Smart Business Magazine, January 2014

4 Smart Business Philadelphia Winter 2014 Smart Business Philadelphia 835 Sharon Drive Suite 200 Cleveland OH 44145 O 8009884726 F 4402507001 PUBLISHER VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS Dustin S Klein MANAGING EDITOR Dennis Seeds ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR DIGITAL MANAGING EDITOR Adam Burroughs ASSOCIATE EDITOR Roger Vozar Smart Business Magazine is a division of Smart Business Network Inc PRESIDENT CEO Fred Koury PRESIDENT MAGAZINES EVENTS Lee Koury PRESIDENT CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER Michael Marzec VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING SERVICES David Fazekas VICE PRESIDENTS OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Janet K Valore Katie Janoch Karen Karmilowicz Angie Berresford Joanna Reese Megan Smith Roz Taylor Suzy Djilas Elias Hussney CONTROLLER Kathy Deutsch CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jim Mericsko PRODUCTION MANAGER Mary Kay Bukowski SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR Mark Scott ASSOCIATE EDITOR INSIGHTS Jayne Gest SENIOR COPY EDITOR April Grasso DIRECTOR OF EVENTS John Lotenero PROJECT MANAGER EVENTS Danielle Catteau SALES ASSOCIATES EVENTS Meredith Rankin Korie Culleiton DIGITAL MEDIA SPECIALIST Megan Christy CUSTOMER SERVICE AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Somer Karim AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT Tammy Frank OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Jill Brown ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE ACCOUNTS PAYABLE Marilyn Homolak Smart Business Magazine is also published in Akron Canton Atlanta Chicago Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Cleveland Columbus Dallas Detroit Florida Houston Indianapolis Los Angeles Northern California Orange County Pittsburgh St Louis Smart Business Philadelphia is published quarterly by Smart Business Network Inc 835 Sharon Drive Suite 200 Cleveland OH 44145 All material herein is property of Smart Business Network Inc and may not be reproduced Smart Business and Smart Business Network are registered trademarks of Smart Business Network Inc SMART BUSINESS Smart Business Magazine is a management journal providing insight and advice for top decision makers Each edition includes feature articles on management strategies of CEOs of leading local companies In addition we partner with leading service providers to deliver expert advice to our senior management audience CONTACT President and CEO Fred Koury at fkoury@ sbnonline com and follow him on Twitter @ FredKoury FROM THE CEO FRED KOURY Finding a way to win Set your goal then relentlessly pursue it In the sports world there is a clearly defined champion each year Every team strives to be the one that finishes on top but most dont make it Many teams have good seasons and might be satisfied with that but only one is the true No 1 The question to ask yourself is what is your goal Are you trying to be the No 1 player in your industry Or are you happy with just having the equivalent of a good season A lot of you might say you are aiming for No 1 but are you really putting in the effort to get there Tiger Woods and Warren Buffett know what it takes to win Steve Jobs created a dynasty Here are four observations on what it takes to get to the top Continuous improvement Tiger Woods has a coach One of the best golfers in our lifetime has a coach and works with him to get better The road to the top requires long hours of identifying every flaw in your organization and then working tirelessly to eliminate those flaws Once you are on top you have to work even harder because all of your competitors will be using your success as the new benchmark Look ahead Winners identify trends before anyone else and are able to take advantage of that knowledge If you are working on continuous improvement youll obtain what you need to move quicker than your competitors Why Because you will have networked more than the next guy talked to more of your customers and interacted with your employees on the front lines Steve Jobs of Apple Inc was ahead of the competition with almost every product he launched His few failures were partly because he was too far ahead and the market wasnt ready Desire If you dont have the desire to be No 1 then dont expect to be No 1 To be a champion you have to have the heart of a champion Theres nothing wrong with just being a good business but dont try to fool yourself by saying you want to be the best when you dont really have the desire to do what it takes to get there Commitment One clue that you might be lacking the desire to be the best in your industry is a lack of commitment If you are only working 40 hours a week you are probably not committed to being No 1 With the talented CEOs who are out there it would be almost impossible to work fewer hours than they do and expect to beat them Warren Buffett would often start his day at 4 30 a m and he also saved 1000 by the time he was 14 a lot of money back in the 1940s He was committed at an early age to being a success Do you have what it takes to win it all