What’s your Z-score? - A formula to measure your company’s health

There are a myriad of financial tools available to businesses today and quality financial consulting resources in our own backyard.

They include Jim Lindell, TEC Chair and president of the Thorsten Consulting Group in Dousman and the Heath Corp. in Brookfield.

His operational analytical methods rank high within the industry and among TEC members.

Prepare to die - Don’t be a burden to survivors after your death

You know that death and taxes are about the only sure things in life. We have shrewd estate planners to take care of the taxes when we die. But many of us might be negligent when it comes to sparing our survivors a lot of work it takes to deal with everything else when we’re no longer here.

Treat the boss as a customer

My thanks this month to TEC/Vistage resource Ian Cook, a principal of Fulcrum Associates, experts in team-building and leadership. He has developed some great ideas about how to improve your relationship with the person to whom you report.

Right up front, he identifies some super payoffs:

• More personal influence within your department.
• Higher responsiveness to your needs and concerns.
• Better personal image in relation to other employees.
• A solid “sponsor” to help move along your career.
• A bigger salary. He then presents six tips to achieve these payoffs:

Goal lines - Ten reasons why companies fall short

Years ago, I was actively involved in the strategic planning process with a local Milwaukee area midsized manufacturing company that did about $20 million in sales.

Six months after the process was complete, the company abandoned it.

What not to do - Avoid the most common traits of a failing CEO

My thanks this month to fellow TEC (The Executive Committee) chairman and resource Glen Waring of Columbus, Ohio, who, after more than 3,000 individual chief executive officer conferences and 400 all-day meetings with them, has identified nine distinctive CEO failure patterns: