CDH’s Executive Focus service is equipped to help improve performance of your organization at any stage. In today’s competitive environment, businesses must strive to streamline processes and leverage technology to achieve effective change management. CDH’s Executive...
Do You Have an Engaged Management Team?
As the CEO or President of your company do you sometimes find that the level of engagement within your management team is lacking? That individual managers are only focused on their own functional area at the detriment of the entire organization? Part of the issue...
Overcome Complacency with an Open Book Management Policy
I was recently asked by the facilitator of a local Business Practice Organization to make a presentation to their group about what types of information do companies share with their managers and employees such as sales, margin, and profit. Even more specifically,...
Product Line Profitability
Over the years I have worked with a number of companies in the consumer products arena. One of the critical topics of discussion is always product line profitability. Which of our products truly contribute the most to our bottom line? In connection with the issue of...
Executive Focus can help manage your Operating Expenses
Executive Focus can help manage your Operating Expenses. I have noticed this year that many of my clients gross profit %’s are on track to last year and budget, but there appears to be a disconnect with some companies in regards to some higher operating expenses. Of...
The Lifeblood of an Organization’s Success
The Lifeblood of an Organization’s Success Over the many years that I have been consulting with manufacturing firms it is no surprise that the most successful of those firms are the ones that are very focused and aggressive in the area of new product...
Managing Labor with a Record Low Unemployment Rate
For many of my clients, 2018 brings good news for employees, but most employers are facing tougher times filling positions as the job market continues to tighten its grip. For the month of May, the economy added 180,000 jobs and pushed the unemployment rate to an 18...
Protecting Profitability in Uncertain Times
We are very possibly entering a time period that there are going to be dual pressures on profitability. First of all almost all companies are going to feel the impact of growing inflation due to the general strength of the economy, both from a labor perspective and...
6 Essential Management Tips During the Looming Trade War
Currently a potential trade war face-off continues with the U.S. and China. So far both nations have imposed tariffs of $34 billion worth of goods against each other. Trade talks are set to resume, but with this spiraling dispute at stake is $16 billion worth of...
Beware of Complacency in Strong Economic Times
Unless your leadership has a disciplined program of continuous improvement in place with timely monitoring of the key performance indicators (KPI’s) and a process of corrective action when the company veers off track you will not maximize the improved profitability of...
Are You Neglecting Your Cost of Quality?
Cost of Quality in theory has been around since the 1950’s, but I find that many of my clients do not track or have a complete understanding of this concept. COQ is often misunderstood. It is not just the price of creating a quality product or service. It is the...
CDH Executive Focus Clients Shine Past Major Indices
CDH’s Executive Focus management team recently performed some analytics on our own clients. We wanted to see how they measure up against some of the major indices in terms of both sales and profit growth over an eight-year time span. The results below speak for...
New Business Year, New Business Plan
The turn of the year is always an interesting time to evaluate where your company needs to be in terms of the sales to break even. Of course the objective is to make a certain level of profit but you are operating blind if the starting point is not a breakeven...
5 Best Business Practices to Follow in 2019
I recently had a brain storming session with a long time Executive Focus client of mine that is a distributor. The topic was about how to increase sales. Our approach was to focus on the well-being of their dealers. What could be done to help their dealers become...
What Goes Up, Must Eventually Come Down
With 24/7 media coverage and so many choices to gather information we are not lacking for options when trying to forecast economic activity. The largest discrepancy in these forecasts is the timing of the next recession. We are in the midst of the longest running...
The Undeniable Power of Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence (BI) is the accumulation, analysis, reporting, budgeting & presentation of your business data. BI can help your business improve operations and your financial position. Ultimately, when used with software it can help a company with strategic...