As the recent election process has demonstrated there is a growing disconnect and divide in the country. The old lines separating the two major parties by conservative and liberal ideologies has given way to the “have and have nots,” and the famous line in the 1976 movie Network, “I am as mad as hell and I am not going to take this anymore” seems rather prophetic, now a full 40 years later. Today, up to 40% of the workforce by some estimates are employed in part-time, or in whole by the Gig economy and 50% of the population could not come up with $400 if they had to and some 10% of these people work thru staffing firms. We may be approaching a breaking point where the have-nots have found their voice to the point where a national election may not be accepted by a substantial minority of the population. So what to do about this.

The real question is what do our leaders and society do about this ever increasing problem, which if it has not been ignored has at least been inadequately dealt with? From automation, transitioning to low cost offshore production and services, a growing trade imbalance, to an ever increasing fiscal deficit and political gridlock. Yet only 30% of the population have college degrees which tries to prepare them for inevitable and frequent change. So millions of people are as mad as hell and grasping at straws to change their fate. But too many people are not equipped for change, lack the skills for a job in a tech based economy, or are determined to remain in parts of the country where plant closures have devastated their way of life.

Staffing firms are helping out here by finding people full time jobs, getting others into the workforce as temps or contractors (some of whom may be converted to regular employees), preserving the jobs of others as payrolled employees and advising others to hone their skill to become more employable. But more is needed by others.

To see all articles in this series please go to http://optimal-mgt.com/blog.

As the recent election process has demonstrated there is a growing disconnect and divide in the country. The old lines separating the two major parties by conservative and liberal ideologies has given way to the “have and have nots,” and the famous line in the 1976 movie Network, “I am as mad as hell and I am not going to take this anymore” seems rather prophetic, now a full 40 years later. Today, up to 40% of the workforce by some estimates are employed in part-time, or in whole by the Gig economy and 50% of the population could not come up with $400 if they had to and some 10% of these people work thru staffing firms. We may be approaching a breaking point where the have-nots have found their voice to the point where a national election may not be accepted by a substantial minority of the population. So what to do about this.

The real question is what do our leaders and society do about this ever increasing problem, which if it has not been ignored has at least been inadequately dealt with? From automation, transitioning to low cost offshore production and services, a growing trade imbalance, to an ever increasing fiscal deficit and political gridlock. Yet only 30% of the population have college degrees which tries to prepare them for inevitable and frequent change. So millions of people are as mad as hell and grasping at straws to change their fate. But too many people are not equipped for change, lack the skills for a job in a tech based economy, or are determined to remain in parts of the country where plant closures have devastated their way of life.

Staffing firms are helping out here by finding people full time jobs, getting others into the workforce as temps or contractors (some of whom may be converted to regular employees), preserving the jobs of others as payrolled employees and advising others to hone their skill to become more employable. But more is needed by others.

To see all articles in this series please go to http://optimal-mgt.com/blog.

Optimal Management, Inc. a leading edge management consulting firm to the staffing industry and DeBellas & Co. LLC, the leading M&A advisory firm focused on the staffing industry exclusively, have announced a new venture. Under this exclusive arrangement, Optimal will work to get acquisition candidates ready for sale at a premium price and turn them over to DeBellas, and both firms will work to create internal buyout and succession plan

Optimal has 22 years of staffing industry expertise in all phases of M&A, management, finance/accounting, sales/marketing, expansion, recruiting, cost reduction, employee comp and retention plans, crisis management, metrics and proprietary tools to maximize sales, profits and market value. Mike Neidle is President/CEO of Optimal and has helped well over a hundred staffing companies achieve success. He has been a staffing company owner and a senior executive at several Fortune 500 Co’s, national staffing firms and start-ups

Alfred F. DeBellas, Jr. is the President of DeBellas, which has been in business for over 30 years and has advised in some 200 deals, with a broad range of support activities including valuation, litigation support and financial advisory services. Al has worked at Goldman Sachs and two regional investment banking firms. He has served on the member firm advisory committee American Stock Exchange and as an Allied member of the New York Stock Exchanges. He has also taught investment banking at Rice University. DeBellas & Co has an extensive list of buyer contacts and long term substantive relationships in the Staffing and Staffing Related Industries

Both principals have MBA’s, Ivy League credentials, undergraduates from the City University of New York and an extensive list of speaking engagements, awards and articles. For further information contact Mike at 650-655-2190 and see www.optimal-mgt.com and LinkedIn Michael Neidle. Al can be reached at (949) 540-9157 and www.debellas.com and LinkedIn Alfred DeBellas

To see all articles in this series please go to http://optimal-mgt.com/blog.

