Articles, blog posts, white papers, and insights from the team at Pepper Foster

Three Reasons Why Pay Transparency is Gaining Traction, and How to Set Your Business Up For Success.

Transforming to a Sustainable Business Model

Explore ways to reduce waste and expand the range of business outcomes available through iterative and incremental investment cycles.

Here are 7 reasons why you should work at Pepper Foster Consulting.

Will 2022 be a 5-star year? Pepper Foster's founder and CEO takes a brief look back at 2021 and looks forward to 2022

As we adjust our realities to accommodate the next phase of the pandemic, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at the questions we posed last year to help make your organization more sustainable, and see how things have changed over the past year. The topics we addressed last year, which included remote work, protecting employees from economic uncertainty, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, supply chain disruption, and business travel have all evolved in the past year. Here are a few observations on these topics through the lens of sustainability to consider impacts to people, profits and the planet.

Part Three of the three-part Inc. article series on the timing and impact of humanoid professional and personal service robots

Part Two of the three-part Inc. article series on the timing and impact of humanoid professional and personal service robots

Part One of the three-part Inc. article series on the timing and impact of humanoid professional and personal service robots

As we look at October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we discussed openly how it has touched so many of us at Pepper Foster Consulting. As such, we asked our employees who would be willing to share their personal reflections and experiences with Breast Cancer. It is our intent to share the voice of a few of our employees. This is not an eloquent article on cancer, but the real, human side of dealing with it as a survivor or as someone impacted by a loved one. It is our hope that in sharing our reflections, we will inspire you to conduct breast self-exams (women and men), get tested, learn more, and be present and loving to those on this journey.

At Pepper Foster, a consulting firm with under 40 employees, we recognize the importance of culture and community and strive for continuous improvement in these areas within our organization. We chose to evaluate their impact through three lenses: 1) the changing role of leadership, 2) communication within the company, and 3) the varied opportunities for connection with coworkers. When stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19 started, our company had to pivot to enable new methods of engagement between employees. As a result, the internal culture of our company has been altered in unfamiliar ways. To assess the impact that working from home has had on our culture and community, we have had multiple touchpoints with our employees, through surveys and 1:1 meetings, to gather feedback.

The world has changed drastically in the last several months. Routine events like going to work in an office or boarding an airplane are now considered risky. Businesses that used to be profitable are having trouble keeping the lights on. While this disruptive business environment may be challenging for your company, it can also be the perfect opportunity to think about what you want your company to look like in the future. Focusing on the Triple Bottom Line of People, Planet, and Profit (1), are there ways you can make your operations sustainable and your business more resilient? Here are seven questions designed to spark your thinking by focusing on benefits to people, the planet, and of course - profits.

For the last couple of months most businesses have been rightly focused on surviving the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic but now it’s time to go beyond survival. For businesses to not only survive, but also revive, drive, and thrive in the post-COVID world, they need to take action and make changes in a number of key areas. Here are seven questions to help businesses get ready for the next phases of this pandemic:

Planning and executing change in times of uncertainty is incredibly difficult. Not only can assumptions be incorrect and subject to change, organizations need to be ready to pivot and move at a moment's notice based on changes in the market and environment. In short, all organizations need to think and act like start-ups.

Get ready for the recovery now so you can lead in the future Even though everything is in turmoil right now, the one thing that’s certain about the COVID-19 pandemic is that it will end. When it does, there will be a recovery but it will be a recovery in a very different world and environment than before.

At Pepper Foster Consulting, we believe that transparency with clients and employees is essential to building relationships that are based on trust and mutual respect. And, that a shared understanding of the pressures and realities we are all working under, is key to building mutually beneficial relationships. This white paper explains how the financials of consulting work, the impact of those financials on the different consulting models operating in the U.S. market today, and how those models drive culture and client service. It also helps readers estimate how much they should be paying for consulting services, and how much they should be getting paid as a consultant. And finally it explains the model, tenets, culture and value proposition of Pepper Foster Consulting.

Historically, business has been focused on making money. But that is about to change. A new generation of employees and leaders are making their mark on corporate America, and they have a very different vision: They believe companies should focus less on products and profits and more on people and purpose. This philosophical change will bring about a massive shift in the role of business in society. This presentation explains why this change is happening, and how those changes will impact people’s lives, careers, and possibly the world.