Entrepreneur Week in New Orleans‏

Heeding President Obama’s call to ‘Startup America,’ the nation’s greatest entrepreneurial minds will gather in New Orleans for the 3rd annual New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW), March 19-25, 2011. The event will serve as a manifestation of a movement that is sweeping the globe.

Driven by the entrepreneurial momentum that has fuelled the city's rebirth, NOEW, an initiative of The Idea Village, will feature a unique program of world-class activities including over 45 business workshops, investment pitches, networking events, keynote speeches and interactive discussion sessions.

This high-impact week of service, networking and collaboration redefines New Orleans as a laboratory of innovation and a model for national best practices by connecting students, entrepreneurs and thought leaders.

Joining The Idea Village as Premier Partners for NOEW are Penny & Jim Coulter, Downtown Development District of New Orleans, Economic Development Administration, Goldman Sachs, Google, Greater New Orleans Foundation, HP, Jones Walker, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, Louisiana Recovery Authority, Kevin Clifford Family, NakedPizza, and Tulane University.

Find out more at www.NOEW.org

Employee Performance Management

Employee performance management is a hot topic in business today; it eliminates the performance appraisal as the main focus and instead the concentration is on the entire spectrum of the performance management and employee development strategies.

These strategies should include employee performance improvement, employee workplace development, future training, challenging business assignments, 360 feedback and regular performance feedback.

Performance Management and Employee Development

Define the purpose of the job and the responsibilities
Define measurable performance goals
Define a priority list of job responsibilities and goals
Define key component performance standards

Provide positive and constructive feedback to the employee by holding interim discussions about employee performance, weekly, monthly and quarterly.

Provide the opportunity for broad feedback by using 360 feedback that incorporates feedback from the employee's peers, their customers and people who may report to them.

Develop and administer an ongoing coaching and improvement plan so that the employee can meet your business expectations.

The Right Approach for Business Success

Getting more success for your business is all about having the correct approach to all of your business dealings. By following these four basic principles of business etiquette you will guarantee increased success for your business.

Quick Response

Communicate and respond quickly and accurately to your customers, suppliers and employees. Never lose an opportunity.

Value

Quality is what your customers expect, but value is what they will pay extra to receive. Always give good value.

Trust

Your customers, suppliers and employees should be able to trust and respect your words. Trust is hard to gain, easy to lose.

Delight

Doing the unexpected for your customers will give them a great feeling of delight. Giving delight is a higher level of customer satisfaction.

Leading in Turbulent Times

What type of organization do leaders need to create in order to meet the challenges they face in these tough economic times?

Leading in Turbulent Times – Lessons Learnt and Implications for the Future is written by respected business academic Peter Lorange, who shares what he has learnt about leadership during turbulent times, and in particular, the key insights that emerged from some of the most challenging moments in his career.

For much of his business life, Peter Lorange has had three careers running in parallel - as a business academic leading some of the most important business schools in the world, as the head of a shipping company and as a Board member for several multinational companies.

Drawing on his own experiences and those of other CEOs interviewed especially for this book, Peter identifies four leadership characteristics essential in turbulent times, and the three leadership tasks that are critical to an organization under stress.

Read More.....Leading in Turbulent Times: Lessons Learnt and Implications for the Future

Biggest Business Blunders

Whether a business is big or small it can be affected by events that are generally called blunders and if mistakes are made which become disasters they then rank in the list of the biggest blunders of all time.

Here you will find such a list giving the painful details of businesses which walked the thin line between success and failure and eventually fell into the category of biggest business blunders.

13 Biggest Business Blunders of all time

Make Yourself A Better Business Person

At first glance, improv might seem like the direct opposite of the business world. It's silly, raucous, and spontaneous. But improv actors are sharp professionals who have an incredible ability to pull from past dialogue, anticipate future scenes and relationships, and engage audiences in just moments.

If you're trying to make it in the business world, you can learn a lot from improv actors. Here are 25 tricks that work just as well in business as they do on stage.

25 Improv Tricks That Will Make You A Better Business Person