“Mind” Your Business
Thought Provoking Blogs
for Business Owners and Executives
Corey Chambas, President & CEO of First Business Financial Services, Inc. is a featured blogger for IBMadison.com. Corey has over 25 years experience working with local businesses. He currently serves as a director of several of First Business's companies, is a board member of M3 Insurance Solutions, an advisory board member of Bellbrook Labs and Aldine Capital Fund, and a member of the Strategic Issues Campaign Committee for the United Way of Dane County.
Corey's recent blog postings are featured below.
Recent Blog Posts
Right effort
I was recently talking to someone who really needed to start putting more effort into their job, and it got me thinking about the concept of how much effort is enough. I thought back to my dad, whom I both give credit to and blame for making me as competitive as I am. In my childhood, whether it was school or sports, he was always asking me, "Did you try your best?" As an adult, when I coached youth sports, I would ask the kids on my team this same question. When they invariably answered "yes," I would tell them that they then were winners. I did this for two reasons: one, I wanted them to try their hardest (heck, I wanted to win), and two, I wanted them to feel good about themselves and avoid measuring success solely based on whether our team won or lost.
Hang ten
I was recently lucky enough to go on a trip that included surfing, and as usual, I found myself relating it to business. When you go surfing, you paddle out and then sit on your board, enjoying the sun, hanging out with some other surfers, and maybe even see a dolphin or turtle. It's nice and it's relaxing. It's similar to doing "business as usual." But it's not exactly what you came out for. There is no real challenge, no risk, and no thrill of success.
mismatch.com
Recently we conducted economic surveys in Dane County, Milwaukee and Waukesha counties, and Northeast Wisconsin. What was somewhat surprising is that slightly over 50% of the businesses surveyed were hiring. What is even more interesting is that there are also applicant shortages at over 50% of the companies that are hiring. How can there be a labor shortage when unemployment rates remain so high?
We asked a question to help categorize the applicant shortages - are companies looking for recent graduates or experienced workers with high school, technical school, undergraduate, or graduate degrees? The answers to this were quite interesting. We found that the top two categories included tech school graduates, with over 50% of those hiring indicating a shortage of experienced technical school grads - by far the largest category. The bottom two categories were experienced and recent grad school graduates, with only about 5% of firms needing recent grad school graduates.
Got leverage?
I needed my next blog idea, and as I frequently do, I talked to our head of marketing about an idea I had to get her opinion as to whether it was blog-worthy. After hearing my concept, she responded with a definite ... maybe. Later in the day, we were in a meeting together going through an upcoming presentation. When she saw the agenda, and a topic I was going to present on, she chuckled. It was the same concept that I had proposed to her earlier in the day for my next blog. She was not surprised that I was trying to use the same work twice, as I like to leverage the same work two or even three times, as in my mind, leverage equals efficiency.
Have you considered kedging?
I was reading a book a client gave me, and I ran across an interesting concept. It's called kedging. Back in the day, when large ships got stuck or simply couldn't move in the direction they wanted to with their sails, they'd send out a rowboat with a rope attached to the big boat. The rowboat would go to the desired spot and then throw over a special anchor called a kedge. Next, everyone on the large ship would pull hard on the rope until the big ship reached its goal. In the book I was reading, they made an analogy between this method and making advancements in personal fitness, but I like the analogy even better for business.