Optimal Management, Inc. a leading edge management consulting firm to the staffing industry and DeBellas & Co. LLC, the leading M&A advisory firm focused on the staffing industry exclusively, have announced a new venture. Under this exclusive arrangement, Optimal will work to get acquisition candidates ready for sale at a premium price and turn them over to DeBellas, and both firms will work to create internal buyout and succession plan

Optimal has 22 years of staffing industry expertise in all phases of M&A, management, finance/accounting, sales/marketing, expansion, recruiting, cost reduction, employee comp and retention plans, crisis management, metrics and proprietary tools to maximize sales, profits and market value. Mike Neidle is President/CEO of Optimal and has helped well over a hundred staffing companies achieve success. He has been a staffing company owner and a senior executive at several Fortune 500 Co’s, national staffing firms and start-ups

Alfred F. DeBellas, Jr. is the President of DeBellas, which has been in business for over 30 years and has advised in some 200 deals, with a broad range of support activities including valuation, litigation support and financial advisory services. Al has worked at Goldman Sachs and two regional investment banking firms. He has served on the member firm advisory committee American Stock Exchange and as an Allied member of the New York Stock Exchanges. He has also taught investment banking at Rice University. DeBellas & Co has an extensive list of buyer contacts and long term substantive relationships in the Staffing and Staffing Related Industries

Both principals have MBA’s, Ivy League credentials, undergraduates from the City University of New York and an extensive list of speaking engagements, awards and articles. For further information contact Mike at 650-655-2190 and see www.optimal-mgt.com and LinkedIn Michael Neidle. Al can be reached at (949) 540-9157 and www.debellas.com and LinkedIn Alfred DeBellas

To see all articles in this series please go to http://optimal-mgt.com/blog.

Have you ever felt the pressure of having too many things on your plate and didn’t know what to do first? Have you been under pressure to balance tasks with a deadline and ad hoc projects? Has it seemed that there were never enough hours in the day and you found yourself working at all hours just not to fall further behind?

If these situations sound familiar, maybe you need to consider an organized time management system. Here are a few steps that might be helpful, recognizing that this is just an abbreviated list of a more detailed process.

1. Create an “Activity Log” to show you how you actually spend your time and is often an eye-opening experience. Work on each task continually as far as possible and reduce switching from one activity to another.
2. Put together a “To Do List” and prioritize each task and list key steps, don’t waste time on trivial ones or be stressed by a large number of items. Completing some tasks each day keeps the list from growing, helps ones feeling of motivation and satisfaction.
3. Convert projects into “Actionable Activities”, identify those projects you have a good chance of completing and prioritize those jobs.
4. Create a simple “Process Flow Diagram” of how to process each new project coming in so you have a system, to deal and resolve them efficiently.
5. Become more organized and keep track of conversations, ideas, and reminders, using technology to keep your schedule and projects running smoothly.
6. “Multi-tasking” is not the most efficient process, but sometimes is necessary and be simply the only option for busy people even though it’s less efficient then completing one task at a time. The key is not to get sidetracked and losing focus by moving between tasks.
7. To function in today’s fast pace environment, one must leverage technology, organization and resources to increase their efficiency. 8. File management, documentation and a good filing system are critical to increasing efficiency, access data quickly and expedite report writing

To see all articles in this series please go to http://optimal-mgt.com/blog.

There is an old saying “don’t look back, something might be gaining on you.” That might not however be good advice in a highly competitive and dynamic world. Let’s look at more up to date situations. The Golden State Warriors just had the best ever regular season record in basketball this year, but due to an untimely injury in the playoffs to the league’s most valuable player (2 years in a row), they lost in the final game of the championship. Ordinarily a great team might say just wait till next year, and it’s highly unlikely there will be another fluke injury to their superstar Steph Curry. Instead they went all out and signed the most valuable player in 2014 and who is as good or even better then Curry; Kevin Durant. This is the epitome of never being complacent and now they are odds on favorite to win this year’s champion.

So what are you or your company doing to follow this same trajectory in upping your game? Are you setting more aggressive targets for this year, no matter how well you just did? Do you make excuses for failure, instead of owning up to it? Have you looked where unforeseen events tripped you up and put into place an insurance policy to cover such events? Do you encourage others to give you bad news, or do you have a culture of looking at the world through rose colored glasses?

