Jan 3, 2010 | Leadership, Management, Strategy
Is it just a date, or does it signify a new beginning?
A bit of both I suspect, and forecasting the future should be left to the ladies in tents at the circus, but a couple of things we know for sure:
Firstly, the infrastructure of the world economy will undergo a profound change over the next decade as carbon management emerges as the dominating political and economic factor after the turmoil in the Middle East, and the potential that has to blow up in our collective faces. How we manage it over the next decade will impact for generations, hopefully we can avoid the short-sighted, narrow, self interested and belligerent posture that created the middle east imbroglio in the equivalent decade a century ago.
Secondly, the world is now connected, the technical advances of the last decade will throw up huge opportunities to address the challenges and inequities we face globally, but will put many impediments in the way.
Are you ready for the ride?
Dec 30, 2009 | Leadership, Marketing, Uncategorized
Business is basically simple, it is people that generate the complications and distractions, and us that allow the distractions that make it complicated.
The simple rule: spend less than you have coming in, and work like hell to bring it in.
Now the economic sun appears to be coming up again ion Australia, don’t relax, don’t listen to the hustlers who promise the world without a hope of delivering, listen to your loyal customers, understand their needs, service the daylights out of them, look for ways to do everything you do better, and have a great 2010.
Dec 22, 2009 | Change, Leadership
It is pretty obvious that the big party in Copenhagen finished like most big parties where there are lots of strangers with different agendas, in an unsatisfactory way for all.
The nonsense of the Rudbott and his sidekick trying to ram through Parliament a unilateral ETS prior to the meeting was confirmed, the concern is that they will continue to try and ram it through, allowing their egos to completely mask the real issues and opportunities.
It is also clear that the globe is rapidly warming, that warming has a lot to do with the impact of humans over the last 150 years, and if we do not do something, we will all be deeply in the poo, or at least our children and grandchildren will be.
Instead of insisting on a new tax on emissions, our leaders should be focusing on the demand side, putting their efforts and largess where it will motivate behavior change for positive reasons, rather than just taxing current behavior and hoping the tax will be effective in reducing emissions. I know the economists will tell you if you tax something, you get less of it, that is true, but it comes at the price of gross market distortion. How much better to enable the reward of desirable behavior?
There are numerous reasons organisations should set about reducing their emissions, and re-order their priorities to be more “green” but it has nothing to do with global platitudes and ego, and everything to do with self interest. Here are just a few:
- Reduce current costs, and as they continue to inevitably escalate, reduce future costs
- Do what a significant percentage of your customer base wants you to do, makes some sense to listen to customers.
- Use the need to make changes as a catalyst for stakeholders, particularly employee, engagement in the values and strategies of the organisation, which will lead to process improvement and innovation opportunities. Recent commercial history suggests that the many of the top companies in 20 years are not yet out of the garage, if they are even formed, the opportunities for innovative solutions to the technical and business model challenges we face today are enormous, just hard to quantify because they have not happened yet, so don’t let the nay-sayers get in the way.
- Attract the “right” type of employee, those who are willing and able to contribute at a greater rate than just somebody with a pulse who can do the job. These “right” employees will be attracted to organizations that are on the front foot with this stuff. Whilst the competition for talent is off many agendas currently, the real competitive edge of any organsiation is tied up in the heads of its employees and service providers, so you need the best to stay ahead, may as well use the “crisis” to attract and keep them.
- Mitigate risk, what if the dire predictions are right, you are far better off having made some changes, and having perhaps a few of them not pay off, than do nothing, and cop the lot in one hit. It is just insurance by another name.
Dec 21, 2009 | Innovation, Leadership
Innovation is about changing the status quo, doing something differently, going against the herd. You can make your intentions obvious by yelling about it, which is not often successful, or you can start changing the perspective of others by a process of intelligent debate, presentation of facts in a different light, or the gathering and demonstration of the relevance of new facts.
Trick to this second route is that you need to be the best informed person in the room, and that takes time, commitment, and a willingness to be “out there” before you get anywhere.
Dec 17, 2009 | Demand chains, Leadership
Turning a supply chain 180 degrees to become a demand chain is an inordinately difficult organizational challenge, not because it does not make sense, but because it requires organizations and the people in them to be able to see what has always been there, but from an entirely new perspective. The power of the common view, the accepted wisdom, the status quo is never more powerful than when it is under threat.
Seeing what has always been there with new eyes is extraordinarily hard to achieve in a single business, reversing a supply chain to become a demand chain requires that it is done for a series of businesses, all pre-occupied with their own challenges.
This is why if you can do it, the pay-off from the competitive advantage that will come is immense.
Dec 3, 2009 | Leadership, Personal Rant
Here I am in a regional NSW town, now a bit late at night, engaged by a client to assist in the strategic development of their business, and after a very long day, lifting my head to discover the premier of the state has changed, again. This follows yesterday, when there was a meltdown at federal level with the other lot.
My client is a manufacturer, they employ people, train them, make stuff, and contribute to their community, whilst dealing with the crap imposed by a series of governments trying to be relevant to voters, whilst satisfying demands of their various looney back room brokers.
On another TV channel to the press conference o f the new NSW premier, (what is her name, what has she done to demonstrate she can run a multi billion dollar business like NSW) is an old concert by Stevie Nix. Loved her as contributor to Fleetwood Mac’s best days, but she has passed her best, even when warbling some of the old classics.
Point is, I would rather have a broken down old pop singer in the background than the new premier of the state where I live, and need to make my living working with businesses that produce stuff.
Will the state be better off tomorrow with the fourth premier in four years, will the trains run on time, the emergency wards save lives, will the teachers in the schools feel they have an important task ahead of them for which they will be recognised? I think not.
Aristotle may have been right, but what did we do to deserve this shallow bunch of sycophantic twits, bleeding us dry whilst assuring it is all for our own good.
A pox on both their houses.
