Tom Marin
Raleigh
We help clients drive business growth using our proprietary SmartPlan360˚ Program™ for organizational design and leadership development.
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Tom Marin
Does This Truck Make My Shipment Look Big? How to Avoid Weight Fraud During a Military Move
The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration. One of the many things that make a PCS move stressful for military families is worrying about the weight of household goods in your shipment. Should I have a garage sale? Should I sell my snowblower before my transfer to Hawaii?
Does This Truck Make My Shipment Look Big? How to Avoid Weight Fraud During a Military Move
The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration. One of the many things that make a PCS move stressful for military families is worrying about the weight of household goods in your shipment. Should I have a garage sale? Should I sell my snowblower before my transfer to Hawaii?
Align Up, Or Fall Behind
Organizational alignment is a topic that is becoming increasingly more critical to the success of any organization in any market. This dynamic is especially true now due to current shifts in business and consumer behavior. Subscription services, for example, have replaced decades-old buying habits on a global scale. Business services to consumer appliances have all exploded with subscription services becoming the norm.
Rethink How You Communicate
There’s a massive divide between asking an employee for their input and telling them what to do. In a transformation, clear and precise communication is essential. You can’t expect full participation and complete honesty from those involved in the change unless you provide them with the same. Before you start making changes with your leadership team, please sit down and communicate with them.
Ideas Are Everywhere, Rethink Your Implementation of Them
What separates a good idea from a successful business is its implementation. Visionary leaders are often prolific in ideas. Because of this, they use a two-step process: first envision, and then put into action. This direct vision to action style is ideally suited for the first and second stages of business growth because it facilitates driving the business.
Rethink Your Business Opportunities
Challenges are opportunities hiding in plain sight. Many businesses perceive their challenges as very real threats to their long-term health, but they are just opportunities to transform the company into something better. Today’s uncertainty brings leaders new challenges they may not have had to manage before.
Rethink Your Opportunities
Challenges are opportunities hiding in plain sight. Many businesses perceive their challenges as very real threats to their long-term health, but they are just opportunities to transform the company into something better. Today’s uncertainty brings leaders new challenges they may not have had to manage before.
Rethink Your Quick Wins: Building A Sustainable Business
The world today moves at breakneck speed, so it’s easy to get passed by and ignored. That’s why quick wins are so critical. Sadly, the pursuit of quick wins often leads to failure because they are often pursued without a full contextual or cultural understanding. Examples might include a business that begins without fully understanding the needs of its customers or its marketplace.
Rethink the Needs of Printing Customers; Focus on Real-World Trends
The first step to rethink how well you are meeting the needs of your customers is to ask them. However great the goals of your printing business are, they are useless without customers. It would be best if you always remembered that customers come first and your ideas come second. A wonderful mentor of mine in the Chicagoland area often said, “People are more important than the project.
Rethink Your Transformation
Transformation and When it’s Necessary. Though a business in transformation means it is going through a significant change, it is not necessarily occasioned by a crisis. It usually occurs when a company is healthy but not growing to its full potential or when the business has declining revenues. These are the two most common reasons why a business might require a transformation. Of course, another reason is due to a specific situation that has placed the industry at risk.
Four Reasons Printing Businesses Become Too Busy
“Never confuse making motions with making money” is an axiom a mentor taught me in my early career. Another was, “The young are always busy.” My mentor was trying to teach me that being busy is great if what is keeping you busy is leading toward success. We all tend to fill up our time with what we enjoy doing. The problem is, to be successful we may need to focus on what we don’t enjoy. To kickstart business growth, here are four ways to rethink your business.
Four Reasons Businesses Become Too Busy
“Never confuse making motions with making money” is an axiom a mentor taught me in my early career. Another was, “The young are always busy.” My mentor was trying to teach me that being busy is great if what is keeping you busy is leading toward success. We all tend to fill up our time with what we enjoy doing. The problem is, to be successful we may need to focus on what we don’t enjoy. To kickstart business growth, here are four ways to rethink your business.
The More You Grow, the Less You Should Do
Growing companies has become America’s pastime. Companies in their earliest stage want nothing more than to grow because that’s just common sense. However, as a company grows, it changes what it needs from its founder, leaders, and employees. Each of the three growth stages require very different leadership disciplines to create success. Of course, there are many ways to slice the deck of business growth. The chart above is one method based upon the number of employees.
