Category: Business Strategies

The better idea

September 1, 2026

Companies worldwide are looking for better ways to do things. Many innovations come about every year. Some work and some do not. The management problem is deciding which ideas to implement and which to let die without further consideration. As a leader, there are many factors that we consider before moving on to the proposed improvement.

Today we will look at one of the reasons new concepts are discarded without due thought. The source of the innovative idea is often the deciding factor for many of us. If it came from a knowledgeable employee with many years of experience or from a superior who can terminate us, this thought is considered. The one that got away is probably from a new hire, temporary employee, intern, or other low-level worker.

Some of the freshest and best ideas are proposed by those whose minds are not clouded with all the things that take up the time of upper management. Some companies have programs to reward employees or even customers with their ideas.

I took a product proposal to a purchasing agent when I was in outside sales. As I explained this new product and asked where it might be used, I was told to wait a few minutes for the maintenance foreman. When he arrived, I explained this item and saw a light spark in his eyes. We discussed prices and the various places it could be utilized.

He had an application, and he had been looking for a product that would solve a particular problem. I showed the P.A. a new item that he thought was what they were looking for. This is just one example of me making a sale because I had what the customer needed. Unlike advertising for most commodities, I did not have to create a need or desire.

To me, that was the best way to make sales. I never pushed products or services onto a client. My technique was to explain the benefits of items and ask if the product was something that could be of use to them.

My new district manager did not believe this was the best sales procedure. He thought I should push for a close on anything that we had available. I was able to turn our branch’s profit margin around in six months after three years of being in the red. When I saw that this new boss and I would not be able to agree, I found another position after twenty-five years with that company.

My new boss at the next company appreciated my ideas enough that I received a promotion after just three months on the job. I felt that this was my dream job. Sometimes the better idea that you need may be changing positions or companies to continue growth in your career.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

Perception or truth

August 8, 2026

One employee is sitting at the computer working on what they were told to do three hours before. The boss is pleased because they are still on the task they were given. He does not know this job will only take them thirty minutes to perform, because he does not know how to do it.

The same official passes another employee who is in a breakroom getting a cup of coffee. He is there with two others who have been drinking coffee for fifteen minutes, and they all go back to their respective desks. “How long have they been in the break room?” he asks his secretary. “Fifteen minutes,” is the reply.

Later that day, the man who was pouring a cup of coffee is reprimanded. He is confused since he had gotten up from his workstation for the first time in three hours and is told he was drinking coffee for fifteen minutes. It is never mentioned to those who were the ones his secretary was talking about.

Perception is the problem in this case. Or, if you have my attitude, the misconceptions of an inefficient supervisor. I hope this has never happened to you. It has been done to thousands of associates at offices and plants all over the world. I know because I’ve seen it here in the U.S., and I believe that people are the same everywhere.

I’ll give you a couple of personal examples. I walked up on the line at a restaurant where I was a manager and saw three people correcting a problem with a customer order. One was out of his workstation. I jumped on him to get back where he belonged.

Once the problem was worked out, the other two informed me that the error was theirs and the young man just came over to help sort things out. I immediately went to him and apologized for my error and thanked him for his efforts.

A few days later, a tray of food flies over his head and hits a wall. The manager who threw it, my boss, storms out of the building. The situation was the same; an order was filled incorrectly.  I took this as a sign that I needed to find employment elsewhere and did so. This was my last food service position, and I continued in other industries.

The problem of perception overruling truth is all around us. We often must look beyond what seems to be obvious to us to determine what the reality is. Many companies die because their managers and owners accept perceptions as truth and fail to see the forest for the trees.

I left an employer early on, expecting his business to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and then it took place a few months later. I was a purchasing agent and was constantly having to ask accounting to pay bills that were overdue to clear our accounts to ship new orders. My perception was that our bills should be paid on time.

