September 2016
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The Silver Fox Advisor
Advising, Consulting And Mentoring Greater Houston Area Business Since 1986
From the Editor...

Richard Hendee

"Go" or "No Go"
As a business owner you will likely be presented with opportunities that could affect your business ever so slightly or tremendously. If you make a mistake on those ever so slightly effect opportunities, your business probably can recover and not be harmed too badly. However, if your make a bad decision on some opportunity that results in having a tremendously negative effect on your business, the business may never recover.
So, how do you avoid making that bad decision? There is no easy answer to that question. Being honest, I have made a few bad decisions in my career but none big enough that I could not recover. So over time I learned from my mistakes and tried to use the lessons I learned so history did not repeat itself for me.
Several things I learned that I would share with you are the following:
New Product Design Control
Unneeded Bureaucracy or Essential to Success
Key to Innovation and Business Success

By John E. (Jack) West, a Silver Fox Advisor
Organizations of all sizes have a tendency to resist formalizing their design controls. And there are some good reasons for this reluctance.
There is of course the real concern that applying the formal design review, verification, and validation requirements of formal standards like ISO 9001:2000 Clause 8.3 might cause over-control of development efforts and drive in unwarranted costs. But the issue has little to do with formal quality systems. There is also a concern about "folks looking over the designer's shoulder." (Could be a big problem if the designer is the owner of the business!) But perhaps most important, there may be a reluctance to analyze and understand the benefits of good design controls as a means to manage risk and take prudent actions very early in the development cycle using tools like failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA). In other words, in the mind of designers, the potential negatives of exercising controls tend to overshadow the potential benefits.
Evergreen Business Strategies
 
Digest Of Take-Aways From 36 Articles
 
By Hank Moore, Corporate StrategistTM
Last month, we celebrated the third anniversary of this magazine. My article was about the significance of anniversaries as important milestones. I am the only columnist who has been in every issue of this magazine. My articles reflect the Big Picture of Business. After that, the niche writers cover their areas.
This is the second part of the anniversary celebration. It seems fitting to reprise key take-away comments from the last three years, as a digest to apply to ultimate business success.
The biggest problem with business, in a one-sentence capsule, is: People exhibit misplaced priorities and impatience, seeking profit and power, possessing unrealistic views of purpose, and not fully willing to do the things necessary to sustain orderly growth and long-term success.
What organizations and individuals started out to become and what we've evolved into being are decidedly different things. The path toward progress takes many turns, expected and unexpected. How we evolve reflects the teachings, experiences and instincts that are not part of formal education.
Silver Fox Advisors
 Silver Fox Advisors are current and former business owners, entrepreneurs and executives dedicated to assisting business owners to improve their enterprises through mentoring and consulting. Advisors have been sharing their knowledge, experience and skills since 1986. To work with a Sliver Fox Advisor, please visit our website at www.silverfox.org and select your advisor.
Upcoming Events
Lunch & Learn

Date:  Thursday, September 22, 2016

Time: 11:00 am - 1:15 pm

 

Topic: "The November Elections"

 

Speakers: David Jones & State Senator Paul Bettencourt

Red, White and Blue Program

Houston Public Broadcasting

 

Location: The Houston Racquet Club
1079 Memorial Drive
Houston, TX 77024
This Month's Featured Book
by a Silver Fox Advisor

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