Are You Moving Fast Enough?
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” - Bill Gates Anyone who is leading a business today knows that the speed of innovation has increased exponentially. This is particularly true for leaders with decades of experience. What once took years to develop can now be done in months, or undone in weeks. Change puts enormous pressure on executive leaders of successful companies to worry most because they have the most to lose.
Where Knowledge and Strategy Intersect
The illustration above shows a business with Core Knowledge as a Viable Business in its marketplace. Its current business abilities coupled with its core knowledge concerning its product offerings are allowing the business to maintain its position.
Why the Second Stage of Printing Company Growth Is Often The Toughest
Everyone knows that change is inevitable because nothing stays the same forever. This is certainly true for printing companies that take steps to grow versus remain in the same place. There are four particular approaches to organizational growth and depending on which you prefer will determine your end results. Regardless of the size of your business, you won’t be able to ignore or wish away change because the market will continue to pressure you for your solution.
Why the Second Stage of Growth Is Often The Toughest
Everyone knows that change is inevitable because nothing stays the same forever. This is certainly true for companies who take steps to grow versus remain in the same place. There are four particular approaches to organizational growth and depending on which you prefer will determine your end results. Regardless of the size of your business, you won’t be able to ignore or wish away change because the market will continue to pressure you for your solution.
Moving from Best Efforts to Best Practices
In the United States, 79.6% of small businesses are self-employed individuals with the great majority falling within the parameters of the first stage of growth. The challenges of growing to a second or third stage company come with very specific challenges. The chart above shows the looming differences between the three stages. Below is a further breakdown of employees to the number of businesses and their associated percentages (Source: Capterra International).
Why You Should Follow These Three Ways to Build Leadership
Leaders often fall into some traps while orchestrating their meetings with their executive teams. Holding a meeting to discuss how great they are and how well things are going (whether they really are or not) makes for a pointless meeting. Holding a meeting with everyone leaving the meeting with more to do than when it started is a show stopper.
The Closer You Get The Harder it Becomes
Human nature can be very challenging for all of us. There are known behaviors that impact a senior leader and his or her team, however, they are often operating without their knowledge. For many people they view their goals quite differently when they are first established versus when they have been working on them for some time. When leaders understand these dynamics, they greatly improve the odds of accomplishing their goals. That’s human nature.
3 Steps to Better Leadership in Today's Clickthrough Society
There is a conundrum in leadership in today’s clickthrough marketplace. Many are drawn to leadership to accomplish big things, which is great, but they often lack the patience to develop their leadership team slowly and carefully. Preferring to pick people they get along with best and are the easiest to work with, they tend to dismiss those who don’t have these two particular qualities because they require more work. What’s wrong with that you say?
How To Be A Better Leader In Today's Click-Through Society
There is a conundrum in leadership in today’s click-through marketplace. Many are drawn to leadership to accomplish big things, which is great, but they often lack the patience to develop their leadership team slowly and carefully. Preferring to pick people they get along with best and are the easiest to work with, they tend to dismiss those who don’t have these two particular qualities because they require more work. What’s wrong with that you say?
Debunking 3 Myths About Keeping Your Team On Track
In the past few years, I’ve observed organizations placing a much heavier importance on leadership and team development than, say, ten years ago. I think the reason for this is fairly straightforward. The organizations left standing today have pretty much figured out how to flatten their organizational structures. They have improved their operations. And they have put tracking systems in place that allow them to measure their performance. What is left to building the organization are the people.
Your 3-Step Guide to Better Sleep in 2018
The expression, “What keeps you up at night?” is often applied to entrepreneurs and people who lead organizations. Sleep is essential. A lack of it has a negative impact on the strongest person. Eventually it will break a person down and render them ineffective. There are three simple steps you can take to ensure a better night’s sleep. Do you have some 'irons" on the stove that you’ve been cooking for too long? They can drive anyone to a bad night’s sleep.
Debunking 3 Myths About Keeping Your Team On Track
In the past few years, I’ve observed organizations placing a much heavier importance on leadership and team development than, say, ten years ago. I think the reason for this is fairly straightforward. The organizations left standing today have pretty much figured out how to flatten their organizational structures. They have improved their operations. And they have put tracking systems in place that allow them to measure their performance. What is left to building the organization are the people.