There are those who have a perception that if they do not pay their bills promptly, nothing will happen. It may take a foreclosure or threat of some catastrophe to correct this erroneous thinking. In business, I’ve made those calls to clients asking for a past-due invoice to be paid. I always considered it a truth that they could pay, if they wanted to. What are your perceptions of the truth, and are you sure you are correct?

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

You get what you pay for

August 7, 2026

This phrase has been used often to justify spending someone felt was necessary.  Sometimes it is a man speaking to his wife about the new boat or car.  Other times it is a woman speaking of her new jewelry or dress.  Or it may be the Senator, Congressman, or President trying to convince voters that the government’s expenses are reasonable.

In our society, most people, they do not receive the quality and expectations for which they are paying. My career put me in a position to work with manufacturers for twenty-five years, and I ended my career after working at three manufacturers. I learned that the cost of manufacturing products is often a minor part of the retail price.

This is why we have the mysterious MSRP or Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. Sometimes this is not necessarily suggested by the company that made it. Often a major distributor sets this price. In my first purchasing position, I learned that some major retailers have a minimum markup of 35 to 40 percent. I was required to negotiate special pricing from our vendors to meet these requirements.

When I moved to industrial products, our profit as a distributor was often 75%. I also learned how to calculate profits in a suspiciously obscure way. This is how retailers say they are selling at a percentage of their cost and still make millions of dollars. There are also rebates, hidden discounts, and multiple levels of warehouses that each have a markup.

I have spoken before about stores that open each season with sales of thirty percent discounts, and other retailers only give a ten percent discount on sale prices. My wife and I prefer to purchase products at fifty percent or less of the standard price. We also look for clearance sales and occasionally find 75-90% sales after the season ends.

For fifty years, we have bought things that we could afford. We recently purchased a car that was more expensive than we ever bought before. It was a 2016 Buick SUV with about 60,000 miles. God provided a desire for us that He often has done in previous years. We don’t receive everything we want but often find Him giving us exactly what we desire.

The title of this column is correct, and you receive more than you paid for if you allow Jesus to be Lord of your life. I have followed Him for most of my years and hope that you have found the same to be true in your lives.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

It’s just business

July 23, 2026

I hate that saying. I hear it in movies and TV shows but have never heard it in real life. This phrase is usually proceeded by “It isn’t personal.” But it is personal in business, if you want your commercial relationships to succeed. When your business isn’t personal it will most likely fail.

Relationships must be personal or else they will not work. The opposite of personal is impersonal like immoral is not moral. Let me tell you about the similarities and contrasts in my life for the last seventy years. I should probably say sixty-five because I don’t remember much before 1960.

My parents made raising my brothers and sister and I a job that they participated in. We rarely had a babysitter. My oldest brother could watch us by the time I was eight or nine and our parents allowed that from time to time. This was usually at home, but he also took my other brother and I to the park, school, and the movies.

He and the rest of my family were there for us. They did it because they cared about us and not because someone paid them to do it. I remember going to my uncle Dean’s home for a family event after we had an accident in our car. He saw the damage and proceeded to do what he could to repair it quickly. I thought of that day when we were at his funeral.

My first boss, when I turned sixteen, demonstrated that you can operate a business providing teenagers with work experience and a paycheck while encouraging them to work hard. Our daughters were fortunate enough to have a similar experience in their early years. It was personal and not just business.

I’ve spent over fifty years in ministry and after a few years I determined my ministry was in the workplace. I was to serve the people I encountered in business and just in life for Jesus. I have been a friend, a listening ear, a confidant, and even a pastor to many even though I have never pastored a church.

I have performed weddings, funerals, and answered questions about anything they would ask. I have answered the tough questions. I think the hardest was, “If God created everything, who created God?” The answer, “He has always existed. That is what makes Him God.” His name is “I am that I am.” I knew this question was coming and did not know the answer until it was asked. In that moment, I just answered what came to my mind through Holy Spirit.

If you think the decisions that you make in your business life are not personal, let me ask you to put yourself in place of the one that is affected. If you were laid off, had your pay frozen, or refused a promotion, would you accept this as just being business? Decisions should affect everyone in the company, not just certain people or departments.  

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

Too aggressive

June 28, 2026

A few weeks ago, the north side of Springfield, Missouri, experienced one of those 100-year hailstorms we hear of from time to time. Almost every home and business within a three-mile-and-then-some range has hail damage to cars, buildings, and anything that was outside during those few minutes.

That is the introduction to this topic because everyone in the area is being inundated with unwanted salesmen and unauthorized inspections. I know you want and need business. Stop and think for a moment, and you will realize that there is such a thing as pushing business away.

When I was operations manager for a bearing and power transmission distributor, I had to take up the outside sales responsibilities for a time. My district manager made calls with me one day and did not feel that I was aggressive enough for him. I think that was when he decided that I would never be the branch manager.

Shortly after that, our location had its best month in years, and when I received that report, he told me he had rehired a man who had deserted us, and he would be my new boss. That was when I made my decision to leave that company and informed my vice president.

I left there a few years later and returned to purchasing. This had me on the opposite side of the sales process. I made it a policy to avoid working with companies whose sales personnel practiced hard sell tactics. At each new position, my previous company was a supplier. Some pushed harder than I liked, and their portion of my business was reduced.

As I was growing up, one of the men at church was a car salesman. As a young man, I went with another friend to talk to him about a new vehicle. I was surprised that he was as kind and polite at the dealership as he was at church. I thought that I could do that myself when I was given a chance at sales.

He is the example that I chose to follow. I was trained by more than one company to be a hard sale salesperson, and I chose not to follow that instruction. I did not stay in sales for very long with those companies. I want to be the type of person that I want to deal with, not the people that I walk away from.

Aggression is not only used in sales. Managers often use tactics that make workers fear and despise them. Again, I chose not to be that type of leader in the businesses where I had authority over others. I was not perfect in all my management responsibilities everywhere I worked, but I tried. My recommendation to you is to attempt to curb aggressive behavior in all situations. I believe life will be better for you.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

We don’t want it

June 27, 2026

I just heard another commercial that bothers me. Have you heard about the companies that don’t want your money for what they are selling for a certain period? Most of these offers are for delayed interest payments.

Cindy and I enjoy these offers of no interest payments until a future date. What you may not know is that many of these contract’s state that the interest is only waved if you pay off the debt before the specified date. We use this to our advantage.

We accept the free interest period and divide out the total cost of our purchase, so it is paid off before interest is accrued. This is an easy way to establish credit when you have had problems or are new to being a responsible adult.

Sometimes these offers include a credit card that you can continue to use. Do not fall victim to this trap. The issue with credit cards is that they do not expire like individual loans. After the limited date offer expires, you may only have 30 days to clear your account to prevent being charged interest.

This is the concept of getting you to take out a charge card at stores. Our first Discover card was issued to us when we made a purchase at the Battlefield Mall Sears store. Recently we were given a Home Depot card on a similar type of deal.

We had a plan to clear up this cost within the allotted months. No, it and the Lowe’s card are in the lock box and kept until this type of offer comes again for another purchase. Stop and think for just a minute before you pay cash that is in savings when this type of offer is available.

If something happens and you need to use those savings for purchases that do not have this kind of deal, they will still be available. Being an adult is great isn’t it. The commercials I was talking about at the beginning of this column are from vendors that act like they are benevolent.

Everyone must earn a living whether you sell products or services like producing advertising commercials. We do have a capitalistic economy and buying and selling things is a legitimate way of making a living.

They are just marketing, but not as good at it as those companies that tell you openly that you will pay more if you do not pay it off entirely by the end of the offer. This is simply their tactic of choice. Honesty is the best policy. I’ve lived my life by this motto and I still endorse it.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

You must act now

June 26, 2026

On the news last night, the representative from the Better Business Bureau told us that scammers push you to act quickly. This morning, a commercial said the above phrase. There is a relationship between these two concepts. One of my first positions was as marketing director for a small company.

As I have done throughout my career, I read everything I could about my job. We used mailings, including catalogs, to encourage customers to call us. This was in the early days of the eight hundred numbers. We used one, and our owner thought we ought to have the operators offer buy-now deals to callers.

One chance to get a special price, and then the cost went up. I thought this tactic cost us more sales than it gained. Years later, as a sales service specialist, I advocated keeping prices the same until our vendors raised theirs. I believe you lose credibility when you pressure someone to make an immediate decision.

I know how to interpret sales at retailers. Some businesses begin each season with thirty to fifty percent off seasonal prices. At the end of each season, these same stores clearance these products at up to ninety percent off the original retail price.

My experience tells me that this is probably their cost of the merchandise. I say this because most companies would rather sell at cost than donate overstocked items for tax write-offs. Another thing I notice that most shoppers do not is that many businesses have private label items that compete with name brands.

Think about a few other things when you buy these store brands. Someone must manufacture them. It may be different companies, or it can be the same product that is sold by the original brand name with a different label. I’ve been to plants where I saw products with many labels in the warehouses.

My wife worked at a dairy many years ago, and this was the only brand of milk we would buy, even before she started there. She learned that they packaged another brand that came from the same tanks, and the only difference was the brand and the price. We still buy that lower-priced product when we can. Some of the plants I called on told me that there were differences in their product line and the store brands that they manufactured. The only way to determine this is to try the cheaper products and decide if they are as good.

Another fact I have noticed is that some retailers will suspend selling name brands to boost the sales of their own brand. Others simply refuse to sell higher-priced brands and stock only bargain-priced merchandise. We’ve noticed over the years that buying these cheap products can cause problems.

Certain brands of appliances and electronics in the big box stores are all made at overseas plants, and none of these products last as long as domestically made goods. When I was a kid, you did not want a Japanese-made radio, and many Chinese-made products are well known to have more frequent recalls than goods from other countries.

A Latin saying, “Caveat Emptor,” that you should know. The English translation is, “Let the buyer beware.” Become a perceptive consumer and learn as much as you can about how and why things are priced the way they are. It is a good idea to remember that we have a free market economy. That means companies set the prices at what they want. Market demand affects pricing, and we should always look for a sale.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

We don’t want it

May 21, 2026

I just heard another commercial that bothers me. Have you heard about the companies that don’t want your money for what they are selling for a certain period? Most of these offers are for delayed interest payments.

Cindy and I enjoy these offers of no interest payments until a future date. What you may not know is that many of these contracts state that the interest is only waived if you pay off the debt before the specified date. We use this to our advantage.

We accept the free interest period and divide out the total cost of our purchase, so it is paid off before interest is accrued. This is an easy way to establish credit when you have had problems or are new to being a responsible adult.

Sometimes these offers include a credit card that you can continue to use. Do not fall victim to this trap. The issue with credit cards is that they do not expire like individual loans. After the limited date offer expires, you may only have 30 days to clear your account to prevent being charged interest.

This is the concept of getting you to take out a charge card at stores. Our first Discover card was issued to us when we made a purchase at the Battlefield Mall Sears store. Recently, we were given a Home Depot card on a similar type of deal.

We had a plan to clear up this cost within the allotted months. No, it and the Lowe’s card are in the lock box and kept until this type of offer comes again for another purchase. Stop and think for just a minute before you pay cash that is in savings when this type of offer is available.

If something happens and you need to use those savings for purchases that do not have this kind of deal, they will still be available. Being an adult is great, isn’t it. The commercials I was talking about at the beginning of this column are from vendors that act like they are benevolent.

Everyone must earn a living, whether you sell products or services or produce advertising like commercials. We do have a capitalistic economy, and buying and selling things is a legitimate way of making a living.

They are just good at marketing, but not as good as those companies that tell you openly that you will pay more if you do not pay it off entirely by the end of the offer. This is simply their tactic of choice. Honesty is the best policy. I’ve lived my life by this motto, and I still endorse it.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

Why the Sabbath?

May 19, 2026

Christians and Jews celebrate a Sabbath or a day of rest because God made it one of His commandments. Around Springfield, MO, there used to be a “Blue Law” that prohibited certain types of stores from being open on Sundays and products such as alcoholic beverages from being sold. Those laws have been removed from the books for many years.

Why would God tell us to take one day off every seven? According to Exodus and Leviticus, it is to be Holy or separate, and by Jewish law, no work was to be done. The Talmud (Jewish holy law) even specifies the number of steps a Jew could take before it became work and violated the Sabbath. Is there a reason for this?

Today, doctors tell us that we must get the proper amount of rest. They focus mostly on the number of hours of sleep each night. There has been research into the effects of not taking at least one day off each week. Some companies have found that a four-day work week works for them.

Paid time off or vacation time is often a benefit that your employer provides. Most of us work forty hours per week, and that should give us two or more days of downtime that we can use each week. If you do not use this time to rest, then your health may suffer.

There seems to be a trend among younger workers to spend more than forty hours a week on their occupation. I remember being on a salary and believing that I should work as much extra as was needed without additional compensation. I thought this would be appreciated by my bosses. This did not work out.

Because of that, I advise you not to put your life on hold for something that you might receive. I’ve had employers make promises that I had to fight for, or that never appeared. Let’s face it, the wealthy sometimes get that way by cheating and lying. I did not mention President Trump so that he has no recourse against me if some know he fits this description.

I worked my way up to five weeks’ vacation at one position before leaving them for a different job. I went to work there because I wanted to stay with a company that has room for growth. I stayed with them until they convinced me that they did not agree with me that I could continue to progress.

I’m not saying that money should be your focus in employment choices. Work-life balance is important, and the old saying is true: “All work and no play makes Chuck a dull boy.” Put your name in for mine on this quotation.

Modern research tells us that this balance, proper sleep and nutrition, as well as getting away from stress, is the reason not to work seven days a week. Even the Beatles knew that Eight Days a Week was not enough for the best things in life. It should not surprise us that Jehovah reminds us to give Him one day.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

Management

May 15, 2026

Some are leaders, and others are followers. We have heard this all our lives. If it is true. Which are you? That should depend on the situation you are in. At times, even the best leader should step back and allow others to take the reins.

Managers are leaders. The best allows others to lead when they show talents and abilities. I have often trained employees who eventually became department supervisors or managers. My management experience began with my first job while still in high school.

Does that seem unusual to you? I’ve gotten to know many leads, supervisors, and managers over the years who have started in the ranks and worked their way up in companies. You know that old saying, “The cream always rises to the top.”

The most important upper managers that you know of have most likely started at lower levels. What is the President of the United States? He is the chief executive. That means he is the top manager. He has lower management that works for him. Each Cabinet member also manages their staff as well.

Think about the people that you have voted for during the last few decades. Most of the candidates were governors, senators, and congressmen who began at lower levels of state government or even as assistants to others who worked in these offices.

The problems any business has can also crop up in government. Managers who try to bully their way through, around, or over employees seem to exist everywhere. I’ve noticed commercials on local TV for an attorney who is asking women to call her if their bosses are acting inappropriately

These are the worst cases of bad management, but there are a lot of poor managers out there in the business world. I would rather take some time to tell you what I learned from some of my best managers. Mr. Costello owned Dog N Suds on North Glenstone in the 1970s, and he taught me to treat everyone the way I wanted to be treated. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Tom hired me as a salesman and promoted me to a store manager in three months. He then recommended me to be the assistant livestock manager at the wholesale company owned by the man who owned the pet stores. He and the livestock manager, John, then recommended me for my first purchasing position.

Gary hired me as a buyer and made me his purchasing supervisor with the intention of my taking his position when he moved from purchasing to another spot in the company. I learned from some of the best, and I have trained some of the best. Accept help and pass it on.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger