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...
Content marketing or Marketing content?
These two things are different, absolutely different. Content marketing means different things to different people. Last week I attended a presentation of a self-styled content marketing expert. He was pontificating from the stage about the value of content, and...
The cost of preventing errors
Prevention of waste is a core tenet of lean thinking, and has been systematically used to optimise processes of all types. However, it is not universally useful. Prevention of errors in an existing process is one thing, you have the process established, and can...
How to get really big, important stuff done, and win!
40 years of observing business and life, success and failure, has led me back to a conclusion that smarter people than me reached thousands of years ago, and winners in all sorts of fields keep using today. Follow the process. Achieving big goals is what we are all...
5 strategies to ensure your innovation ideation workshop delivers
People quite like the freedom of a workshop where there are no limits, where the objective is to generate as many ideas as possible. They then feel satisfied that they have done their bit for the innovation efforts of their employer. Nonsense. Unfocussed...
Please sir, can I buy another ‘Indulgence’?
These days, we indulge ourselves in an ice-cream after going to the gym, an extra piece of cake, a new dress when we do not really need it, but they make us feel good. A bit of harmless indulgence seems OK. Except when it is not. The word originated in the middle...
The curse of knowledge in marketing
Human beings are unconsciously subject to confirmation bias, and marketers are no different. We tend to see the things that conform what we already believe, and not see, or dismiss the things that go counter to those existing beliefs. This is a dangerous...