Jun
14

Michael Treacy – Business Growth Through Innovation

‘The challenge for growth is not in the market place limitations it’s in the management team.’ Michael Treacy The Growth Problems Strategy Problem – where are the opportunities? Innovation Problem – generating new initiatives. Discipline Problem – creating self sustaining system of insights, actions and learning. Growth through Innovation Part 1 Summary of the “how… Continue reading »

Nov
04

Questions Managers Must Ask WHY BUSINESSES FAIL – 3

Poor sales performance is a major contributor to the demise of many. Obvious on the surface however, what’s the problem? Changes in the market place, technological advances, disruption of key relationships, over dependence on one customer or key product and poor sales planning are all major contributors to failure. Two critical planning issues are, quantity… Continue reading »

Oct
31

A Manager’s Questions WHY BUSINESSES FAIL – 2

A quote from credit reporting agency, “the reasons businesses fail don’t change much” and ‘we used to ask why the businesses failed, but we discontinued the surveys because the reasons were very stable’. They went on to say, “ninety percent of failures are the result of bad management and the other big reason is failure… Continue reading »

Aug
20

Management Success and the Value of Failure

I still remember making a mistake as a young supervisor that cost the company I worked for $3,500.00. Of course my immediate thoughts were that I would at best be chastised and at worst be sacked. My punishment was a little loss of face as what I had done became a training bulletin to discourage… Continue reading »

May
25

ANT ACTION IN LEADING & MANAGING, YESSIR WE CAN LEARN FROM ANTS part 4

The collective intelligence we looked at in part 3 is also found in other ants. Experiments with one group, ‘lepticthorax’, effectively demonstrate how one individual’s behavior can influence those around it. By including each individual in the decision making process they enable or cause the simple actions by one to generate more sophisticated actions by… Continue reading »

May
23

DO ANTS KNOW ABOUT LEADING & MANAGING? Part 3 ‘YESSIR’

“Collective intelligence”, how about that as a concept for getting things done… The legendary Army Ants gain their fearful reputation and devastating power because they are driven by an obsessional purpose combined with an extremely high level of determination and use what is known as their collective intelligence. The amazing thing is that this all… Continue reading »

May
21

ANTS CAN TEACH US A LOT ABOUT LEADING & MANAGING Part One

Who cares what ants do… I’m busy with crocodiles… (‘When you’re up to your backside in crocodiles its hard to focus on the fact that your original mission was to drain the swamp’) So what can we learn from ants? Ants have been around for about 100 million years and in their terms we are… Continue reading »

Jan
13

NINE STEPS FOR SETTING UP A LEARNING ORGANIZATION

With the recent economic troubles a learning organization is a must for a successful future. The following nine points are an adapted from an old however very good, must buy book – Mitch McCrimmon’s – ‘Unleash the Entrepreneur Within’ Remembering that the only way to improve is to learn and the only proof of learning… Continue reading »

Nov
25

Career Advice from Buffet and Gates

This CNBC video of a town hall meeting at Columbia University with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet is a valuable resource for all of us and particularly those looking for some sound career and business advice. Some of the assets we need as individuals seeking success: Gates: ‘continuing to learn from those that live the… Continue reading »

Oct
21

Sound Advice from Jack Welch

“The Economist” Magazine once described Jack Welch, the ex-boss of General Electric as… ‘the man who has some claim to being the world’s most successful manager of the past quarter century’. A few quotes I have collected over recent years may give us some insights into the issues we as managers need to consider; ‘the… Continue reading »

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