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Join the IERG Career Advancement Program (CAP)

Tips for Advancing Your Career: Join the IERG Career Advancement Program (CAP)

The IERG Career Advancement Program met on February 18 for Part 2 of our 5-part program“Building Your Personal Brand”, with a presentation led by Raji Ramanan, who provided excellent advice and insights on best ways to develop and refine one’s brand for career advancement. The content and discussion ranged from reflecting on “What we say and believe about ourselves” v. “What people say about you when you’re not in the room”; key brand build questions to consider (e.g., “What am I known for? How am I unique? My areas of expertise?”); the Iceberg Model in branding; vehicles that reflect one’s brand and finally to “Where I am now, where I want to be, how I can get there”.
 
Next CAP topics: The Art of Networking; Acing the Interview Process; New Role/ New Leader. Next dates: March 4 & March 18.
 
 For more information and registration, visit the IERG website  under “Career Advancement Program”.  The Career Advancement Program (CAP) supports all IERG members whether employed or in transition.

Remember to register and we’ll see you Thursday, 3/4, at 2pm (EST).

The CAP Leadership Team: Raji Ramanan, Betty Flasch, Simon Turner

Transformation in the Changing Global Business Landscape

Hedley Lawson
Hedley Lawson 
Most executives feel a need for a sense of urgency to transform their organizations.
 
Based on numerous conversations we have had with executives and boards of directors, it seems many of these initiatives are not progressing with the speed or planned outcome or are simply failing.

There are many reasons why transformation initiatives fail, and the challenge to succeed is often more difficult and complex in larger and, interestingly, in family-owned organizations. With that in mind, what follows in the attached article is an elaboration of five ways to drive successful transformation initiatives in large organizations.
  1. Start by shifting your mindset
  2. Create a strategy for progressive versus incremental growth
  3. Develop and support leaders who can navigate uncertainty and lead change.
  4. Create an aligned innovative strategy with appropriate resources.
  5. Make the leap from modest growth to progressive and sustainable growth

What is a Dysfunctional Sales Force? - Symptoms & Causes

John Peters

John Peters has extensive Global and Domestic Sales, Sales Management, Business Development and General Management experience with sophisticated medical products, systems and services in the Hospital, Operating Room, Blood Bank, Proprietary Clinic, Private Physician and OEM Contract Manufacturing settings. See his full bio here.
  1. Chronic Poor Performance-consistently not meeting goals or quotas/Work Ethic-Are they working?
  2. High Turnover Rate-20% or more annually.
  3. Poor Hiring Process-Background for success/All salespeople are not equal.
  4. Poor Training-Does the company have a specific program or is it hit or miss?
  5. Accountability-Are the Sales people and Field managers held accountable by management?
  6. Is the Company Sales Oriented?-Has to be driven from top to bottom/Need commitment.
  7. Realistic Goals/Quotas-How are they developed? Need sales input and methodology, not guesstimates/pie in the sky.
  8. Are the same Sales People - always at the top and the same always at the bottom of the rankings?
  9. Territories-How are territories apportioned?
  10. Same Page-Are Field management and Senior management on the same page?
  11. Backgrounds-What are the backgrounds and training of the Field Managers-Are they qualified?
  12. Are you promoting the Right People?-Pete repeat syndrome.
  13. Mentoring-Do the Field Managers mentor their direct reports or is it sink or swim?
  14. Metrics-Is the company using the right metrics

Covid and Flu

Simon Turner
Simon Turner

I thought I would share some discussions that we have been having internally regarding Covid and flu. With so much media focus on Covid, it has slipped under the radar how flu has almost completely disappeared in the 2020/21 season.
Reported cases for the US are usually around the 5 million mark but for this season to date the total is 1,387. And no, that number isn’t missing zeros on the end. Flu numbers have completely collapsed.

There is now concern that the 2021/22 flu season could be especially bad due to lower resistance from an absence of exposure this year and difficulty in projecting dominant strains for vaccines. So the question we have started asking ourselves is this – We have been thinking that, in time, we will think of Covid like flu – but what if we should be thinking that flu will be like Covid?

IERG President's Message - Q4 2020

Waseem Naqvi
What a journey 2020 has been so far!

As part of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy was "shut-down", we have all been locked down and practicing social/physical distancing. Now we all must wear masks to prevent asymptomatic contamination. We have started to open up the economy, noting that we may experience a second wave of the virus. IERG members are naturally social and enjoy getting together to discuss important topics. For the time being, we are all having to engage virtually.

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