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Cogent Analytics Project Director John McNichols, recently wrote an article titled, “Fostering Organizational Accountability” to provide insight on how to create a structured work environment in a business.

In this article, John McNichols explains how this process begins in a business and the expectations that must be set to achieve the desired results.

Read the full article from John McNichols here on Innovation & Technology here

Author Bio:

John McNichols is a Project Director at Cogent Analytics, a leading business management consulting firm based in NC consecutively ranked on the Inc. 5000 list. John is an influential leader, strategic thinker, and relationship builder with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Engineering Management. In addition, he develops strategic relationships with his clients while innovating and implementing systems to improve consistency, profitability, and quality.

At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out s Cogent Analytics, Inc is a business management consulting firm, with a primary focus to help small to medium size, privately held businesses achieve success and long term profitability. Cogent provides powerful solutions with integrity and transparency to privately held businesses throughout the United States.

Cogent Analytics Project Director, Pete Villari, recently wrote an article titled, “A Brave New World – Working From Home” to provide insight on how to create a positive work environment while working from home.

In this article, Pete complies ‘nine must haves’ a business must establish in order to create an accurate work-from-home model. By applying these ‘nine must haves’, remote businesses can move forward operationally and create a supportive work environment for their employees.

Read the full article from Pete Villari here on Innovation & Technology here

Author Bio:

Pete Villari is a project director with Cogent Analytics, a business management consulting firm in North Carolina. He brings a diverse background in sales management and support while providing business owners the tools they need to succeed. No matter the role or position, Pete has always had a passion for applying business principles to maximize productivity.

At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out s Cogent Analytics, Inc is a business management consulting firm, with a primary focus to help small to medium size, privately held businesses achieve success and long term profitability. Cogent provides powerful solutions with integrity and transparency to privately held businesses throughout the United States.

Published By Industry Today

Cogent Analytics Project Director, Leo Banjo, recently wrote an article titled, ‘Successful Business Owners Don’t Worry About Profit’ to provide valuable insight about understanding the difference between profit vs profitability.

The day to day for an active business owner can be filled with worry. Whether the business is setting new high-water marks or struggling to stay afloat, one thing is certain. Your management team and front-line employees expect your guiding hand to navigate the business through its challenges. Every growing business must traverse rough water, but if you are constantly navigating through storms your focus is on the wrong place. If long-term success is your goal this course correction will put it squarely in your sights. Stop spending so much time and energy worrying about profit.

As a business owner, there is something infinitely more crucial to focus on; Profitability. How is Profitability different than profit?! Doesn’t managing profit lead to profitability? The difference between business owners managing Profitability vs. profit is what sets some business squarely on the path of growth and others on road of decline; too often, needlessly so.

In the article, a baseball team analogy is referenced to build the significance of a having profit-minded approach.  

With the business owner focused on profitability someone must actively manage profit. But who? The simple answer in our examples if you look closely. Managers must manage profit while seeking support from the business owner at clear escalation points. Don’t be fooled; the answer is simple not easy. 

Read the full article from Leo Banjo here on Industry Today

Author Bio:

Leo Banjo adds his depth and breadth of expertise in lasting culture change, operational excellence, and project execution to the wealth of talent at Cogent Analytics. As an alumnus of The Citadel in Charleston, SC he has led organizations to recognize & surpass their self-imposed limitations for over 15 years. His change management expertise through enriching the capability of management teams to resolve conflict, define objectives, and realize goals serves to build up everyone he partners with. His consistent success in dozens of unique industries in over 10 different countries provides a comprehensive perspective.

At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out s Cogent Analytics, Inc is a business management consulting firm, with a primary focus to help small to medium size, privately held businesses achieve success and long term profitability. Cogent provides powerful solutions with integrity and transparency to privately-held businesses throughout the United States.

_{Published by Industry today}.

Cogent Analytics Project Director, Paul Batista, recently wrote an article that was published by Industry Today. The article titled, “How to Align Sales Strategy Across the Organization” provides valuable information about how to implement effective strategies in the workplace.

Most organizations understand the concept of business development involves three pillars: marketing, sales, and people. When developing strategic goals, the challenge for businesses is aligning objective strategies with these pillars while measuring performance.

In a typical strategic meeting, several strategies are discussed: sell the same products to the same customers, sell the same products to new customers, sell new products to existing customers, sell new products to new customers, and a mix of all or some of the above.

What is crucial to understand is businesses must consider how marketing is done and measured, how the sales team is incentivized, and what the incentives to the customer must be with any strategy.

In the article, a wholesale company is referenced and their process of taking a different strategic approach than what they have done in the past.

