Up Your Cash Flow / Goldstein 87-88

88 It's 10PM...do you know where your cash is?...If it's not in your pocket, it's more than likely in accounts and/or inventory.

 

Accounts receivable (amounts people owe you) is probably the fastest growing asset in you company.  Therefore, monitoring and collecting accounts receivable is one of our most important functions.

 

TIPS FOR COLLECTING ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLES.

• Sit down with your bookkeeper every two weeks and review a listing of the accounts receivable.
• Call delinquent customers immediately
• Have nasty letters sent to slow pays. Three is sufficient, and they should generally follow this order. The first letter should ask for payment and give approximately 20 days for results. The second letter, which is sent out after the 20 days, should be a threat to turn the matter over to your attorney for collections. Give them about 10 more days. The third letter which goes out after the 10 days, should say the account is going to be turned over for collections within 48 hours. If you don't get any results within the 48 hours, turn it over for collections.
• These letters should be computer printouts (form letters), if possible 
• Monitor the total receivables balances daily.
• When you are instructing someone in your organization on the procedures for collecting the accounts receivables, be specific, give names and phone numbers to call and amounts you'd like to see collected.
• Call regularly
• Charge interest or service charges on old balances.
• If you can't get paid in full, ask for partial payment.
• If you are not being paid regularly, your invoice may be gong through the bookkeeping department with little concern on their part to pay the bill. Send a copy of the invoice to your contact at the company with a note to "please take care of this" You may get faster results. Often times your contact may not realize your bills is not being paid.
• Put past due accounts on a cash and carry basis.
• Check your customer's current financial condition
• Bug the h*ll out of them
• If all else fails, sue the b*****d.

 

By monitoring your accounts receivables daily and becoming tough with debtor, additional cash will be squeezed out of those accounts receivable balances. Cash is king.

The Pursuit of WOW/Peters 130-133

133 Ludwig von Mises, de facto founder of the Austrian school of economics, the Financial Times declared, saw business as a "creative activity involving inspired hunches and leaps of faith"

 

Intellectual Capital/Stewart 203-206

204 Life in the projects has profound implications for careers.

 

205 Look at the work you do; chances are good this four-piece template--strategist, resource-provider, project manger, talent--fits better than the old system of every-other-year steps up the rung.

GOOD TO GREAT/COLLINS 159-160

160 ...But they never talked in reactionary terms and never defined their strategies principally in response to what others were doing. They talked in terms of what they were trying to create and how they were trying to improve relative to an absolute standard of excellence.

 

They weren't driven by fear...

 

NO, those who turn good into great are motivated by a deep creative urge and an inner compulsion for sheer unadulterated excellence for its own sake. Those who build and perpetuate mediocrity, in contrast are motivated more by the fear of being left behind.

 

 TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATORS--Key Points

• Gtg organizations think differently about technology and technological change than mediocre ones.
• Gtg organizations avoid technology fads and bandwagons, yet they become pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies.
• The key question about any technology is, Does the technology fit directly with your Hedgehog Concept? If yes, then you need to become a pioneer in the application of that technology. If no, then you can settle for parity or ignore it entirely.
• The gtg companies used technology as an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it. None of the gtg companies began their transformations with pioneering technology, yet they all became pioneers in the application of technology once they grasped how it fit with their three circles and after they hit breakthrough.
• You could have taken the exact same leading-edge technologies pioneered at the gtg companies and handed them to their direct comparisons for free, and the comparisons still would have failed to produce anywhere near the same results.
• How a company reacts to technological change is a good indicator of its inner drive for greatness versus mediocrity. Great companies respond with thoughtfulness and creativity, driven by a compulsion to turn unrealized potential into results; mediocre companies react and lurch about, motivated by fear of being left behind.

 

UNEXPECTED FINDINGS

• The idea that technological change is the principal cause in the decline of once-great companies (or the perpetual mediocrity of others) is no supported by the evidence. Certainly, a company can't remain a laggard and hope to the great, but technology by itself is never a primary root cause of either greatness or decline.
• Across eighty-four interviews with gtg executives, fully 80 percent didn't even mention technology as one of the top five factors in the transformation. This is true even in companies famous for their pioneering applications of technology, such as Nucor.
• Crawl, walk, run..can be a very effective approach, even during times of rapid and radical technological change.

Up Your Cash Flow / Goldstein 86-87

87 You need to become bankable as quickly as possible.To do this, you have to become more profitable, improve your cash flow, and operate your business in a business-like manner.  You almost have to put yourself in a position where you don't need the money, then they'll be happy to loan it to you.

 

More tips on how to be prepared to present to a banker.

• Have your accountant introduce you to a banker
• Bring current financial statements  (Reviewed or Audited)
• Bankers will want to review your history so be prepared to present two or three years' prior financial statements.
• Bring personal financial statements
• Bring financial forecasts
• Provide a breakdown of what you're going to be using the money for.
• Prepare a packet of your company's marketing literature, etc.
• Watch you appearance. First impressions are lasting.

The Pursuit of WOW/Peters 128-130

130 If you're out there listening (and asking) each and every day, you'll develop an ongoing dialogue that will allow you to nip problems in the bud and nurture improvements to their fullest bloom.

Intellectual Capital/Stewart 202-203

203 According to American Management Association studies, management and supervisory jobs are being eliminated nearly twice as fast as they are being created. At the same time, professional and technical jobs are being created about 50 percent faster than they are being cut.

 

The equation looks like this: Add professional and technical workers, subtract supervisory work and bosses; more and more, what matters is what you do, not whom you do it for.

 

GOOD TO GREAT/COLLINS 152-159

155 We were quite surprised to find that fully 80 percent of the gtg executives we interviewed didn't even mention technology as one of the top five factors in the transition. Furthermore, in the cases where they did mention technology, it had a median ranking of fourth, with only two executives of 84 interviewed ranking it number one.

 

 157 The evidence from our study does not support the idea that technology change plays the principle role in the decline of once-great companies (or the perpetual mediocrity of others). Certainly, technology is important--you can't remain a laggard and hope to be great. But technology by itself is never a primary cause of either greatness or decline.

 

159 ...thoughtless reliance on technology is a liability, not an asset.

Up Your Cash Flow / Goldstein 80-86

86 Try to deposit all daily receipts directly to a money market account rather than into your checking account. Transfer funds from the money market account to a checking account only when you anticipate writing checks.  Confine check writing to once or twice per month to allow the float in the money market account to build and earn additional interest.

The Pursuit of WOW/Peters 116-128

119 This is a business where a loose, creative, non-linear atmosphere in the halls translates into better ratings and a better work experience...Part  of what makes (broadcasting) a thrill is that you never have to grow up.  Randy Michaels/Jacor Communications (radio)

 

 128 In today's world the premium belongs on unsystematization: i.e. providing a special face to every customer, even if you are lucky enough to have millions of them. Getting organized (systematization) is a must, don't get me wrong. But you can carry it far too far. And when blah become your signature in a crowed market, watch out.

Intellectual Capital/Stewart 201-202

202 Job shift, the Job---meaning a more-or-less set task you do every day--is disappearing as routine office and factory work are automated.

 

Instead of jobs, we have projects. A project is simply a task that has a beginning, a defined scope, and an end.

GOOD TO GREAT/COLLINS 148-152

152 When used right, technology becomes an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it. The gtg companies never began their transitions with pioneering technology, for the simple reason that you cannot make good use of technology until you know which technologies are relevant. And which are those? Those--and only those--that link directly to the three intersecting circles of the Hedgehog Concept.