Debunking 3 Myths About Keeping Your Team On Track
In the past few years, I’ve observed organizations placing a much heavier importance on leadership and team development than, say, ten years ago. I think the reason for this is fairly straightforward. The organizations left standing today have pretty much figured out how to flatten their organizational structures. They have improved their operations. And they have put tracking systems in place that allow them to measure their performance. What is left to building the organization are the people.
The Importance of Consistency in All Things
The world is getting faster! Communications has sped everything up - exponentially. What used to take days now takes seconds. This is both good and bad for organizations. A prospective customer sees something on social media or a Google search that really catches his or her attention. It looks like exactly what they’re looking for.
3 Things a Leader Should Do When a Team Member Fails
The primary role of the senior leader of any organization is to bring clarity and cohesion to his or her team. This communicates to executive leaders on his team what the expectations are for a successful result. Those of us who have been in leadership positions, particularly as the most senior leader, have experienced a team member who has made a large mistake.
Two Perspectives: Hire or Promote for a New Position?
For 30 years I have been privileged and benefited from consulting senior leaders of organizations from startups to Fortune 1000 companies. This has provided me with a front-row seat to observe multiple perspectives on hiring from many leadership vantage points. It's added to my understanding of solutions that have and have not worked when choosing a new team leader. Now I would like to offer two different perspectives on hiring for a new position.
Three Things a Leader Should Do When a Team Member Fails
The primary role of the senior leader of any organization is to bring clarity and cohesion to his or her team. This communicates to executive leaders on his team what the expectations are for a successful result. Those of us who have been in leadership positions, particularly as the most senior leader, have experienced a team member who has made a large mistake.
The Importance of Consistency in All Things
One of the first books on decision-making that I read was a thin book with a large thought called "Straight and Crooked Thinking" first published in 1930 by Robert H. Thouless which describes critical analysis flaws in reasoning. This book can be summarized in one sentence: One large bad decision is sure to produce many bad small decisions. I have witnessed this simple truth in many organizations for many years. Having a lack of consistency in all things is one such large bad decision.
Three Things a Leader Should Do When a Team Member Fails
The primary role of the senior leader of any organization is to bring clarity and cohesion to his or her team. This communicates to executive leaders on his team what the expectations are for a successful result. Those of us who have been in leadership positions, particularly as the most senior leader, have experienced a team member who has made a large mistake.
Three Ways to Review Your Brand Like a Pro
No strategy or brand development practice improves quality, builds awareness or reveals the best a brand can offer like a brand review. It’s a critical process to determine your brand’s true market valuation in order to fix mistakes or find gaps that have been overlooked. It is a necessary, albeit a painstaking activity for some who are hardened in their belief that their "brand" has been tinkered with enough.
3 Ways to Build a Platform to Communicate
Recently, authors and bloggers have been writing about the importance of establishing a "platform" for individuals and organizations. Michael Hyatt, the former CEO of the enormous publishing company, Thomas Nelson Publishers, discusses this in his book, “Platform” that how you frame your message is as important as what you say. Regardless of how much you agree with this premise, what isn’t up for debate is everyone needs a platform.
Three Thoughts On Highly Successful Brands
Recently, authors and bloggers have been writing about the importance of establishing a "platform" for individuals and organizations. Michael Hyatt, the former CEO of the enormous publishing company, Thomas Nelson Publishers, discusses this in his book, “Platform” that how you frame your message is as important as what you say. Regardless of how much you agree with this premise, what isn’t up for debate is everyone needs a platform.
Four Reasons Why Customer Loyalty Is Shortening
Building high value customer relationships is the primary basis of any healthy organization. During the past five years I have had the opportunity to discuss with many senior leaders what they do to build customer loyalty and many said that it was the hardest thing going on in their company.
Do You Lead An Agile Organization?
Top-down leadership is pretty much gone today because it simply doesn’t work. This can be an unpopular message to bring to leaders, particularly those who are north of 50 years of age. On the other hand, those much younger who practice agility leadership welcome it.
Do You Lead An Agile Organization?
Top-down leadership is pretty much gone today because it simply doesn’t work. This can be an unpopular message to bring to leaders, particularly those who are north of 50 years of age. On the other hand, those much younger who practice agility leadership welcome it.
