Category: Strategy
Wait your turn. No pushing in line. Yield to pedestrians. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.Certain timeless rules are better obeyed than broken. But in today’s topsy-turvy business world, many of the rules that informed and guided previous generations of business leaders no longer apply. If you’re not breaking rules on a regular basis, your customers and markets have probably already left you behind.Most business leaders intuitively know that they need to do things differently. But they struggle when it comes to determining which rules to hold onto and which rules to cast aside for newer ways of thinking.In working with clients around the world, I have found two areas in particular where throwing out the old rulebook is essential for keeping up with today’s frenetic rate of change. One involves the skills, attitudes and mindsets required to manage people and work processes. The other has … Continue reading
The topic of “Employee Engagement” is something that many CEOs tend to struggle with. Long gone are the days where the executive leadership of a company can remain sequestered in their offices with an internal focus on hard metrics. Given the current economic climate, it takes far more than cost-cutting to survive. It is the CEO who understands the need for focus on the soft metrics of customer centricity and employee engagement that will create sustainable growth in revenue and brand equity. In today’s post I’ll examine the need to have a fully engaged work force…Before you read any further, I want you to stop and ask yourself the following question: How many of your employees are truly passionate about your company, its values, its vision, its mission, and the role that they play within the organization? Don’t fool yourself… Conduct a harsh, critical analysis and come up with a … Continue reading
Some great conversations have sprung up around my previous articles on the rumored Apple Tablet (iSlate). In the past I focused on what innovation Apple’s potential tablet device might offer and whether or not Apple is likely to make the rumored first year sales projection of 10 million units.A recent comment from “Marketing Department” brought up the topic of subsidies and whether or not Apple might be on the verge of introducing another business model innovation. So, in this article we’ll dig a little deeper into that possibility.When Apple launched the iPod, they introduced the iTunes business model innovation which turned the music industry on ear, quickly followed by the television and movie industries. Then Apple launched the iPhone and introduced the App Store business model innovation and introduced a new way for people to purchase software that the competition quickly rushed to copy. Now, what could Apple create with … Continue reading
Top Left: January 2010 edition of Harvard Business Review, Top right: Michael G. Jacobidesby Kevin Roberts”The play’s the thing” may be from Hamlet but the subject is from Michael Jacobides, an associate professor of strategic and international management at the London Business School who appears in the new issue of Harvard Business Review with an article Strategy Tools for a Shifting Landscape.His starting point is the breathtaking speed at which customers and competitors transform – and the turbulence this creates. Traditional strategy frameworks aren’t working, he says – they simplify rather than taking account of complexity and changing boundaries; they produce “still pictures of the future.” Jacobides puts forward the playscript – a narrative in which “words are more powerful and flexible than value curves.” Playscripts “consider how a company could succeed by reinventing its role as reality changes.” His method involves characters and their roles, storylines and connections, links … Continue reading
You can hardly turn around these days without running into some sort of reference to innovation. Dozens of books about the topic line the shelves at Borders and Barnes & Noble, from “The Art of Innovation” to “The Myths of Innovation.” Innovation is rapidly becoming the latest business buzzword. But before you dump ‘innovation’ into the jargon dustbin along with ‘reengineering’, ‘rightsizing’ and ‘paradigm shift’, consider this: the need for innovation has never been greater than it is today.Doug Hall is founder and CEO of Eureka! Ranch, an organization that helps companies define, refine and improve their new ideas. In an interview with SmallBiz magazine, Hall defined innovation as that which: “moves companies and their offerings along a continuum from providing commodity products or services to having a monopoly that is extremely difficult to combat.”Hall’s definition is spot-on, and made even more significant by the fact that no company’s position … Continue reading
In my last blog, I talked about the importance of communicating your strategic planning framework to employees at all levels of the organization. And not just once, but over and over again so that people never lose sight of the goals. I also noted that most employees prefer to hear this information directly from their boss or manager. But face-to-face communication is not the only method for keeping people informed about where you are going and what you need to do to get there. Smart leaders use a variety of communication tools and methods to keep their most important messages top of mind with employees throughout the year.Start by setting up a system to remind managers to discuss the goals and strategic planning framework elements with employees on a regular basis. Provide tools and templates managers and team leaders can use in monthly team meetings and in one-on-one conversations. This … Continue reading
