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HNI Content Manager

Recent Posts by HNI Content Manager:

Let Your Customer Be Your Guide: 4 Steps to Better Quality Management

SHERI WEAVER
Quality Supervisor, HNI

We need to think about quality management as a journey.  By following these 4 guidelines, you can begin implementing an effective quality management process.

Topics: Construction Transportation Manufacturing

Are You Covered When Doing Business Abroad?

ART JOSETTI
Account Executive

Imagine this scenario: You’re traveling to India on business and you get in a bad accident in your rental car.  Will your policy from back home in the U.S. extend to the damage done to the car?  More importantly, how can you find a safe, quality hospital that you can trust?  Ask the cab driver taking you there and you’ll probably end up at the cheapest place in town – not necessarily where you’ll get the best care.

Topics: Construction Transportation Manufacturing

How Remote Monitoring Can Save Your Business

DAN CONRAD
Vice President, CC&N [Guest blogger]

Topics: Construction Transportation Manufacturing

Truck Drivers, We Salute You

From the Entire HNI Team

Topics: Transportation

COBRA Subsidy Expires

RENEE KUHS
Compliance Attorney, HNI

Beginning in March 2009, employees who were involuntarily terminated could qualify for a 65% federal subsidy toward the cost of COBRA premiums.  As unemployment rates continued to climb, for some unemployed individuals and their families, the subsidy made COBRA premiums affordable for many who might have chosen to go without health insurance.

Topics: Construction Transportation Manufacturing HR / Employee Benefits

What K-Rod Taught Me About Workplace Culture

CHAD TISONIK
Advisory Practice Leader, HNI

Last week, my 13-year old commented to me about the Brewers acquiring Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez and how this trade was going to help the late season push to win.  He seemed very excited, almost giddy to have some much needed help in the closing department.  Could THIS be the year for the Brewers?

The World is Flat...2.0

MIKE NATALIZIO
President & CEO, HNI

We’re smack dab in the middle of Universe 2.0.  I say this half jokingly -- it seems that you can’t turn anywhere these days without someone declaring the birth of a 2.0 version of something. 

The original topic of the “2.0 meme” was of course Web 2.0.  This refers to when we started moving from a read-only information culture to a democratized system where anyone could create and disseminate content online.  Now instead of being strictly consumers of information, any Average Joe can create it.  This is a fundamental shift in the way we interact with information.  The effects of this change are still diffusing, but predictions are already popping up as to what Web 3.0 will consist of.

Enterprise 2.0 has also been discussed at length, but it remains a little further from becoming a universal reality.  Enterprise 2.0 is the business who owns the culture created by Web 2.0 and who works the tools available to its advantage.  While a lot of businesses have started using social media and blogging as part of their business strategies, we’ve only found few are really committed to their efforts organization-wide.  Oftentimes it’s just Marketing that’s on Twitter and Facebook, not Sales or HR or the other groups that could benefit from engaging in social tools.  Enterprise 2.0 is also about applying the principles of Web 2.0 within the company itself.  It involves using internal collaborative platforms like Open Atrium and Yammer that democratize information sharing, just like Web 2.0. 

The traditional style of management is being challenged in Enterprise 2.0 as well.  The top-down hierarchal structures that used to be the norm are becoming stale and are being increasingly challenged by the newer generations in the workforce. 

Some companies have reached Enterprise 2.0 already, but many are further behind.  What do you think -- is your business at Enterprise 2.0 level yet?

These areas are not the only things that have changed in the world of business.  Really, what hasn’t changed in the last decade?  The tools we’re using, the customers we’re trying to reach, even the way we do our jobs every day has been completely revolutionized by the internet and the cultural change that has come along with it.

Over the next couple of weeks we’re going to blog more about what has changed in the world of business and what that means for you.  Rather than talking about these things abstractly, we’ll focus on concrete tips for how to 2.0-ify your own company. 

Do you agree that there is fundamental change occurring in the world of business? What examples have you seen of this shift?

Topics: Construction Transportation Manufacturing

The Technology Reset Button

MIKE NATALIZIO
President & CEO, HNI

Since my last post on going office-less, I’ve heard a lot of comments along the lines of "Mike, you’re such a techie."  In reality, that couldn't be further from the truth. 

Topics: Construction Transportation Manufacturing

What is your MUDA? Get rid of the waste in your organization.

CHAD TISONIK
Advisory Practice Leader & Associate VP, HNI

I was scanning the morning headlines hoping for something to catch my eye and BAM! There it was.  The title read: 10 brands you know that will disappear in 2012”.  All of the names on this list are household names.  Some have been fixtures in the US for over 100 years!  How could this happen?  Certainly, there would be a multitude of reasons for failure.  Could we find ways to control success, our brand and perpetuation in our own firms?

Topics: Construction Transportation Manufacturing

Office-less in HNI

MIKE NATALIZIO
President & CEO, HNI

As CEO of a non-traditional insurance brokerage and business advisory firm, I gotta live our mantra: Change the Game. My latest game changer involves giving up my office to my VP of Business Development so he can focus on growing our firm. 

Topics: Construction Transportation Manufacturing