Contrary to what many people believe, the most successful businesses around are not started by millennials or those in their 30s.  In fact, a study by the American Census Bureau identifies that a multitude of successful companies are built by those who are considered to be middle-aged or older. Business Start-Up Success Research into the…

Considered by many to be one of the greatest CEOs of all time, Lee Iacocca was an American automobile executive who is best known for having helped bring the iconic Ford Mustang – an affordable, stylish sports car to the market in 1964. The Early Years – Ford Motor Company Lee Iacocca was hired by…

Ingvar Kamprad IKEA is an acronym for the initials of its founder, Ingvar Kamprad, his farm Elmtaryd, and his county, Agunnaryd, in Smaland, South Sweden.  In 1943, when only 17 years of age, Kamprad began his career by selling fish and Christmas magazines.  Within a few years, he had developed his enterprise into a mail-order…

Members of high-performance teams are deeply committed to the stated purpose, goals, and mandates of their missions.  Accordingly, high-performance team members demonstrate that they understand what they need to focus on in order to accomplish their collective work targets. Shared Values High-performing teams identify a set of shared values that help shape the purpose of…

John Sculley will go down in history as one of the world’s most successful CEOs. As President of PepsiCo, then later CEO of Apple Inc. Sculley’s ability to understand consumer behavior helped him lead these companies into highly profitable global giants that few companies will ever match in terms of annual sales and revenue.  …

Self-Managed Teams Self-managed teams perform a wide range of activities and have responsibilities like those of traditional working groups where the leader of the group oversees such things as organizational structure and staff performance. Manager-Led Teams Manager-led teams can range from semi-autonomous working groups to teams that become increasingly more autonomous through the power they…

What is a Trial Balance? A trial balance is a list of accounts and account balances at an exact point in time.  Trial balances are not financial statements, but they are a convenient method of proving the equality of the debit and credit balances in each account.  Trial Balance Formats? Trial balance formats are often…

A partnership is a business that is owned by two or more people.  Like sole proprietorships, many partnerships are small companies that have been formed when individuals pool their money and resources to form a bigger company. Partnership Characteristics Partnerships have characteristics comparable to those of sole proprietorships but may be structured differently in terms…

The easiest way to learn the concept of compounding interest is to work through a compounding scenario using interest compounded annually. Why is Compounding Interest Confusing? Compounding interest can be confusing because the interest rate is often stated as an annual rate but then is compounded over a shorter period of time.  If compounding isn’t…