Posts by Tom Ryan
“Horror at the Harmon” How the Lack of Proper Systems Puts a Contractor at Risk And Created “The Nightmare on Las Vegas Boulevard” for MGM
By Tom Ryan
Any construction project can result in a loss if the company does not have the proper methods, systems, controls and procedures to ensure the quality of its work. Construction companies are at much greater risk than many other small businesses because of the large financial impact that a failure in having the right systems in place can have on their liability if their failure to adhere to best practices causes a large financial loss.
We all saw how the failure to have the proper system in place at the 2017 Oscars caused Warren Beaty and Faye Dunaway to incorrectly …
Was the Reason for McDonald’s Success Because They Created a Better Hamburger or Because They Created a Better System for Their Business?
By Tom Ryan
The fast food industry today has grown from over $6 billion in sales in 1970 to over $100 billion today in the United States. It employs over 4 million workers. And, 25 percent of the American population eats fast food on a daily basis.
While Burger King may proclaim to be the King, we all know that Ronald McDonald is no clown when it comes to wearing the crown as to who really is the king of fast food—every second of the day McDonald’s sells 17 Big Mac’s and 7 Happy Meals, and too many French fries to count!…
Why a Business Analysis Is Critical to Business Success
By Tom Ryan
It has been said that there are only two ways to learn from mistakes: you can learn from your own mistakes or you can learn from the mistakes of others. And, it is a lot more expensive to learn from your own mistakes!
More importantly, having an objective, third-party analysis of the business is a proven, cost-effective way to minimize one’s own mistakes in business. A business analysis not only gives the business owner an opportunity to gain valuable insight into his own business so that he can avoid making costly mistakes, but at the same time it gives …
The Risk Of Being Satisfied With The Status Quo
By Tom Ryan
After Prohibition ended, there were two prominent family breweries in St. Louis, the Busch family (that controlled Anheuser-Busch) and the Griesedieck family. The Griesediecks, at that time, operated two different breweries, Griesedieck Bros. Brewing Company and Falstaff Brewing Company. The two entities would later become one company under the Falstaff name. While unknown today, in the 1960’s, Falstaff outsold Budweiser by a 50% margin in St. Louis in a battle of the local beer brands and, at the height of its popularity, it was the third largest selling beer in the United States—a fact, that, most likely, surprises many of …
How To Avoid Bad Management Decisions: The AT&T Case Study
By Tom Ryan
We say that every business owner needs, from time-to-time, a third-party objective analysis to avoid serious mistakes, keep his business on track, and take advantage of an opportunity that he otherwise could miss.
While there are many examples of business executives failing to heed this wise advice, one of the more striking examples involved the executives from the original AT&T. It’s important to keep in mind that when referring to AT&T in this article, I am referring not to the AT&T that we know today, but the executives of the nation-wide monopoly that provided all U.S. local telephone service. This …
Wake Up & Smell The Coffee!
By Tom Ryan
Sometimes the difference between success or failure is simply having the wisdom to seek an outside opinion. The one thing that you can’t provide, yourself, is an objective point of view. No matter how smart you are, your viewpoint will always be subjective.
In business, not having this impartial, third-party perspective, on occasion, can lead to failure. Failure doesn’t have to mean closing your doors; failure could be missing an important business opportunity, or, perhaps, the opportunity of a lifetime.
Thirty years ago, if you asked a person what brand came to mind when you said the word ‘coffee,’ he …
