What is your organization’s strategic position? Does your organization truly understand what strategic position is?
If you are unsure catch my latest article on BusinessChatt.com here:
Terry Massey joins BusinessChatt.com as a writer for strategy formulation and execution.
For article go to BusinessChatt.com.
Check out my article in BusinessChatt.com.
Great news! Ray Hilbert will be in town on December 29 to have a lite breakfast with us and speak.
AmeriStride will bring pastries and coffee from Panera to add even more incentive for all of us to start our New Year’s exercise program. We try hard to motivate individuals to live better lives.
I have spoken to many of you about Truth@Work and how we are in the process of working to start Christian Roundtable models of business owners/leaders from around the Chattanooga area. We are very excited about Ray taking time from a family vacation to have breakfast with us and share how for nearly 12 years Truth@Work has been serving Christian business owners/leaders from across the country.
If you have not met Ray, or heard him speak, he is an international best- selling author, is one of America’s leaders in helping Christians in business, and whose book The Janitor has sold nearly 1 million copies worldwide. Come and hear how the Truth@Work roundtable model has impacted so many business leaders, and how the program can help each of us as well.
Invite a fellow business owner or executive and reserve your spots today. Seating is limited. (Special thanks to Decosimo Certified Public Accounting for offering their facilities to host this meeting.)
Park in the Union Square Garage on West 10th Street and take the covered walk from the 2nd floor of the garage over to the Tallan Building. We will be meeting on the second floor.
Come and meet Ray. You don’t want to miss out on this very exciting and powerful opportunity to grow your business as you grow in your Christian faith.
Wishing you and your family a Very Merry Christmas!
Terry L. Massey
Truth@Work Chapter President
Many organizations spend a great deal of time and energy seeking out best practices and putting them into action within their business and rightfully so. It is important to understand and be good at those things that are common in successfully running a business. However, you must recognize that your organization will never achieve a competitive advantage by just implementing best practices. In reality, best practices turn processes into commodities. The more one’s business is commoditized the more difficult it becomes to differentiate the product or service it provides. When the buyer cannot distinguish any material difference in offerings, price is elevated in importance even more so than it already is. In effect, if all we have to compete with is best practice execution, we help transfer margin from ourselves and competitors to that of our customers.
On the other hand, a well crafted strategic position not only makes us different than our competitors but it also builds obstacles for our competitors and guides our investments and behaviors as an organization. In crafting a formidable strategic position you need to look for the right words to convey to team members in a powerful and succinct way what makes the company different — giving more clarity about what to invest time, money, and resources in or not. Within the Six Disciplines methodology we use what we call the two word test. One word says what you do and the other says what makes you different. There are some very large companies that got this right early on and that’s why they have grown to the size they are today.
As you can see these are not marketing tag lines. They were short and powerful statements that were communicated to every employee and literally defined what “should and should not” meant in their decision making and behavior.
Southwest Airlines to this day holds to their original strategic position. They only fly short flights. Therefore, they fly one type of plane. They only have to train mechanics, pilots, stewardesses, etc. on one type of aircraft. They only stock parts for one type of plane. Everything they do is geared toward improving their ability to do short flights better than any other airline and quite frankly any other type of public transportation.
Once you establish what your strategic position is, remind yourself and your organization that investing in activities outside the strategic position makes it easier for competitors to catch up.
Understand that operational efficiency is about improving the processes and activities you have that support this strategic position. As Michael Porter says, operational efficiency involves “constant change, flexibility and best practices,” but strategy, on the other hand, “demands discipline, continuity; its enemies are distraction and compromise.”
Belhaven University has agreed to host Truth@Work briefings and Christian business leader roundtables in Chattanooga. The briefings are an hour and half presentation designed to provide attendees with a thorough overview of the ministry and its goals for the Chattanooga Metro Area.
