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.
Dec 2, 2009 | Leadership
The mess the liberal Party finds itself in is a sad reflection on their collective capacity to address the issues surrounding climate change in a sensible and reasoned manner, at least I think so.
It is pretty clear that humans collectively carry a heavy responsibility for the degradation of the planet, and that collectively we need to start to address it, equally it is true to acknowledge that Australians are the largest generators of CO2 per head when you take into account the emissions of our power stations, and of those around the world fired using our coal, but by ourselves we can do nothing, our size means we are simply irrelevant to the solution of the problems.
Changing the fundamental framework of our economy a few days before a major world conference on the issue appears to make no sense at all, and for the Liberals to dump as leader one of the few people in Parliament who actually knows how to run a business and make a dollar is the height of stupidity, but can we have both?
Like Turnbull, or hate him, it is undeniable that the drive and capacity he has used to build a personal fortune can only benefit the country when directed at our collective fortune. However, he would have signed up to the ETS before Copenhagen.
A conundrum, the leader we need if we are to raise the productivity of the economy, but doing something that defies logic, or one who is a one trick pony on the issue of the day, albeit in this case a crucial one, who has not got any commercial credentials.
Nov 30, 2009 | Innovation, Leadership, Marketing
The Victorian era threw up some extraordinary characters, amongst them Charles Dodgson, better known by his pseudonym, Lewis Carrol
Here was a man who is best known for a children’s story, one that has deep messages for adults together with the absorbing story for kids, but whose body of work includes hugely creative endeavors in mathematics and photography, as well as writing in all its forms.
Looking for something to use in a seminar on innovation a while ago, I stumbled across a wonderful quotation that encompasses the challenges many find when trying to build an innovation culture in their organisations, and it comes from one of Alice’s conversations with the cat.
“Can you tell me which way I ought to go from here” said Alice
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to” said the cat
” I don’t much care where” said Alice
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk” said the cat.
Seems to me to be a great explanation for the necessity of having a plan, with a worthwhile goal as the objective of a journey, and all innovation is after all, just a journey.
Nov 8, 2009 | Leadership, Management, Strategy
Various expressions of the basis for an organsations existence, Vision, Mission, Purpose, and others, all have different meanings, and certainly different meanings to different people, and have all been misused for years.
Some time ago running an agricultural industry workshop, very early in the proceedings, a bloke down the back piped up & said ” If I have to hear another vision, or mission, I will puke”(or words to that effect). Stopped the conversation cold for a bit, but the comment reflected the simple fact that these expressions have become clichés.
Having an unambiguous expression of why you are here, and the purpose of the business, gives a context to decisions all stake holders make about what they can expect, what is important and why, and what they have to learn, and do better, or more of. It provides a connection between all of the competing agendas and priorities with the simple question: “how will this assist to achieve the purpose of the business?”
Answering that apparently simple question ” why are we here” can be very difficult, but it is worth the effort.
Nov 5, 2009 | Demand chains, Leadership, Strategy
Suddenly, post GFC, transparency has become a buzz-word.
Regulators are calling for “transparency” in financial products, shareholders (and regulators supposedly on their behalf) are calling for “transparency” in executive remuneration schemes, and so on.
Those of us who have been building demand chains know that transparency is a fundamental building block, not because it is just a feel good, but because it reduces transaction costs, exposed arbitrage profits, and enables the needs of the end customer to be the driver in the chain.
From the noise coming from newly enthused regulators, you would think they have discovered something new, rather than just catching up with the practices of a small but growing part of the commercial community that has recognised the contribution transparency can make to their economic and competitive sustainability.
Nov 2, 2009 | Change, Innovation, Leadership, Marketing, Small business
We talk about vision, mission, and all the rest, but at a more fundamental level, evolving a point of view, shared throughout the firm, about the “shape” and trends of the industries we are in, and those of the industries we intersect with, is a really basic thing to do.
Having a point of view about the “green” economy enabled GE to start their “Ecomagination” program before climate change was on the general agenda, it enabled them to disrupt their own light bulb business with the compact flouro, and it drives their current efforts to rebuild their huge medical devices business by developing small, cheap, mobile devices that fulfill a more basic need in developing countries .
All this because Jeff Immelt developed a point of view, and drove it through the business as a catalyst for massive and disruptive innovation.
Have you developed a “point of view” about your industry, and the role your business will take? Few are as influential as GE, able to change the “shape” of their industries by their actions, but it is no less important for small firms to have a point of view, and a plan to deal with the “shaping” influences as they emerge.
