By: Clif Smart One evening, a star high school football player in a large school was walking through the halls headed to his senior football banquet with his mom when he passed three younger students in the same hallway. They all enthusiastically greeted him with "Hi Joel," which he barely acknowledged by a slight nod and kept walking. When they turned the corner a few … [Read more...] about Bears Business Brief: The importance of leading through love
By: Alex Hamwi Has this ever happened to you? You are speaking with someone. You finish speaking and the other person responds to what you said. As the other person finishes what they’re saying, you realize that they have been talking for the last two or three minutes, but you didn’t really hear anything they said. This is a situation a lot of people find themselves … [Read more...] about Bears Business Brief: Do your salespeople know how to listen to your customers?
By: Stephen Haggard Growing up in an Ozarks farm family, debt was a dirty word. One paid off one’s debts as soon as possible. Then, when I went off to college, I met the children of urban professionals whose families had sizable debts, yet these people seemed otherwise healthy and normal. How was that possible? It turns out both groups of people were approaching debt … [Read more...] about Bears Business Brief: The dangers and delights of debt
By: Dana Haggard The word conflict carries a lot of negative baggage, and most people seek to avoid it. However, as any businessperson will tell you, conflict will eventually happen. Conflict is a natural and necessary part of doing business, so managers who seek to eliminate all forms of conflict in their workplace are not doing themselves, their employees, or their … [Read more...] about Bears Business Brief: Dealing with conflict
By: Nebil Buyurgan Since the beginning of 2017, it was evident that this year would be a bad year for weather and climate catastrophes across the country. Flooding in California, Missouri and Arkansas; hailstorms in Colorado and Minnesota; and a spring freeze across South Carolina and Georgia showed that we should always be alert and prepared for natural disasters. Then … [Read more...] about Bears Business Brief: Disasters from a logistics perspective