Cover Story

The next level

That’s where Ascendency Research’s owner is always heading, but it’s a challenge PERFECTION IS THE GOAL for LynMarie Winninger, who bought three companies all told to build her market-research firm Ascendancy Research. After her first acquisitions, she dramatically changed everything about the look and feel because she wanted to wow her customers. “Any time people […] Continue reading →

Letter From the Editor

[getting schooled]

I’ve been stirring the pot over education recently, in an op-ed piece I wrote for the Star Tribune. I confessed I don’t use the “parent portal,” that web-based tool the school systems tout as an illuminating window into our children’s world—but that I think leads to a whole bunch of students who let mom and […] Continue reading →

Focus

Upsize Primer: MBA programs

Textbook cases Entrepreneurs who seek higher ed find variety of options   by beth ewen Donna Block, M.D., is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist with the advanced degrees and certifications necessary to practice medicine. But when she was planning to start her own business, which she calls Clinic Sofia, providing health care services to women and girls, she sought […] Continue reading →

Business Builders

Avoid costly price wars with a strategy

What if you dropped them by 5 percent ? What would be the impact on your bottom line if you had three different pricing tiers?  Being able to answer these questions is crucial to setting an optimal pricing strategy for your product or service. It is important to remember that efficient pricing maximizes profitability. The […] Continue reading →

‘Who cares?’ is crucial question for leaders with a vision to answer

CEOs and senior leadership teams have historically done something similar. They go on retreat, set the organizational vision and then bring it down the mountain with much fanfare and little conversation around how everyone will implement it. What’s more, the vision can get tied up in revenue goals and not focus enough on why people […] Continue reading →

Employers can access social network info, but they better beware

In the United States alone, there are more than 158 million active users on Facebook, more than 59 million active users on Twitter and more than 78 million profiles on LinkedIn. It is therefore likely your employees and prospective employees have a presence on at least one of the most popular social networking sites. But […] Continue reading →

Need a loan? It helps to see finance from lender’s view

Determine what else is important to you. Is it a relationship with a lender who is looking to grow with you as a business? The answer to these and other considerations impact both the choice of lender and the timing for financing. Given the recent economic climate, lenders are competitively pricing their loan products. But […] Continue reading →