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The Missing Strategic Imperative
What is the strategic imperative for your integration business? In the first two parts of this blog series, Joel Harris talked about how strategic planning is essential for your integration business, and it is an activity that integrators should engage in every year. Today, we continue this conversation with
Integrators Should Conduct Strategic Planning Every Year
In Part I of this blog series, we talked about how strategic planning is essential for your integration business. Today, we take that discussion a step further to explain why integrators should conduct strategic planning every year. Many times, we don’t start planning for adverse events until they appear, or
Strategic Planning Is Essential for Your Integration Business
What is your excuse for not having a living, actionable, updated strategic plan? We accept the wisdom of the ages that planning for the future is important, yet many of us are reluctant to invest the time, energy and resources into planning for our business success. Strategic planning is
What is Management Maturity?
Management maturity is crucial, and it’s not about who’s been there the longest, it’s a skill which can and must be fostered. “I see a lot of companies where the first five guys in the van are now at the executive table, 30 years later,” says Malone. “There’s nothing wrong
Robert Hammond Joins Navigate Management Consulting
Navigate Management Consulting announces that Robert Hammond has joined the firm. Robert brings more than 20 years of executive and leadership experience in the systems integration industry with a strong history of impactful and profitable change in organizations. “I have known Brad for years, both as a client and through
Are Your Project Managers Asking the Right Questions?
Most integrators are not asking the right questions. Often, when inquiring after the status of a project, people ask one or two questions: “How much is done?” and/or “Are we on schedule and on budget?” To which the replies are invariably: “Almost done, don’t worry” and/or “On time and on
What Qualities Make Good Leaders?
On this episode of The AV Profession, Brad Malone joins Tim Albright to discuss what qualities make good leaders. Leadership is about creating a vision and inviting people to come along on the journey. And it’s about risk, because you’re putting your name on that vision.
Joel Harris Joins Navigate Management Consulting
Navigate Management Consulting announces that Joel Harris has joined the firm. Joel brings more than 25 years of experience in executive and leadership positions in systems integration businesses where he has a proven track record of successfully leading, designing, implementing, and executing organizational transformation as well as efficiency-driven improvements. Joel
Establishing Core Values and Ethics
Back By Popular Demand: Establishing Core Values and Ethics is one of Brad Malone’s ‘most read’ pieces of content of all time. Although it was written several years ago, this article remains every bit as relevant today. We have all heard how different generations of people (baby boomers, Gen
Forecasting Sales from Your New Order History
In Parts 1 and 2 of this series on forecasting, Joel Harris details three critical KPIs to help integrators predict future results, followed by how to forecast revenue from your monthly backlog. In this final installment we unlock the predictive value of your new order history. Does your project
Human Resource Management for Integrators
On this episode of the AV Profession, Brad Malone joins Tim Albright to discuss human resource management. How can integrators make sure that their human resources are where they’re supposed to be, when they’re supposed to be there? It can be a real juggling act when integrators are sharing
Forecast Revenue from Your Monthly Backlog
As someone who values business decisions based on hard data, I have long mined my backlog data to determine how I can use it to predict profit in a period. In a project-driven integration business, if you can accurately forecast revenue, you can also accurately predict that period’s net
Have the Carrot and Stick Been Replaced with Apathy, Complacency, and Unwillingness to Confront?
Working with several companies in last few months, and in many conversations with all levels of the organization, I’ve reminded myself that I’m saying things my Dad used to say – which is fine – I like and respect my Dad. One of those was “praise in public, correct in
3 Critical Key Performance Indicators for Systems Integrators
While there are many Key Performance Indicators that are useful in managing your systems integration business, Navigate finds three that are critical and not valued highly enough. These three critical Key Performance Indicators help us predict future results: Monthly P&L, specifically recognized revenue for the period Monthly new orders
Time is Money
On this episode of The AV Profession, Brad Malone joins Tim Albright to discuss real-time project numbers – financials, hours, payroll – what are some of the key numbers that integrators need to get right? Financials are always important, but they are also a lag measure. “In
Does Your Bonus Plan Contribute to Profitable Growth?
Navigate frequently comes across the concept of integrators using profit sharing and project-based bonuses to drive growth. On this episode of the Navigator, Brad Demspey, CEO of Solutions360 joins Brad Malone to discuss how integrators can successfuly implement financial incentives that help grow the business. A lot of integrators
What Are the Fundamentals of Project Reporting?
On this episode of The AV Profession, Brad Malone joins Tim Albright to discuss the importance of project reporting. What are the fundamentals of project reporting? “What I find in a lot of integration companies, especially immature organizations, is they are measuring the wrong thing,” says Malone. “Integrators
Essentials of Performance Management
As we enter the six month of “lock-down” within this pandemic, I’d like to share one of the themes I heard over and over from my virtual clients – independent of the role (Executives to Managers to Technicians). Many organizations are struggling to measure the performance of their people
Sales Driven Culture
What are the impacts of being a sales driven organization? On this episode of The AV Profession, Brad Malone joins Tim Albright to talk about the culture of your integration business, and how it can impact your employees and your customers. “Often, when I work with integrators they’ll say,
So, All I Have to Do to Be Profitable is Hire Subcontractors?
Welcome back to the final installment in our blog series from Joel Harris, Understanding Variable Costs is Wildly Important for Your Integration Business. How do you handle routine seasonal variability, peak demand, and one-time opportunities in your integration business? Most integration businesses I work with have a hired permanent
Address Seasonality Using Labor As a Variable Cost
What is the best way for integrators to address seasonality? This is Part 3 of our blog series from Joel Harris, Understanding Variable Costs is Wildly Important for Your Integration Business. In the first two installments, Harris shared his experience of using a variable cost structure to transform an
A Variable Cost Structure Adds Profitability to Your Integration Business
Welcome to the second installment in Navigate’s guest blog series from Joel Harris, Understanding Variable Costs is Wildly Important for Your Integration Business. In Part 1, Joel shared his experience of using a variable cost structure to transform an acquisition from losses into profit. Since then, he has applied
Navigator Podcast: Understanding Variable Costs with Joel Harris
On this episode of the Navigator Podcast, Brad Malone is joined by Joel Harris to introduce our new 4 Part blog series: Understanding Variable Costs is Wildly Important for Your Integration Business. The power of variable costs is a topic that Harris is very passionate about, yet it is not
Profits Hiding in Plain Sight
Are there profits hiding in plain sight in your integration business? Remeber, every dollar saved goes directly to profits. Welcome to Part 1 of our new blog series from Joel Harris, Understanding Variable Costs is Wildly Important for Your Integration Business. More than 20 years ago, I discovered
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Online training for systems integrators and their technology partners.