Entries by Tom Doescher

Leader versus manager

I may lose some readers over this one, but here goes anyway. Many leaders — including Frank Moran, former managing partner of Plante & Moran — have said you manage tasks, but you lead people. I believe this is especially true today, because there are very few purely manual jobs. I have spent the last […]

Hire Owners, continued

The crazy thing is that I actually looked forward to seeing Howard Klein at Nordstrom’s again; meeting him made me want to return to the store, even though I hate to shop. The experience caused me to think about a possible strategy for hiring key associates. As I reflected on the subject, a manufacturing company […]

Hire Owners

I hate to shop. In fact, I really hate to shop. But I needed to upgrade my wardrobe, so I ventured into Nordstrom’s — and, to my surprise, I was delighted to meet Howard Klein. Klein probably deals with lots of guys like me, but he was amazing. He was direct, but not pushy. He […]