For corporations, are you being proactive in the following areas: Evaluating your staff to see where you need redundancy for key employees if someone leaves? Similarly, do you have both a RIF plan as well as retention devises for critical staff? Do you have a game plan identifying specific prospects to be added to replace key clients you may possibly lose? Have you created a profit plan including contingencies that you will effectuate as needed? It is indeed surprising how many small to mid-sized companies do not incorporate the above into their thinking before we incorporate this into their DNA.

To see all articles in this series please go to http://optimal-mgt.com/blog.

More recently some corporations have modified this objective to include things like Google’s “do no harm” mantra, or not investing in country’s with human rights abuses such as TIAA-CREF or being environmentally friendly like Tesla Motors; but create and retain American jobs has not typically been a stated objective. This may however become one in our current political climate and that’s fine and may well become a marketing tool going forward.

Given the above, as a Fortune 500 executive, I was charged with maximizing corporate profits. I closed unprofitable plants typically in the high union labor markets in the US and relocated them elsewhere. In my case this included Latin America, the Caribbean, and nonunion towns in the Southeast. This made us the lowest cost producer and maximized our profit. We reduced our labor rates, had lower energy costs and taxes, free land, better work rules, incentives from politicians in the new location, etc. In some cases the existing factories I relocated were profitable, but we could make more money in another location.

I knew that not only was this my job, but if I didn’t do this, someone else would. I said on many occasions, that if I was prevented from moving by US law I would adhere to that, but absent that I did what I had to do. In addition most of the time, if we did not relocate, or were forced to remain where we were it was just a matter of time until those facilities would be shuddered and not only would no one have a job, but the company eventually would not survive.

To see all articles in this series please go to http://optimal-mgt.com/blog.

By now even if you were unaware of Brexit before, you now know. If you are a small to mid-sized company not doing any international business, the Brexit may not impact you and you could well be perfectly correct. You also may be wrong, and a sensible person explores the ramifications just in case they are wrong.

Let’s start with what we now know; and never panic. Most pollsters called this wrong; so much for experts. If you are a boutique company doing business locally, with customers also selling locally, you may be fairly well insulated from this event. However your investment portfolio and hence liquidity that you need to help finance your operations may have already gone down as when there is uncertainly markets decline. On the sales side, even if you are a smallish local company, your client may be doing a fair amount of business (directly or indirectly) with foreign companies and US operations you service may have foreign ownership.

Having said that, what could happen if you have even some indirect sales exposure? Your goods will cost relatively more even if they are just a component to the European/UK end market customer and any other dollar denominated product such as oil, due to the increase value of the US$ . As noted, uncertainty is bad, people may cut back on buying goods and services “just because”. One more point, be prepared for opportunities (as well as risk) due to distressed situations. There may be black swan deals out there that we can’t predict, but once they happen be prepared to jump on them: great new applicants, distressed sales, business opportunities, etc. The answers are all the same: stay close to events and your customer and be prepared to act swiftly if needed.

To see all articles in this series please go to http://optimal-mgt.com/blog.

Here are some of the frequently noted comments these employees in general had to say:

They have trust in management’s ethics and honesty. They feel in the loop and have good communications with management. They feel that they contribute to society and feel proud of the company that they work for. They feel valued as an employee and a person and are well rewarded for their contribution. They have very good perks and benefits. They feel challenged in their job and they work in a very pleasant environment. They can take time off when needed. They have the resources to do their job properly. They feel a sense of accomplishment and as a result of the above give their all to their job.

To see all articles in this series please go to http://optimal-mgt.com/blog.

There is a problem here however with these two scenarios. This is how the situation is perceived by its members. If they see things very differently depending on how it impacts them personally which can lead to real problems.

Suppose the entity saw a great opportunity if they bet on a new way forward though risky, but if they lost that bet then the whole organization may fail. If the entity was doing well, making a risky bet would be unwise. If the entity was doing poorly however, a good leader would explain the reality of their situation, try to reduce the risk, and then make the wager. But if the group believes that the entity was at risk when they weren’t this could lead to disaster.

Here is an example. Company A has two lines of business, Line I has most of the employees but it has become obsolete. Line II is its future, but will require all available funds and lead to the demise of Line I. If your livelihood in tied to Line I and although you could be retrained for Line II, you would have to start at the bottom and is not what you want. A good leader determines what’s in the best interests of the entity, if it were in trouble or not and make the proper choice in that context.

This can be applied to elected positions as well. Let’s say people are doing poorly as their “Line I” plant left town and is now made offshore at a much lower cost. A good leader does not give false hope of bringing Line I jobs back, but retrains its people for “Line II” jobs, provides subsidies to those left behind, or finds some other creative solution.