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Consultant, leadership and corporate culture expert, principal with Corsum Consulting, and author of the empowering and company transformational book The Power of an Internal Franchise: How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners, Martin O'Neill, describes the leading edge of company cultural transformational concept of turning every employee into an internal franchisee. Marty O'Neill provides evidence of how when employees take personal ownership, and see the company's success as their own, engagement and productivity are increased dramatically. The internal franchise company has a strong and empowered culture where people act with the best interests of the organization in mind. Marty O'Neill ares three steps to put the internal franchise concept to work for your company.



Martin O'Neill is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.



The show airs live on Thursday, September 1, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.



Consultant, leadership and corporate culture expert, principal with Corsum Consulting, and author of the empowering and company transformational book The Power of an Internal Franchise: How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners, Martin O'Neill, describes the leading edge of company cultural transformational concept of turning every employee into an internal franchisee. You will learn:



* Why company cultures are so moribund today



* How an internal franchise empowers and engages employees



* How to put an internal franchise culture in place



* How to lead and reward an internal franchise company culture







Mertin O'Neill (photo left) has been an operator and consultant in the technology services and software industries for 25 years. He has started technology based services companies, led two IT Services firms through successful acquisitions and ran a business unit for a Fortune 50 company.



He was the Director of Maryland Operations for the Boeing Company’s Space and Intelligence Systems business unit. Marty joined Boeing while the COO for the acquisition target, Conquest, Inc.



Prior to this, he was CEO of Canal Bridge Consulting, a management consulting firm. Marty was also the President and CEO of CTX Corporation, an IT Service company in the Federal Intel market. He founded and was COO and Director of Rapid Systems Solutions, an IT services company. Marty started his career as a consultant with Booz, Allen and Hamilton and later moved to Oracle in a sales role.



Martin is now Principal with Corsum Consulting, a firm focused on building enterprise value for mid market companies. He has also served as the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Entrepreneur-in-Residence and currently teaches classes on Entrepreneurship.



Marty has been leading change his entire career. He is well known in the Washington/Baltimore market and has a proven record of building dynamic, growth oriented organizations. Marty's co-authored book, Act Like an Owner: Building an Ownership Culture, was lauded by Ken Blanchard as "a must read for the 21st century."



Marty O'Neill's new book, The Power of an Internal Franchise: How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners, was published in May 2011.



Marty lives on the Magothy River in Maryland with his wife, their three children, and their yellow lab Sunny.



My book review of The Power of an Internal Franchise: How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners by Martin O'Neill.



My book review of Building Business Value: How to Command a Premium Price for Your Midsized Company by Martin O'Neill.



Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.







If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.







To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832



Let's talk with consultant, leadership and corporate culture expert, principal with Corsum Consulting, and author of the empowering and company transformational book The Power of an Internal Franchise: How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners, Martin O'Neill, as he describes the leading edge of company cultural transformational concept of turning every employee into an internal franchisee. Marty O'Neill provides evidence of how when employees take personal ownership, and see the company's success as their own, engagement and productivity are increased dramatically. The internal franchise company has a strong and empowered culture where people act with the best interests of the organization in mind. Marty O'Neill ares three steps to put the internal franchise concept to work for your company on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: The Power of an Internal Franchise: How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners, Martin O'Neill, employee empowerment strategies, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

READ MORE - Martin O'Neill: The Power Of An Internal Franchise - Blog Business Success Radio

MacLaren McCann gave away buckets of dirt floss to promote GMC. Via.

READ MORE - Move over cotton candy, here's "dirt floss"

1. Walter Russell Mead:

The looming struggle over water is not difficult to foresee. As China and South Asian countries use more and more water in urban development and agriculture, available resources will be intensely protected. China controls the vast Tibetan plateau, where most of South Asia’s rivers originate. Not only does China appropriate upstream resources, but pollution flows downstream, making what water downstream nations have available increasingly unsuitable for consumption or agriculture.

2. New Resident Evil ARG site and the site it takes you to.



3. Graphic design in the movie Moon.



4. Offline Gmail. (The only Chrome app other than Angry Birds that I've installed. Are there others worth installing?)



5. The latest nick and dent sale at TFAW (lots of comics and toys).



6. Tenacious Toys has Kidrobot Azteca Series 2 Dunny blind boxes on sale.

READ MORE - Link roundup

Meet the EcoEnforcers:

Meet EcoKat, crusader of conservation and fanatic of fluorescents. She has embarked upon Kansas State University with one mission: Reduce, reuse and recycle.