Ed Pickel, Director of Admissions for Belhaven University stated, “Truth@Work is a natural extension of what we are about at Belhaven University in our graduate and undergraduate business studies. Truth@Work girds its members with a Biblical Worldview as the foundation for their decision making in their day to day operations. This is accomplished using a case study curriculum in a roundtable format of Christian business leaders whereby iron sharpens iron. We are pleased to assist in this much needed ministry for men and women Christian business leaders in our area.”
The Christian round tables are designed around real world case studies and made up of 10 – 15 business leaders. The case studies are reviewed prior to the meeting via the Truth@Work web portal and discussed during the round table. In addition, one of the members presents their company/department and any issues that they are requesting advice on. This is followed by an open forum round table to discuss other members issues and concerns. This is followed up with a resolution and accountability commitment for the next month.
Since 1998, Truth@Work has been developing products, programs, and services designed to help Christian business leaders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and executives:
Today we are one of the nation’s fastest growing marketplace ministries, serving hundreds of Christian business owners, executives, and leaders -and we are expanding into new cities such as Chattanooga all across the country.
We have created and are continuing to enhance a comprehensive and cutting edge content portal site and personal leadership experience — a true “one stop shop” for today’s Christian business owners and leaders.
Our primary offering is our proprietary Christian Roundtable Groups- which are monthly small “peer group” meetings, in a variety of formats designed specifically to meet the needs of our Members- at a fraction of the cost of other similar monthly programs in the marketplace. In addition we have church and collegiate ministries and just this year have started a pastoral ministry aimed at helping pastors better understand the mind of a business leader.
For more information on Truth@Work please email Terry Massey, Chapter President for Truth@Work Chattanooga or register for our next briefing on Tuesday, September 27.
Review the Press Release below:
Belhaven University to host Truth@Work Briefings and Roundtables – Final
by: Terry L. Massey
What impact would it have if our legislature were to pass a law that would reduce current spending by 1 cent out of every dollar for the next six years and then cap federal government spending at 18% of GDP?
Answer:
You don’t have to go through tax reform, you don’t have to find new revenue sources of any kind. Seems too simple – right?
Here’s how it works:
Total Federal Government spending is reduced one cent (1%) out of each dollar of spending each year for 6 years. So, if the government spent $1.00 this year, all it could spend next year is $0.99, then $0.98 in the next and $0.97 in the next etc. this continues for 6 years at which point you hold spending to a flat 18% of GDP. This holds true for both discretionary and entitlement programs.
In meeting the caps, Congress has the choice to cut some programs more than 1% and some less than 1% as well as raise the funding of other programs as long as total government spending is reduced by 1% each year.
If Congress fails to enact the needed reforms in any particular year (in other words they don’t do their job), then mandatory, “across the board” spending cuts occur to bring spending reductions in line with the 1% spending caps.
It’s time we asked our government to be fiscally responsible. Please join me in this effort and go to http://www.onecentaction.org/petition/ and sign the petition. PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING WHEN YOU DO. In the field where you type your last name, PUT A “- 1 cent” AT THE END OF YOUR NAME. In my case it looked like this “Massey – 1 cent. “
The staff at the One Cent Solution Action Center has agreed to participate in this Social Media exercise and help me track the effectiveness of social media in this endeavor.
Join me in becoming part of this grassroots effort initiated by the Citizens for Restoring America’s Financial Future, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 and The One Cent Solution, Inc. a 501(c)4 comprised of leading businessmen, economists and advisors.
To learn more visit www.onecentsolution.org. If you do decide to sign the petition and I hope you do – DON’T FORGET TO PUT THE “- 1 cent” after your last name. Thank you.
By: Terry L. Massey
It’s Coming to Chattanooga! A program that is equipping Christian Business Owners and Leaders to Live out their faith in the marketplace while building successful companies. Truth@Work is a rigorous exploration of business operational issues, practices, and challenges from a consciously Christian worldview. The goal is to empower Christian business leaders in the marketplace with missional purpose: helping them achieve business excellence, grow spiritually, and align their business and vocation with kingdom purposes.