To increase their sales, customer incentives, a marketing plan, and team compensation must be identified to the overall strategic goal. Once these factors have been determined effective alignment and measurable performance comes shortly after.

Effective alignment implies that each team member, individually, across the sales and marketing teams are aware of what their tasks are and how they are connected to their goals, their department, and the company. Leadership team must also be able to monitor these alignments with metrics to define actions and link them to milestones that support the objectives and goals.

Read the full article from Paul Batista here on Industry Today

Author Bio:

Paul Batista is a Project Director at Cogent Analytics, a leading business management consulting firm based in NC consecutively ranked on the Inc. 5000 list. Paul has a global perspective on business management, specializing in finance and business development leading teams across the US and internationally to successful continuous improvement and growth.

At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out some of our other posts for helpful business information:

Cogent Analytics, Inc is a business management consulting firm, with a primary focus to help small to medium size, privately held businesses achieve success and long term profitability. Cogent provides powerful solutions with integrity and transparency to privately-held businesses throughout the United States.

_{Published by Constructor Magazine.}

Cogent Analytics Project Director, Gerald Vogl, recently wrote an article that was published by Constructor Magazine. The article titled, Managing Incentives for Better Performance provides valuable information about creating a how to implement effective incentive programs for employees.

Incentives are meant to motivate employees and encourage desired behavior. However, implementation is key, and sometimes even the most well-meaning programs struggle.

Here’s an example: A construction company that wanted to improve accountability, morale and labor utilization implemented a system of goal setting and created an incentive plan to help achieve those goals.

In an attempt to improve the company’s overall performance, management and supervisors worked to make critical changes throughout the organization. Some of these changes included implementing job descriptions, establishing daily standard operating procedures (SOPs), improving motivational leadership skills and creating an incentive plan to help achieve company goals.

From the outset, the foremen received training on how to motivate their crews by establishing daily goals. They participated in morning meetings to determine objectives with their team while also comparing the previous day’s performance against company targets. Additionally, upper management worked to improve communications with the foremen while also linking their compensation and the crew’s compensation to the results achieved. With this established, the company would experience higher productivity and increased commitment to achieving company objectives. Moreover, establishing an incentive plan would bring even more benefits and efficiency to the company, or so one might think.

Read the full article, Managing Incentives for Better Performance, by Cogent Analytics Project Director, Gerald Vogl here in Constructor Magazine here.

At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out some of our other posts for helpful business information:

Cogent Analytics, LLC is a business management consulting firm, with a primary focus to help small to medium size, privately held businesses achieve success and long term profitability. Cogent provides powerful solutions with integrity and transparency to privately-held businesses throughout the United States.

_{Published by Occupational Health and Safety}

Cogent Analytics Project Director, Rodney Shuck, recently wrote an article that was published by Occupational Health and Safety. The article titled, The Sounds of Safety, provides valuable information about creating a safer work environment for all employees.

The country of Japan has the fastest, most efficient train system in the world. It transports more than 40 million people each year, and the “Point and Call” safety system is given credit for its high efficiency. This system has been proven to avoid mistakes by requiring every worker to call out what they are doing or what is happening as they point to it. For example, “I’ve checked the engines” or “I am closing the doors right now.”

The Japanese Industrial and Health Association adopted the “Point and Call” occupational safety method that requires co-action and co-reaction communication. The result is the engagement of the operators’ brains, eyes, mouths, hands, and ears (hence the term The Sounds of Safety). Gesturing and speaking out the status requires and maintains focus and attention. It guarantees intentionality and keeps the employees and riders safe. Efficiency increases productivity. While Japanese train drivers first used the method, it is now commonly used in other Japanese industries. It is also used in our own New York City subway system.

While some perceive this system as impractical for many businesses, it warrants consideration because it demonstrates that a relationship between safety, efficiency, and productivity exists. Efficiency is, in part, the result of a successful safety record. Efficiency always increases productivity. Productivity results in more significant revenue, and revenue drives everything in business. It all loops back to safety. There is enormous value in training and implementing safe work practices. As necessary, it is the responsibility of the business owner to provide a safe place for employees.

The three steps listed in the article are below, make sure to check out the full article to learn the why and how.

1. Provide a Safe Physical Environment
2. Establish a Written Evacuation Route
3. Know the Risks of Vehicles on the Job

Read the full article, The Sounds of Safety, by Cogent Analytics Project Director, Rodney Shuck here in Occupational Health and Safety.

