By Matt HenkesThinking lean when it comes to running a company can bring significant advantages.Lean thinking is all about maximizing performance efficiency and end product or service value through the elimination of waste. The philosophy was originally developed for the automotive manufacturing industry, but experts claim that its applications are far wider.

By Ronald J. BakerOne of the most frustrating aspects of teaching Value Pricing to professionals is their tendency to believe that customers have to be part of the change process. This is demonstrably false. Customers may have to be convinced of a firm's value in order to accept it's price, but customers should not be expected to be participants in changing a profession's (or industry's) pricing strategies, any more than they should be expected to innovate new products and services.

For many firms, the Web site is your client's first introduction to you. Is it possible that information on your Web site is out of date or that the material has not been changed for months? Does your Web site have the look of a static site that is just a placeholder online, a location where users can find your address and phone number and little more?

The board of any organization can make an enormous contribution to planned giving, and it can do so in a variety of ways. According to Philip M. Purcell, vice president for planned giving and endowment stewardship at the Ball State University Foundation, involving board members in planned giving is an ongoing challenge but one that is necessary.

By Steve McIntyre-SmithI don't know how many readers might have fallen into some of the traps I used to when I was in public accounting, but here are a few scenarios to which I fell prey. Let's see how many of them might be familiar to you:It's 5:15 p.m. on a Wednesday. You promised you'd be home in time to have dinner with the family before going to your youngest child's piano recital.

Among private businesses in the United States, 48 percent are paying significantly more in staff costs than a year ago, according to the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR). While this number is noteworthy, it is lower when compared to private companies across the globe, 63 percent of which are paying significantly more for staffing costs as compared to a year ago. In India, for example, 85 percent of employers report seeing a rise in labor costs. With a number of U.S.

By Dr. Pam Brill - "I'm burned out," "I've lost my drive," "I'm not interested," - these are words and images that sales pros have used to describe their falling motivation that accompanied their failing numbers. A sales pro in financial services, Chris had lost the passion and the spark that fueled him for making chilly cold calls and energy for the heated sprint to close the deal. With numbers down and still falling, Chris blamed the competition, the internal competitors, including the other sales pros in his division and the new kids on the block.

By, Michael SchatzkiHow many times have you heard:

Many CPAs are active in their communities. Many of those happen to volunteer their precious time to nonprofit organizations. You may be a CPA in a top position, or you may be a loyal foot soldier for a cause. Either way, evaluating the not-for-profit organization's leaders - or adopting key leadership traits - could be critical to the success of the organization in which you believe and invest so much time.The leadership capacity of a nonprofit or exempt organization is extremely important.