Business is the flow of energy
In a meeting yesterday I was explaining to the VP of Product Development of a $200 million locally headquarted business the underlying concept of the Quantum Leaders’ model of the 21st century business. And it dawned on me that I don’t often share the underlying precept – business is all about the flow of energy. [...]
Why do companies wait
Ever wonder why companies wait for a crisis to take action they should be taking all along. A headline in today’s NACD Directors Daily reads “Anheuser-Busch announces cost savings to boost value in face of InBev bid”. and goeas on to say “the New York Times /AP (6/28, C4, Andersen) reported that on Friday, Anheuser-Busch [...]
The Golden Rule – which one do you run your company with
We all know the Golden Rule from our childhood – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or love thy neighbor as thyself or any number of other variations. Then somewhere in our business life we learned another version of the Golden Rule that read – “He who has the Gold [...]
The Business Case as a Management Tool
Business cases & plans seem to have a bad reputation these days, particularly in the start-up/early-stage venues. Why is this the case? It appears that the aversion to business plans is the highly suspect nature of the financial business cases, particularly as they relate to sales revenue projections on the 2+ year horizon. Such skepticism [...]
The Challenge of Investing in People
Have you ever heard a board member, or perhaps even a CEO say, “The Company sure invests a lot in trainings, meetings, and “feel good” stuff, and I wonder if more of those resources and energy went into focus on results whether we would be better off?” When we ask the CEO to focus on [...]
Leadership: The Philosopher’s Stone of Innovation…? (Part 2)
The other end of the spectrum re strategic decision-making is where it is totally driven by the leadership of the company. This is very often the case with start-up, early-stage and founder-run, privately held firms. The potential advantages are somewhat obvious: strategy is driven by a focused vision, factors which may not be effectively quantifiable [...]
Leadership: The Philosopher’s Stone of Innovation…? (Part 1)
I had the opportunity to speak before the Association for Strategic Planning this week on the topic of Innovation – an inherently rather broad and deep subject, so my approach was one of surveying the various paradigms of innovation (creativity/ideation, invention, implementation, value-creation, etc.), and that all of these conceptual frameworks for understanding innovation are [...]
The Potential Trap of Innovation Metrics
“Be careful what you wish for measure … you just may get it.” As my library of books on Innovation grows, I am seeing two somewhat conflicting themes emerging in regards to the role of metrics in Innovation. One sees up-front metrics as a key determinant of establishing efficient distribution of a firm’s resources across [...]
Improving Your Company’s Velocity – Practice, Practice, Practice
Not only is it a way to get to Carnegie Hall, but focused, repeated practice of your firm’s best business processes is one of the ways to improve your overall velocity. In sports, it’s called establishing “muscle memory” by the repeated execution of a golf or tennis swing (for example), first working on the proper [...]
The Importance of Execution: IBM’s Innovation Man Commercial
Have you seen IBM’s “Innovation Man” commercial? I think it’s a real hoot and for those of you who haven’t seen it, I’ll try to capture it’s essence… Scene: Outside an office building, female business professional walking away from building towards an inbound middle-aged, rather paunchy guy in a superhero outfit with a large “I” [...]
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