Apr 24, 2010 | Innovation, Uncategorized
Another of the management paradoxes littered through this blog , and this one is counter to almost everything I have ever written.
In the context of true innovation, listening to customers exclusively leads you to adjusting, improving, repackaging what you currently have.
Real innovation is about inventing the future, and you cannot do it just by playing with the present.
The following challenge is if you are smart enough to invent the future you also have to be smart enough to recognize it when you see it.
Kodak did not see digital photography, but they invented it, IBM struggled to see that the PC would take over from big box computing, Microsoft did not see the web, until it had almost passed them, but Steve Jobs did see touch as the replacement for the mouse, which he originally saw as the devise to democratize personal computers.
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 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
Christmas is a great opportunity to contact people you have not had a reason to contact for a while.
Old friends, former colleagues, former clients, those who share an experience or passion and people you just like.
In this world of electronic communication, when you take the time, and make the effort to make that one to one human contact, it is always welcomed. Always.
We are so used to impersonal and mass communication that when one arrives that is personal, warm, and not asking for something other than a bit of your time to say Hi, we warm to it, and the person making it.
This is the human side of Christmas, what makes it worth while, irrespective of your beliefs.
Dec 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
It is Christmas day, so I wish the best for 2010 to the dedicated few and the black dog who dip into this blog on a regular basis.
I hope that what I write touches a nerve, brings a grimace, stirrs a laugh, or motivates some action. The worst outcome is that it gets no reaction at all.
2009 was an “interesting” year in the sense of the old Chinese proverb, hopefully 2010 will be a touch easier, but with difficulty comes opportunity for those who are able to see past the hubris of the status quo, and have the drive to be different, engaging, and daring.
Merry Christmas, and thanks for caring.
Allen Roberts
Sep 30, 2009 | Leadership, Management, Uncategorized
Right? Probably wrong 90% of the time.
Superficial logic says when there are lots of people looking for jobs, it should be easy to find one to do yours, this may be true, but is it the right person for the job???.
A colleague of mine is looking for drivers, there should be plenty around in a downturn, but there are very few to whom he chooses to give the keys of his very expensive trucks, carrying perishable loads. When he finds a good one, the price has not gone down, but his costs in finding him have gone way up, as the volume of unsuitable applicants that need to be culled has increased.
Good times or bad, the greatest challenge is finding the right employee, not the cost of the exercise.
Sep 14, 2009 | Uncategorized
Most people spend a lot of time polishing their CV’s, particularly whe they are on the lookout for an alternative role. However, how relevent is the paper CV in the age of the cyber-presence?
The first thing a prospective employer will do is google you, and hopefully the photos from “that” party 5 years ago have disappeared. The second thing they will do, if it is a position of some importance, will be to find someone who knows you, or has interacted with you, perhaps using Linked-in, or one of the other many networks that exist. Alternatively, if there is no record of you, anywhere, that is just as damming for a senior role carrying the responsability to articulate a position for your employer, or a point of view.
Your CV these days is a an ongoing project, something you have to work on continuously, not a once every 3 or 4 years “polish” to the written record of your activities.
By the time a prospective employer considers the paper CV seriously, the fix is in, “articulated” by your presence in the cyber mediums now available. Of course, fewer and fewer positions are now filled at senior levels by an ad, followed by a resume submission process. Now the head-hunters do the research and give you a call towards the end of the process, to determine your level of interest in a role you had not heard about.
