Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

If your growth has stalled, encouraging innovation on the front line will make all the difference. This past week, our team was working with members of a family-owned manufacturing business who had watched their product sales shrink over the past 10 years. Highly motivated to keep sales up as their core profitable products started to lose traction, they took whatever work they could find.

Commonalities may be comfortable, but they also create blind spots. You want lieutenants who provoke feuds and dissent

Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, on how she came up with the idea for footless pantyhose.

Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, explains the steps she took to land her girdles on Oprah and, ultimately, built the Spanx brand. View the video on Inc.com at: http://www.inc.com/sara-blakely/how-sara-blakely-got-spanx-on-oprah.html Advertisement: Are your best customers still out there?

Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, talks about how she picked her team members, handled public relations, and avoided paying for advertising. View the video on Inc.com at: http://www.inc.com/sara-blakely/how-sara-blakely-grew-spanx.html Advertisement: Are your best customers still out there?

The founder of Spanx talks about how she avoided discouragement before she launched by keeping her idea to herself, and developing it for a year, before she mentioned it to friends or family. View the video on Inc.com at: http://www.inc.com/sara-blakely/how-sara-blakely-differentiated-her-business-idea-for-spanx.html Advertisement: Are your best customers still out there?

The Inc. 5000 company bought Roost to help make it easier for small businesses to engage in social media marketing.

Entrepreneur advisor Melinda Emerson explains her six steps to end small-business failure.

Mallika Chopra describes how her father's well-being techniques served her, especially as she launched her own company, Intent, a social network. View the video on Inc.com at: http://www.inc.com/video/201112/deepak-chopras-daughter-mallika-on-work-life-balance.html Advertisement: Are your best customers still out there?

My hometown lies on a sandbar, squarely in the floodplain of the Upper Mississippi River. Winona (Minnesota) benefited from its position along the river, rapidly growing to wealth as a steamboat port and lumber town. The second railroad bridge across the Mississippi was built there, and in 1900, Winona had more millionaires per capita than any other town in the country.