Frank V. Payne

While it is highly lucrative for a company to have employees who are talented and highly-motivated, the exact cost of gaining this competitive advantage has yet to be quantified. Return on investment is the most practical way to measure the cost benefit of giving your employees that extra boost. Others may argue that competencies are the ideal method to measure human capital. What's more telling here is the fact that human capital has a direct affect on the bottom line.

The staff at FOCUS cares about your future. We really do. That's why we're going to tell you how to put some nitro into your career tank to give it the boost it needs. By implementing these seven steps to success you can be well on your way to the corner office…well, we won't get too ahead of ourselves, but we'll at least guarantee a bump from the basement to the first floor.

Improvement is always on the minds of business owners and management teams. According to a case study written by Gary A. Rummler, founder of Rummler-Brache Group, to make a significant difference in an organization's results, the current processes must be identified and weaknesses addressed. Rummler paired up with Allan P. Brache in 1991 and developed a model that defined the steps needed for running a Process Improvement and Management project.

In the current economic situation, the challenge of managing cost has become greater than ever. Business leaders are seeking out the best strategies to mitigate cost overruns. The challenge of managing costs puts a great deal of pressure on any kind of business, especially considering that shareholders still expect good results.

What is more important to your company than its hard earned assets? Drawing a blank? Well, we couldn't think of anything else either. That is why Asset Management is a fundamental business process. Asset Management determines corporate value and has a direct impact on profitability. Because so many companies pay little attention to managing asset disposal, 50% of assets on the books are either so poorly described that they cannot be located during a physical audit.

An easy and immediate way to get your PMO up and running is to figure out what projects your company has let fall to the way side and haul them back in. So what are runaway projects and how do you detect them? Runaway projects are endeavors that no longer have a clear focus, timeline, or budget. Sometimes we don't know a project has gone awry until it's too late, at which point the blame game begins.

Since time is money, time management is arguably the most important part of any project. There's no way you could conduct a project without time management; but are you doing everything you can to ensure timeliness and efficiency? If time management is the most important part of any project, planning and scheduling are the most important processes in managing a project.