At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out some of our other posts for helpful business information:

Cogent Analytics, Inc is a business management consulting firm, with a primary focus to help small to medium size, privately held businesses achieve success and long term profitability. Cogent provides powerful solutions with integrity and transparency to privately-held businesses throughout the United States.

_{Published by IndustryWeek}

Larry Scarborough, Senior Project Director at Cogent Analytics and recently published in IndustryWeek, writes about building a culture around quality:

Part of operating is running into ‘quality’ issues—things do not go as planned, whether through operation, raw material, planning, or plain human error. The way we address these issues sets apart good organizations from great. The majority of small manufacturers do not have a problem-solving process and as a result, see the same problems arise.

Management is responsible for creating a culture that embraces identifying quality issues and problems that arise daily. Inherently, people are reluctant to call out issues, especially those that stem from human error. Management should be the one to send the message directly to all personnel that the expectation is always to bring up any issue—that you (management) understand and expect issues to happen—and no one will be admonished for helping the organization improve. As entrepreneur Ray Dalio outlined in his book Principles, this was ingrained in his organization—with Mr. Dalio also being part of a team that would publicly send out their own mistakes to all employees, to set the example of transparency.

Once a culture of constant improvement is established, systems and processes need to be implemented to eliminate the issues permanently. Some problems are fixed quickly, and some take additional resources. One common denominator that must be asked, regardless of the size of the issue, is “What do we do to prevent this from recurring?” Without asking, answering, and implementing changes, the same issue will continue to hurt the organization.

Read the full article from Larry Scarborough here on IndustryWeek.

At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out some of our other posts for helpful business information:

Cogent Analytics, Inc is a business management consulting firm, with a primary focus to help small to medium size, privately held businesses achieve success and long term profitability. Cogent provides powerful solutions with integrity and transparency to privately-held businesses throughout the United States.

_{Published by Contractor Magazine}

Henrique Dos Santos, Senior Project Director at Cogent Analytics and recently published in Contractor Magazine, writes about seven steps to increase productivity in your business:

A common source of concern for owners and managers in the construction industry is the productivity of the workforce. Every rework job, every additional 5 to 10 minutes in breaks are costs that are not recovered and lower the profitability of a project. Small and medium-sized businesses need to be very efficient in the use of their resources to make a profit consistently. In times of economic growth labor force skills are not readily available, so owners, supervisors, and foremen need to make use of other strategies to maintain and increase the productivity and profits. 

Increasing productivity in the field is a constant quest for managers and supervisors. Business owners should rely on supervisors to manage the different crews while using technology for reliable and timely data, which is crucial for maintaining costs at a reasonable and controllable level. Constant training should be provided to the workforce too.

Here are some essential steps to increase the productivity of the construction teams.

1. Work Planning
2. Choice of Supervisor and Team Selection
3. Use of Technology
4. Good Budgeting
5. Reduce Outsourcing Services
6. Invest in Quality Equipment and Tools
7. Reward Your Teams

Read the full article from Dos Santos here on Contractor Magazine.

At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out some of our other posts for helpful business information:

_{^{Published by Contracting Business.}}

Senior Project Manager, Henrique Dos Santos, writes about new innovative ways to increase business productivity for your business. There are twelve steps to increase your business’ productivity and overall help your business perform more efficiently:

• Creating a Good Working Environment
• Use Technology to Your Business Advantage
• Make Good Use of of the Time
• Set Realistic Goals for the Business
• Do Not Waste Energy
• Make Your Business More Efficient
• Have Appropriate Tools
• Practice Positive Reinforcement
• Reduce Distractions
• Delegate Tasks
• Have Good Communication
• Keep Staff Up To Date & Trained

To read the full article on Construction Executive written by Dos Santos and find more ways to improve your business and profitability, click here.

At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out some of our other posts for helpful business information:

_{Published by Contracting Business}

Larry Scarborough writes about how business owners can successfully exit their business and retire. Learn about what type of exit owner you are and how to exit based on your exit style.

“The first step is to identify what type of ‘exit owner’ you are. Typically, there are three types of owners and their exit strategy:

• “I’m out”— the owner who feels he has done his part in growing the business, wants to take the money and enjoy his or her life and live off the fruits of their labor. Typically, they want a lump sum of cash and complete divorce from the organization.
• “It’s my baby”— this owner has a difficult time ‘letting go’ and believes no one else is capable of growing and running the operation of the business. Often times, family members are encouraging him/her to leave, whether due to age, health, etc.
• “XX number of years to ensure it’s good, and I am done”—this owner is somewhere in the middle of the ones listed above.”

Read the full article here.

At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out some of our other posts for helpful business information: