Maintaining high levels of communication with your team is essential to creating the energy necessary to achieve momentum through innovation.  Company information needs to flow from person to person and top to bottom across all internal company operations.  From financial updates to in-field sales reports and market observations, a steady flow of information in real time creates the opportunity for adapting and shifting of products and service offerings based on market demand and conditions.  This open communications creates conversations between employees on new actions that need to be taken to support the various company functions and meet client needs.  The actions that result create momentum and innovation.

How does hiring a professional interior designer impact the appeal of your workspace?  As a designer learns about your corporate culture and mission, he or she will be able to show how design can help achieve corporate goals. A businesslike approach to workplace design means getting key decision-makers to think about how a workplace can reflect the organization’s brand, image and vision.  Interior designers today are actually part designer and part management consultants.

To meet employees’ needs for a stimulating, energizing workplace that enhances productivity, efficiency and satisfaction, integrate interior design into strategic planning.  Hire a professional designer to reflect or help change your company’s culture, environment and work habits.  A designer can help clients turn their offices into tools that will yield long-term benefits including happy employees and ultimately increased profits.

By:  Brenda L. Brady, ASID

BRENDA BRADY DESIGN LLC

http://www.brendabradydesign.com

It wasn’t until I actually worked in a design firm that I started to become more aware of design.  Design is defined as:

1a. To conceive or fashion in the mind; invent: design a good excuse for not attending the conference.b. To formulate a plan for; devise: designed a marketing strategy for the new product.
2. To plan out in systematic, usually graphic form: design a building; design a computer program.
3. To create or contrive for a particular purpose or effect: a game designed to appeal to all ages.
4. To have as a goal or purpose; intend.
5. To create or execute in an artistic or highly skilled manner

When I started learning about design I began to ask questions about how design impacts business.  If I took a little from each definition above, I could say design means,

“To conceive in the mind, to formulate a plan systematically for a particular purpose, with a goal in mind, in a highly skilled manner.”

Then I began to think about how design impacts the customer development process.  In other words, how can an entrepreneur or business owner design a process to increase sales.  So I spoke with my director of research, Fran Ray and he set out to learn what the best minds in the country think about this subject.  His white paper is a bit esoteric, but the impact that design has on business and how leaders set plans and execute them is clearly evident.  Email me if you’d like a copy.

So my curiosity continues.  Soon I’ll share with you, what another designer friend of mine thinks about the business of commercial interior design.

Christmas 2009

Year after year we anticipate the change of season’s and welcome each holiday with joy and anticipation.  Several holidays’ stand out each year as national events giving everyone a much needed break.  There’s one holiday that stands out above them all.  Christian’s around the world come together to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus.  It’s Christmas time!  It’s about the time I write this Christmas letter I swing into full Christmas spirit and cheer.

Christmas allows us to reflect on who we are spiritually and realigns our thinking about the true meaning of Christmas.   Christmas reminds us of our faith in Jesus.  His birth gives us hope.  The star of Bethlehem, also known as the Christmas Star, can guide us, just as it did the three wise men.  They traveled east bearing gifts to worship the Christ child, born King of the Jews.  You can follow your Christmas Star and along your journey you can share your gifts.  We all have much to give, especially friendship.

We have much to celebrate.  While life is a never ending journey filled with struggle and pain along the way, we stay committed to our families, our friends, our work and our education.  The people around me and the client’s and companies we’ve developed relationships with have been extraordinary and continue to develop their own successful company cultures.

So in spite of the fact that my truck got dinged, the washing machine broke, my hot tub heater is on the fritz, and I stubbed my toe….MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It’s the holidays!  The perfect time to look past all life’s little hurdles and enjoy this special time with family and friends.  Candy, chocolate, cookies, egg nog, ham… bring it on.  A little snow never hurt neither.

May this holiday season find you looking forward with Christmas in your hearts.

John Russell

Having just returned from 4 days in the Wisconsin north woods to participate in the annual deer hunt, time spent in the forest brings the opportunity to reflect and clear the mind.  For me the highest quality thinking time requires a sense of solitude and quiet while observing the natural order.

Traditional Wisconsin deer camps are steeped in tradition with a strong connection to family bonding ever strengthening our allure with the North Country and our family cultures.   Stories and legends of trophy bucks and tags filled over the past decades connect generations and the commitment between grandfathers and grandsons form the familial bonds that make these tribal gatherings required seasonal events.

Over huge meals of wild game and all the comfort foods you could imagine, plans are made, pecking orders are reviewed and confirmed while tomorrows hunt gets planned.

After dinner deer camp members wander down country and forest roads to visit neighbors to talk about deer sightings, bucks that got away and stories of misses.

On Thanksgiving Day, we celebrate our culture and our traditions as well as all the friends and family that are woven together to make up our lives.  Each family has its’ own traditions for the annual celebration and recognition of our appreciation for each other.

What cultures and traditions exist within your business?