Michigan universities and associations are stepping up workforce development efforts to ensure that businesses are able to find talent that will help the companies thrive in Michigan.
With its staff of about 35 people, plus 19 Research Fellows, WDI partners with 50+ organizations around the world to create and apply sustainable business models in the private sector to support emerging market economies, thereby improving the health and welfare of citizens in those economies.
The holiday shopping season represents a large chunk of sales for many retailers. With a late Thanksgiving, though, there are six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, making this year the shortest holiday season in more than a decade. A recent report by Adobe Digital Index estimated that these lost six days could cost retailers $1.5 billion in lost sales.
If you capture feedback from your customers, odds are that you use some form of a performance scorecard to determine how well your company is doing at delivering a great customer experience. You probably also have competitive and industry benchmarks that you can reference to ensure that you’re performing at the level of your peers. This is good . . . but it may not be enough. If you’re not careful, you might actually allocate resources to the wrong areas of the business.
One of the largest commercial real estate transactions on record in Ann Arbor was completed in what many have called the “deal of the year.” In a $103M deal, Oxford Companies led a group of investors in the acquisition of a portfolio from McMullen Realty Co. For a comparison, the University of Michigan bought the Pfizer property for $108M.
A common mistake among novice chess players is to bring out the queen early in the game. But this often leads to a loss. In our client work, we often see a similar phenomenon in competitive strategy. Executives get lured into bringing out their queen without developing all of their pieces.
Budgeting is an important part of good management. Planning experts say budgeting is critical for ongoing company success. To get some advice on how small and mid-sized businesses can effectively budget, we spoke to two seasoned Ann Arbor area tax and planning professionals.