than others; how change is presented has a huge impact on how it is received. I have worked for 3 different community banks that have been purchased by large institutions (Wells Fargo, US Bank, etc.). Each acquisition was not disclosed due to FDIC regulations, until the sales were approved or accepted. These transitions were difficult for employees and

This past week I spoke with two long time business owners who, like a lot of businesses across the country, are still struggling. Questions came up like, what do consumers really want? How do I price my products and services in this economy? And the toughest question; is small business ownership in America still ‘worth it’. The conversations were thought provoking and made me look at our business and the way we are handling this tough time in America. Hopefully these strategies are useful to you. When you are done reading them, please visit our Facebook page (the link is listed below) to share your thoughts and ideas! Together, we can help each other to thrive in the toughest of economies. #1- KNOW YOUR WHY When times get