EcoKat, played by a K-State student who auditioned for the role, is outfitted in a costume made of 90 percent repurposed materials. The department of apparel, textiles and interior design helped with the final look, making it an entirely sustainable project partnering many campus groups.



The EcoKat video idea was born from a serious call to action that morphed into a more humorous, tough-love take on environmentalism.



EcoKat is not affiliated with K-State athletics, but Willie the Wildcat was added as one-half of the EcoEnforcers to make the local campaign uniquely K-State.



Willie the Wildcat

You may recognize Willie as the faithful warrior on the sidelines of every K-State sporting event, but he's taking his talents even further. Joining EcoKat as an EcoEnforcer, Willie is working hard to keep his favorite place on earth beautiful and sustainable. When not perfecting his raise-the-roof techniques and sculpting his arm muscles, Willie enjoys recycling, hunting Jayhawk and watching Planet Earth.

READ MORE - EcoKat (the woman is EcoKat)

1. A Gizmodo writer went on two dates with a guy she met on OK Cupid and then wrote a post about how he was a loser for being a world class Magic The Gathering player and not mentioning it in his profile (or maybe she had a different motivation for going on the dates). He participated in an interesting q&a at Reddit. Also funny: Top Signs You’re on a Date With a Gizmodo Writer, including "refers to post-dinner plans as 'occurring after the jump'."



2. Hotel elevator with separate buttons for staff and guests.



3. How to report scraper sites to Google. Via.



4. Lime green couch wallpaper. Via.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. Cocktail umbrella design contest.



2. Skull face paint. (Part of a super hero-themed bodypaint gallery that's probably NSFW.)



3. Animated gif of a mosquito getting blown out of the air by a laser. Via.



4. FYI, I randomly chose these three of my Tumblr followers to receive Threadless credits. They should have received the credits.

READ MORE - Link roundup

Some of these are just creepy, but Stitch as Grievous is pretty irresistible. Via.



*Buy Disneyland Star Wars toys at eBay.

READ MORE - New and improved Disney x Star Wars figures

Illustrations by Kyle Norris and Robert Brandenburg for Gallery 1988's upcoming Garbage Pail Kid-themed show.









The New Mother and Nursery by Liz Mamont. Via.







Poster by Phineas Jones on sale here.







El Secreto wine label by Side Effects. Via.









Rocketo and pals by Frank Espinosa.



*Buy Garbage Pail Kids cards at eBay.

READ MORE - Illustration roundup

A few of Kevin Knight's excellent cosplay photos. He has a print of Darth Vader walking his "dog" on sale at Etsy.

READ MORE - Cosplay photos by Kevin Knight

The Power of an Internal Franchise



How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners



By: Martin O'Neill



Published: May 1, 2011

Format: Hardcover, 224 pages

ISBN-10: 0982056915

ISBN-13: 978-0982056912

Publisher: Third Bridge Press



















"When entrepreneurial spirit permeates every corner of an organization,the entrepreneur lurking in each of us awakens", writes leadership and company culture consultant, and principal of Corsum Consulting, Martin O'Neill in his empowering and company transformational book The Power of an Internal Franchise: How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners. The author describes how empowering employees to think like owners, where each employee feels they own a franchise within the company, builds a strong company culture where people make decisions that benefit the company in both the short and long term.



Martin O'Neill recognizes that restructuring, layoffs, and the economy have many employees feeling demoralized, and many business leaders at a loss as to how to rebuild employee enthusiasm. Even with a bright outlook in many industries, employees feel disconnected from their workplace, and are not engaged completely with their employer or the company's goal. It has become clear the older concepts of management are failing to achieve the results sought by the company's leadership. For Martin O'Neill, it's time for organizations to consider an entirely different approach to developing employee engagement and for creating a high performing and sustainable company culture.







Mertin O'Neill (photo left) recommends the empowering approach, of enabling every employee to feel the pride and sense of ownership of the company, through the internal franchise. The author points out that morale in many companies has declined, and with employees less engaged than ever before, it's critical for business leaders to consider an alternative approach to building a strong company culture. The very idea that employees can consider themselves owners of the business is a radical approach whose time has arrived in today's economy. Martin O'Neill reminds business leaders that people are what propel the company forward. If the organization's employees are engaged and empowered, they will drive the company to new heights of success.



To create the internal franchise model, Martin O'Neill provides three critical elements that business leaders must consider. Those three elements are as follows:



* Define your operating model

* Find employees who will learn, execute, teach, challenge and improve that model

* Build a culture of ownership



For me, the power of the book is how martin O'Neill not only presents the theoretical framework for the importance of the internal franchise, but provides a road map for putting the concept to work in any organization. The author provides the reasons why companies are not performing as well as they anticipate in their forecasts. Foremost in that assessment is the lack of engagement on the part of employees. A person who doesn't feel empowered, and even suspects that they will be laid off at any time, will not perform to their maximum ability level. While many systems exist for reinvigorating those less engaged employees, they all have the limitation of being manager-employee driven.



