Our Guest Speaker is Wendy Elin who will lead a discussion on Workplace Productivity:
Wendy Ellin is a Workplace Productivity Consultant, International Speaker, &
Author of Enough Is Enough, Get Control of Your Stuff. Her insights into living an organized life are shared in her presentations with irreverence, humor, and a level of passion that motivates her audience to TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION!
Wendy talks about real-life challenges that we all experience such as email
overload, being on time (or not), reasonable expectations for getting things
done, and much more. It is from Wendy’s 20 plus years in the corporate arena
that she drew from her own successes by working smart, not hard—that inspired her to develop the tools and techniques for increasing workplace productivity and ultimately a renewed sense of peace of mind.
www.WendyEllin.com
404-309-2255
Early in my career, I learned that it is unwise to rebuild a retail outlet on site when there is an option to build on another site better positioned to serve the trade area. Taking an outlet off-line for reconstruction, forced our customers to seek alternatives. They began shopping with other brands, creating new habits. And, the rebuilt outlet seldom regained their full sales volume. It was a bad investment. Building a new outlet in a better location avoided the lost revenue while creating excitement for the new store. It was usually a better investment.
As the primary business reason for our meeting was to discuss his presentation, we got right into that topic. Paul wanted to know how to position his talk as the audience wouldn’t be his typical prospects. I told him that there were two main points to consider. First, the members want to learn about him. They want to know his background and how he came to be involved in his current situation. Secondly, they want to know about his employer and the product he’s selling. I said, “keep the discussion at 40,000 feet.” They don’t need to get into the details, they just need enough information to make good referrals. Also, I told him that I had adopted the 
Having heard of Paul’s recent successes, I reminded him that we are prepared to leverage his efforts through our social media and public relations platform. He said he had forgotten about those benefits. So, I spent the next few minutes reminding him about our capabilities. He was sold. My thoughts moved to other possible referrals. By the end of our conversation, I had a long list of connections to make on his behalf.
While engaged in recent networking activities I became acquainted with a Senior Consultant assigned to the Atlanta office for a National Outplacement Company. He had heard about ITB Partners and wanted to learn more about our program. During our discussion, I asked about their activity level, given that the economy has improved, and unemployment had reached a historic low. I was somewhat surprised to learn that their business was still strong. He said that, notwithstanding the strength of the economy, many companies are reorganizing their workforces to better serve their customers and achieve a competitive advantage. I found this interesting and made a mental note to explore the issue further as I thought it would be a good topic for an article. Two weeks ago, my health-care-consultant-friend and colleague, Faith told me that she had just finished an engagement to help a client through a major reorganization. That triggered the memory of my conversation with the Outplacement Consultant so I asked her if she would like to collaborate on a blog post. I find it interesting to learn how large companies endeavor to maintain a competitive advantage as we transition further into the Digital Age.
About 20 years ago, I produced a diagram showing that there are 3 interconnected supply chains: The Physical, the Informational and the Financial. All three, of course, interconnected and feeding off each other.
