The character of a leader
I listened to the Rugby League game yesterday between the Broncos and the Raiders, an extraordinary game that the Broncos had won, almost lost, then won in a golden point "coin toss" For no particular reason, the term "character" came to mind while listening. It is...
Root causes of success
A basic discipline of Lean Thinking is the quest for the root cause of a problem, enabling a solution to treat the disease, not just the symptoms. The converse discipline, seeking the root cause of success so that it can be understood, articulated and used to build...
Business & Sustainability
Is there a win win here, does being sustainable environmentally mean a compromise to commercial sustainability, or is environmental sustainability a foundation of commercial sustainability? Increasingly the latter is becoming the more obvious answer. As the green...
Still think Social media is a fad???
Try this on U-tube, a recitation of stats that should leave no doubt that social media is mainstream, not a toy for the digital generation. OK, we all know you cannot believe everything you see on the web, so halve all the numbers, quarter them, and it still does not...
Hire for attitude, then educate
How do you find the right people to contribute to the growth and prosperity of an organisation? This task is generally recognised as a core management function, but so often a new hire makes little real difference beyond delivering more of the same, if you are lucky....
The thinking can be as important as doing
Consider, what the people on the production line are thinking about right now, finishing work, the fishing trip on the weekend, the necessity to get the car fixed and registered by next Monday, how can they pay that huge electricity bill, the game last night? Think...
Agenda management
Setting an agenda for a meeting is a crucial but easily dismissed management tool, although the capacity of the chairman to stick to it plays a role in how effective the meeting becomes. When setting an agenda, it is useful to consider the interaction of the thee...
Service innovation
Considering in a recent workshop the parameters of service innovation being delivered by the enterprise concerned, we boiled down the variables to just two. What is it that the customers is trying to achieve that using our product will deliver better than any...
Rip van i-Winkle
Just imagine Rip going to sleep in 1991. His world was made up of pyramid shaped organisations organised geographically, and most likely he worked for one person in the same location. Rip got his news in the paper the next day, so long as he paid for it, and the...
Strategy is making difficult choices.
Strategy is all about making choices about where available resources will be allocated, considering both the benefits and risks of alternatives in the context of opportunity cost. In this country we have reserves of natural gas tied up in seams below some of our...