The Right People, Funding Model, Incentives. Why Did My Strategy Fail?
Although senior leaders do many things correctly in their strategy planning they often end up holding the short end of the stick. They immerse themselves with their teams in strategic ideation and identify creative ways they think they can grow their organization. They spend both a lot of time and an equal amount of money to support this process but often end up with little to no improvement.
Annual Planning Cycles Assume You Know the Future
The process that is often used in strategic planning has a built in landmine to step on. The biggest and most deadly one is assuming you can predict the future. According to John Paul Kotter who is regarded as the foremost speaker on Leadership and Change, 70% of all strategic plans fail worldwide. During my consulting with many different clients I have observed senior executives who are running organizations with flat or declining growth are often unsure what to do about it.
3 Ways to Manage Change
Constant change is the norm today, as everyone knows who works in today’s ever-changing environment. No news with that. We all live and work in a world that changes so rapidly that if you stop watching it, it could well be radically changed the next time you take a look. The necessity of smart organizational strategy is equally obvious if you hope to compete effectively with your nearest competitors.
The Power of Yes and No
Every time you say Yes to something you are also saying No to something else. There are several ways to look at this. When asked to do something that is outside your priorities, if you say no you create the necessary space of time to say yes to something that will make a difference that aligns well with your top objectives. How many times a day do you personally agree to do something because your normal pace is moving so fast there isn’t really time to fully consider it?
4 Ways to Produce Change in an Organization
In working with organizations over the years, I have observed a particular reaction people have when someone in their organization proposes a change, particularly a major one. Of course, the person who is putting forward the new idea has been thinking about it for some time and has invested their personal energy into it. Those on the listening end, who are required to make the idea a success, are hearing it for the first time and may have a mixed reaction to it.
4 Reasons Leaders Make Bad Decisions
Everyone knows that great leaders make great decisions. Right? Not always. As Bill Gates once said, "Success is often a lousy teacher." It's easy for a leader who has experienced a tremendous amount of success in the past to think that whatever they do next will be just as successful. But often that is not the case. There are many reasons people make bad decisions. Here are four: Many successful leaders leave their organizations to try their hand on the next big thing only to fail.
Two Things Every Leader Has To Do To Be Successful
Great leadership is rarely about command-and-control. That’s old school and pretty much gone. Today’s most successful leaders understand that the facilitation of meaningful conversations leads to new ideas and the integration of them is what drives organizations. You get these two things right and you have a very good chance at making your business a success. Be Incredibly Observant Inside and Outside Your Organization.
3 Virtues Every Team Member Needs To Be Successful
"The Ideal Team Player" is one of the best books I’ve read in years. Its author, Patrick Lencioni, has written 11 books which have sold over 5 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages. So I’m not alone in liking this book! Lencioni posits that to have an effective team player you need three virtues (attributes). He points out that people tend to hire based on technical competence and someone’s interest they expressed in the job during the interviews.
4 Brand Drivers To Attract And Retain Customers - By Tom Marin
How many mission and vision statements look good on paper but have little to nothing to do with their customers’ experience? Too many, I’m sorry to say. This can lead to a very costly misperception. MarketCues’ research at client companies reveals that the more an organization’s stated purpose is in alignment with what it delivers, the more successful it will be serving and satisfying its customers’ needs. This alignment is a key to driving high performing business.
3 Tips to Building Your Brand Reputation - By Tom Marin
With so many major and micro brands to choose from it has become imperative to ensure your brand represents true value that is more than a slogan or a hollow promise of quality service. Designing brand value takes time to form, plant, nurture and secure locked-in loyalty among users who prefer your brand over all others so doing it right is essential for success.
Six Steps For Naming A Successful Brand
Naming a brand may be one of the most complex things you ever do. What you decide can directly impact how well a market responds to a specific product or service and can greatly lead to either the success or failure of the brand! So it’s extremely important to understand what is behind creating a successful brand name.
Three Ways to Kill a World-Class Strategy
Many leaders of companies and organizations have a never-ending desire to stay ahead. They love the thought of winning, and likewise hate the thought of losing. These are terrific positive leadership qualities and we strongly support them. The problem, however, is leaders often continue to use the strategy that drove their company to its current success but fail to change it as the market changes around them.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Tom
Contact Tom, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack