The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Transformation Economy by THRESHOLD

Project management is critical for any business, since it allocates resources into the future. Many businesses, especially professional firms, are beginning to recognize one of the gaps in their competencies, in addition to pricing, is project management. In this episode, project management expert Ed Kless will define what a project is, the difference between goals and objectives, The Triangle of Truth, what is Quality and who defines it, the elements of a scope document, and the elements of a Change Request.

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do "Free-Rider Friday." Most of our shows are "topic" driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be "event" driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no advanced knowledge of the events either will bring up. If you'd like to call-in during the live show, the listener line is: 866-472-5790. You can also participate on Twitter at #ASKTSOE, or email us at asktsoe@verasage.com.

By its very nature, cost accounting is a historical function, but what is important for pricing are planned costs, not past costs. As Henry Ford pointed out, no one knows what a cost should be. Yet, cost accounting has held hegemony for far too long over the pricing strategies of businesses everywhere, embedding the conventional wisdom that costs determine price. Cost accounting does not deserve to be the apotheosis of pricing, let alone running a business. No doubt, it has its role in any organization, but that role is very specific and historical, not one that should have a major influence in production and pricing decisions.

Many business owners lament they sell a commodity, or the "market" sets their price. Yet empirical evidence proves otherwise. Most customers have a range of acceptable prices they're willing to pay. How do you search that range? What's the most effective pricing strategy to capture the value from the high-end, and the low-end, of that range? Ed and Ron will discuss two specific strategies on this show: Peter van Westendorp's Price Sensitivity Meter, and the Barron Joseph von Neinbach Model.

Clarence Darrow once said, I have never killed anybody, but I have read many obituaries with delight! With that schadenfreude in mind, join us for a look at some of the funniest, poignant, and insightful last words spoken by famous, and infamous, people throughout history.

They say you can't turn back the clock and go back to the good old days. Yet this is precisely what is happening with the total quality service movement, the customer loyalty movement, CRM, and other philosophies that put the customer at the center of the business organization. Millions of dollars are being spent on consultants to relearn what was once common sense, practiced by the great entrepreneurs from the turn of the century to the mid-1950s. In this episode of our Entrepreneur Heaven Series, we will explore the wisdom of George Eastman, James Cash Penney, The Wright Brothers, and Anita Roddick. Wisdom is timeless, and occasionally turning back the clock is the wisest course of action. Sometimes history is our best teacher.

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do "Free-Rider Friday." Most of our shows are "topic" driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be "event" driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no advanced knowledge of the events either will bring up. If you'd like to call-in during the live show, the listener line is: 866-472-5790. You can also participate on Twitter at #ASKTSOE, or email us at asktsoe@verasage.com.

Ron and Ed will discuss ten factors of price sensitivity that all pricers should consider before establishing a price. Price sensitivity is far more predictive than demand elasticity studies, which simply show changes in overall revenue in response to various price changes. Price sensitivity is far more granular, allowing pricers to analyze the particular drivers of value at the customer level. Analyzing price sensitivity is an important exercise for any business that wants to capture more of the value it creates from its offering.

We are honored to have the opportunity to interview George Gilder, writer, economist, technology advocate, and co-founder of the Discovery Institute. Mr. Gilder released a monograph entitled: The 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money. His 1981 international bestseller, Wealth and Poverty, advanced a practical and moral case for supply-side economics and capitalism during the early months of the Reagan Administration and made him President Reagan's most quoted living author. In 2013 he published Knowledge and Power: The Information Theory of Capitalism and How It is Revolutionizing Our World, which reformulated economics in terms of the information theory of Alan Turing and Claude Shannon. "George Gilder is the most profound thinker I have ever encountered, and his insights of how an economy creates wealth permeate The Soul of Enterprise. Every century needs an Adam Smith, and Gilder is ours for the twentieth and twenty-first."

Thousands of business books are published each year. Some are worthless, others have merit, fewer still have lasting value, but a handful possess the ability to transform your business (and possibly, your life). Yet with today's busy and demanding schedules, do you feel you don't devote enough time to reading and absorbing new ideas? Then this show is for you. Ed and Ron will explore the best business books ever written, selecting their favorite all-time business books. If you want to share your favorite business books, call the show at: 866-472-5790, or tweet us at #ASKTSOE.