5 meanings of ‘Send me a proposal’
Send me a proposal is a phrase I hear from time to time, and most of my clients hear often. The challenge is to interpret what it really means. Possible meaning 1. You have their attention, your pitch has generated genuine interest, and it is likely that there...
Are SMART goals redundant?
Goal setting and the subsequent resource allocation decisions taken to address the goals are an integral part of every management job, no matter where on the organisational totem that job stands. Setting goals appropriate to the level at which they are being...
What is the most challenging goal you could set?
Simplicity. We live in an ever more complicated world, and our instinctive response to external complication leads to internal complication in order to be able to manage the external. Having 'Simplicity' as a driving goal, something to be strived for,...
An alternative view of ‘KPI”
We all understand the term 'KPI', Key Performance Indicator. It is always used as a term to describe internal performance metrics. Our customers employ us to deliver value, a solution to their problems, a means to deliver some sort of gratification. Yet, we use...
How to avoid being misled: Measure the drivers, before results.
The old cliché that you get what you measure, is right. You want more of something, make it a KPI, measure for it, and the chances you will get it are dramatically improved. The corollary is that you need to ensure that what it is that you are measuring is...
How do you delight a customer?
Delight the customer has become a cliché, popping up in all sorts of places from PR blurb, to websites, mission statements, and sales rev-ups. However, few seem to have any real idea of what it really means, can put a solid foundation under the fluff, to make it...
The often fatal flaw of the Family business
Family businesses have many advantages over publicly owned entities, largely around the pressures that apply to investment decisions. They can, and often are, made with timeframes that would be unacceptable to a publicly listed company. They also often contain the...
Who, and How, do we trust?
To me it is a paradox that we have never been so connected, and yet we have never been so polarised and isolated. With all the information we could possibly hope for, we as a society seem to avoid using it to make sensible rational decisions that will...
Do you need a Digital Strategy?
'Digital Transformation' and its sibling 'Digital Strategy' have become clichés, unfortunately, as it distorts the management and leadership challenges involved. However you choose to label the evolution from the analogue world of last century, to the...
3 words summarising the challenges of maximising productivity
‘Rhythm’, ‘Flow’ and ‘Balance’. These three simple words reflect the ideal state for a process, big or small, in any enterprise. That state where the process is optimised for both efficiency and productivity, which are very different beasts. I have seen highly...