Come learn first-hand why this truly is “A Life & Business Changing Experience.” You don’t want to miss this opportunity to participate in something that is impacting hundreds of Christian Business Leaders across the country in cities such as Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Louisville, Newark, Dallas, Kansas City, Phoenix, Tampa – St. Petersburg, Birmingham, Nashville, and now the Chattanooga Metropolitan Area.
The meeting is for informational purposes only. You will not be asked for charitable donations (this is a self sustaining ministry). You will not be allowed to join at the end of the meeting, (no alter call). We are asking that you come, learn and then consider if membership might be something of interest to you or someone you know. If so, you will be able to fill out a form requesting more information and we will contact you at a later date and time. We are asking that you prayerfully consider taking an hour and a half of your morning to join us for this ministry overview and ask questions.
To register please go to the following link:
http://truthatworkchattanooga.eventbrite.com.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – May 17, 2011 — In an economy that has many businesses and organizations struggling, one organization is experiencing unprecedented national growth – and they credit it all to God as the ministry expands to Chattanooga.
Truth@Work, a non-profit organization, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and founded in 1998 with 9 members, specializes in helping Christian business owners and leaders build their organizations on proven biblical principles and practices. The ministry began its national expansion in 2010 and has more than doubled in size and scope over the last 15 months.
Their proprietary monthly Christian Business Roundtable Group now delivers a powerful “life and business changing experience” to over 400 participants in several cities across America. The organization is showing no signs of slowing down, despite the uncertain economy. Co-Founder and CEO Ray Hilbert had this to say, “We are so blessed to see the type of growth that we are experiencing. The economy is really tough, and the need for entrepreneurs and business owners to get together to help each other succeed is becoming more and more critical to success. And the fact that our model helps Christians live out their faith in and through their businesses allows us to carve out a very unique niche in the marketplace. We credit all our success to God.”
Truth@Work announced that it has added Chattanooga AmeriStride Partner, Terry Massey as the Truth@Work local Chapter President, to expand its ministry into the metropolitan area. “AmeriStride is thrilled to assist in bringing this ministry to Chattanooga. For years I treated my businesses as a means to an end asking Christ to come along side and bless my plans and objectives. In essence I made Christ a component in my life and my business. I was misguided,” stated Terry. “Truth@Work teaches by His grace, that Jesus Christ did not come to be a mere ‘component’ of our life but its all-encompassing purpose and Lord. Business leadership is a ‘calling’ not just a means to an end.
Psalm 78:72 states:
‘And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; and with skillful hands he led them.’
As business leaders our Christian faith is to be woven like fabric into our lives. The Truth@Work corporate ministry team has provided us with 10 years of proven biblical content and training to share with the Christian business leaders of Chattanooga. We can’t wait to get started.”
About Truth@Work
Truth@Work assists Christian business leaders in integrating their faith into the marketplace through roundtable discussion groups, seminars, membership portal site and various other products and services. We teach leaders how to grow and lead their business based on biblical principles and practices, bringing exponential value to their business and personal life. We are committed to helping business leaders, entrepreneurs, CEO’s and executives be the gifted leaders that God has created them to be. www.truthatwork.org
About AmeriStride
AmeriStride is a locally owned Chattanooga based business growth and management consulting firm focused on the business performance of its customers. Its methodology of disciplines, monitored and measured by computer software, ensures company professionals know what to do, when to do it, and why. AmeriStride professionals specialize in strategy formulation and execution methodology, executive and management development. www.AmeriStride.com
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For More Information Contact:
Truth@Work
Ray Hilbert
Chief Executive Officer
Office: (317) 842-1694
ray@truthatwork.org
AmeriStride, LLC
Terry L. Massey
Partner
Office: (423) 591-4127
Mobile: (423) 240-0267
terry.massey@AmeriStride.com
Email us at info@AmeriStride.com to book an appointment and receive a copy of Gary Harpst’s best selling book:
