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Announcing LTB 2017—September 6th @The Rockleigh!

Back by popular demand, the LTB SUMMIT is back for 2017; and this time with a whole new agenda and platform.

First started in 2013, the LTB SUMMIT was groundbreaking in its ambitious goals of bringing together Jewish business leaders for a day packed with an array of brilliant keynote speakers from around the country, content-driven agendas, interactive programs, and powerful networking opportunities.

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Preparing for the Relaxation Rush

Next week, Ptex Group will be closing its doors for a few short days as our hardworking team plans to celebrate the wonderful Jewish holiday of Pesach (Passover).

The benefits of taking a break are well-documented. The ability to catch our breath, to clear our minds. Revamp and re-energize.

What is often overlooked, however, is the importance of proper preparation prior to stepping away from the hustle and bustle of our business lives. Read more

Debate Debacles: How NOT To Talk To Your Clients

Amidst the helmeted hairdos, hyperbaric hyperbole and heated harangues, a presidential debate was apparently held this past week.

The Donald on the right. Madame Secretary on the left. And a collective nation of weary voters crammed smack in the middle.

News flash: The presidential debate was anything but presidential.

Pointed questions went pointedly unanswered. Vague claims and misleading statistics and snide references were haphazardly thrown around. And copious sniffles abounded.

This was not America’s finest moment – at least from a business perspective.

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Are You Prepared for Success?

As a marketing agency, Ptex Group invests a lot of time and talent into creating and positioning brands, and building out detailed campaigns.

But here’s the thing: Sometimes, once a company has launched a successful marketing or re-branding campaign, they find themselves without sufficient manpower to handle the sudden influx of incoming phone calls, inquiries, and leads.

And surprisingly enough, the success itself ends up resulting in a catastrophic waste of time and money – potentially causing the newly formed brand image to become severely tainted.

Something to think about, isn’t it? Read more

The Art of Delegating

Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, of Stanford University, accurately summed up the responsibility of a leader:

Your most important task as a leader is to teach people how to think and ask the right questions, so that the world doesn’t fall apart if you take a day off.

Perhaps no concept in business is more essential, and at the same time so colossally misunderstood, than delegation. Any rational person knows that they have strengths and limitations. It follows, that tasks should be divvied based on each employees abilities.

Yet for some reason, many business struggle to properly delegate—and the consequences are severe. Sloppy projects. Missed deadlines. Angry clients.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

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Kill the Manager!

Now before everyone gets up in arms, I’m certainly not advocating violence in any shape or form. But I do want to bring attention to a fundamental issue that, unfortunately, tends to get skated over a bit.

It’s no secret that company culture is a critical element to success in any business. It’s a huge reason for the success of companies such as Google, Zappos, and Southwest Airlines. Quality employees and valuable clients alike are attracted to a place with a vibrant, positive culture.

Great culture starts at the top. Those in executive and managerial positions have the power to set the tone for the workplace environment. It’s an enormous, far-reaching responsibility, because the environment they create will ultimately determine the quality of the employees and the business they attract. Guess that’s why they’re paid the big bucks.

There is a common denominator that all companies with great culture tend to share: they understand that there is a difference between managing and leading.

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You 2.0

You turn on your phone, and are greeted by a most familiar message.

An alert flashes across the screen giving you the option to update to the new and improved version of some app or software. Just a tap of the screen and presto! It’s better than ever.

This routine has become so commonplace in our mobile-centric lives. Today’s hyper-paced world has reached dizzying levels of speeds, and software developers are constantly rolling out new updates, security fixes, and improvements to their products in order to keep pace.

While there’s not much to do on our end, in reality there is a lot of work that goes into creating these updates. There is updated code to write, bugs to fix, development, testing, split testing, tweaking, consumer feedback, and more testing. It’s an ongoing, meticulous process.

Much like the phones that (unfortunately) control our lives, we, too, require periodic updates.

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