Sustainability is often defined as businesses and other activities that take into account people, planet, and profit. “Planet” clearly refers to environmental impacts, and “profit” means making money and being financially sustainable. But the “people” side is less well defined. One of SJF Advisory Services’ goals is to help provide this definition. We are about to release... [Read More]

A recent Wall Street Journal article, “Who Has Innovative Ideas? Employees,” once again underscores the incredible resource companies have just waiting to be tapped — their people. This article, by JC SPender and Bruce Strong, introduces the idea of “innovation communities,” or cross functional groups in a time limited setting tasked with solving specific problems or generating... [Read More]

Do you like your job? According to a study published by The Conference Board in January 2010, only 45% of Americans said they were satisfied with their jobs — a marked drop from the more than 61% who said they were satisfied in 1987.  Job dissatisfaction does not track economic cycles, the study finds;... [Read More]

Jim Baron’s students at the Yale School of Management often comment that creating a great company culture is easy when business is booming but can go by the wayside when conditions head south. Their skepticism prompted the widely published management professor to find examples of firms that use their culture to get though... [Read More]

Over beach vacation last week, I hijacked my dad’s copy of Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com. You may have heard about it on NPR. Hsieh built and sold a company right out of college and, with the proceeds, as well as a venture fund he... [Read More]

A new book, Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder, just published by Harvard University Press (and recently reviewed in this post in the New York Times’ Economix blog) makes the case for why workforce best practices should include engaging employees at the bottom of the ladder (in other words, entry level workers).  In a... [Read More]

Why is WD40 called by that name? Because the first 39 formulas did not work. The company just celebrated their 50th anniversary of the winning formula – and it attests to the idea that a willingness to try, fail, and try again is a critically important piece of innovation. This was just one of the interesting... [Read More]

SJF Ventures portfolio companies Cleanscapes, a sustainable solid waste and recycling collection management service, and groSolar, a premier provider of solar energy systems, are great examples of entrepreneurial companies that are leading the new green economy. These firms provide products and services that lessen environmental impact, reduce natural resource use and also create high-quality jobs. So... [Read More]

We posted a few weeks ago about the new green cooperative laundry that is creating a new model for building thriving businesses that create wealth for low- to moderate-income individuals in Cleveland. The project has a very inspiring video that we highly recommend.

Workplace flexibility has long been seen as mainly the province of middle and upper wage workers, but a recent report by Corporate Voices for Working Families looked into the potential benefits of flexible scheduling for lower-wage employees (those who earn $10 per hour or less than $20,000 annually, which they estimate at more than 25... [Read More]