Martin O'Neill goes beyond the usual engagement concepts and introduces the more vital element of the feeling of ownership. When an employee feels like they are owners of the business, and that they will be rewarded accordingly, they become very high level performers. Their empowered ownership culture will far out perform a culture based on employee relationships alone. The value and self worth felt by an employee, who is also empowered as an owner, was once a standard way of looking at the world. martin O'Neill has revived and strengthened the concept of personal ownership, as a technique for rebuilding and growing companies, through empowered employees.



I highly recommend the revolutionary and idea filled book The Power of an Internal Franchise: How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners by Martin O'Neill, to any business leaders who are seeking a fresh and innovative approach to renewing their moribund company cultures. This book offers a guide to empowering employees and building a company culture where people are engaged and feel they are owners with a direct stake in the success of the company.



Read the innovative and company culture changing book book The Power of an Internal Franchise: How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners by Martin O'Neill, and discover the hidden engine of growth that already lives within your company in the form of the internal franchise. Through developing this empowering principle within your company, the potential for rapid and sustainable growth can become a reality.

Tags: The Power of an Internal Franchise: How Your Business Will Prosper When Employees Act Like Owners, Martin O'Neill, employee empowerment strategies, business book reviews.

READ MORE - The Power of an Internal Franchise by Martin O'Neill - Book review

"One of the Blade Runner Convention Reels featuring interviews with Ridley Scott, Syd Mead and Douglas Trumbull about making Blade Runner universe. This 16 mm featurette, made by M. K. Productions in 1982, is specifically designed to circulate through the country's various horror, fantasy and science fiction conventions." Via.



*Buy Blade Runner posters at eBay.

READ MORE - Blade Runner Convention Reel 1982

1. True Hoop: "Poor handwriting on a birth certificate changed Shane Battier's family name from 'Battle' to 'Battier' and they just went with it."



2. I didn't see the movie, so I don't know if I'd agree, but both reviews I read of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (produced and co-written by Guillermo del Toro) criticized the monster design.



3. From the introduction to a podcast: "Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk co-founded BioWare, the RPG-oriented group that now consists of five locations within Electronic Arts. They started out as doctors (actual practicing medical doctors, mind you), and BioWare was once a developer of games as well as medical software."



4. The upcoming Aliens game for the DS sounds terrific.

READ MORE - Link roundup

Austin Madison bet Scott Clark and Angus MacLane that the Thor movie would be better than the Captain America movie. He lost the bet and drew the above drawings for the winners.

READ MORE - Thor is a loser

These are the Citizen Skywatch propaganda posters I mentioned the other day from the XCOM ARG. You can download a high-res pdf of the first poster here.



*Buy propaganda posters at eBay.

READ MORE - Citizen Skywatch propaganda posters

Wingsuit flight - - make sure you wait until he grabs the balloons so you can appreciate his incredible speed. (The song is "Sail" by AWOLNATION). Via.



And speaking of parachutes:















Skydiving with fireworks at the Electric Daisy Carnival.



And speaking of glowing things:









Irradiated scarecrows by Luz Interruptus. See also: glowing body bags. Via these sites.

READ MORE - Wingsuits, glowing scarecrows, and more

Cool mech on mech action in the latest Hawken gameplay video.



*Previously: Hawken wallpaper.



*Buy Mechwarrior toys at eBay.

READ MORE - New Hawken gameplay video

Roger Hargreaves's son Adam shows how to draw Mr Men characters. Via.

READ MORE - How to draw Roger Hargreaves's Mr. Men characters

All City Breakers Mini Series:

Straight out of the South Bronx, Kidrobot’s first series of All City Breakers celebrates the best dance style born from 70’s hip-hop culture. Individually foil-wrapped and blind, each b-boy and b-girl’s punctuated move is captured perfectly in plastic – a stylized freeze. Injection-molded and inspired by the retro but classic green army men and their solid plastic bases, these breakers flaunt moves from Power to Flex in four neon colors: pink, green orange and blue. Each 2-inch art piece is paired with boombox to deliver the beat. No matter what your style, you’re gonna want to choreograph a collection of your own. Scheduled to release September 15 for $1.95/each (£1.70 UK; 7.90€ Europe).

READ MORE - Move over army men, here's plastic breakdancers from kidrobot