The hotel’s spacious suites and guestrooms will be equipped with all new furniture, fixtures, guestroom and corridor carpeting, as well as new artwork in each room capturing historic images of The Roosevelt Hotel in 1924. Each room will also be refreshed with an accent wall, creating a home-like ambience. The enhancements are designed to also compliment the already restored interiors of the hotel, featuring signature architecture of the 1920s, particularly showcased in the grand lobby.
September 8, 2011, By: David Eisen

“Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle…
when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

You can’t afford to wait in 2010. You have a responsibility to wake up every morning and define 2010 on your terms.

From Vince Poscente, world champion skiier and speaker.

 “Castles made of sand melt into the sea, eventually.” – Jimi Hendrix

 January 30, 2010 –

Over one hundred twenty years separate those two perspectives on the permanence – or impermanence – of human creations, dreams, relationships.  The first was written by a contemplative rebel near a New England pond, and the other by a late 1960s guitar-burning, acid-dropping musical innovator.  Yet the point both make is the same:  you need to build your dream on solid foundations. 

You can play “catch-up” in the entrepreneurial “ready-fire-aim” tradition (says Thoreau), or you can fail to put in the foundations or systems that your dream (your business, perhaps?) needs to survive to maturity, and watch it slip into the sea, eventu-al-ly (sings Hendrix).

You need foundations – systems and procedures that support consistent quality in products or service – on which to grow a business that is sustainable.  These foundations will support your growth as a business owner, which needs to evolve and change as the business grows. 

The important thing to remember is that these foundations must be designed to support the business, not bind it like a straightjacket (see “Systematize, Don’t Bureaucratize”, Jan. 15, 2009).  Flexibility and innovation are survival tools in an era of constant change.  Even skyscrapers must be designed and built with some “give” to help survive the buffeting winds.  So you must create a business environment that fosters new ideas – both yours and those of others in the organization (see Sharing the Sandbox, Dec. 15, 2008). 

Brainstorm!  Blue Sky!.  Mind Mapping! New product development!  They should be ongoing processes in your organization.  If you are B2B, ask customers what kinds of services would help improve their businesses or make their lives easier.  Experiment.  Not only will these help lead to new sales – they will provide the “juice” for your employees that makes them look forward to coming to work.  Share the Sandbox.

– Steve Caccavo, President of Constructive Business Solutions™, draws on his years of entrepreneurial experience to help owners strengthen and grow their small and mid-size businesses. © 2010 by Constructive Business Solutions™, a division of Positive Employment Practices, Inc.