This was very much the fashion in the 80s. It’s still a useful technique with a 21st Century twist. Enjoy the video.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Innovation
Let them eat cake
I contribute to discussions on LinkedIn. A recent discussion asked for opinions on the best strategy to develop engaged staff. Opinions poured in on successful practices so I thought I would add mine. My management style is one of pointing the way, not taking you blindfolded to the destination. I hope my words make you think and form your own questions rather than lay down a heavy tome of “facts”. I want to point you to learning. It’s a coaching style in the main. If I have learnt one thing, in my scientific research of people’s behaviour at work and 46 years of honing that knowledge, it is that what is obvious, is always more subtle and layered where people are concerned. I pitched into the discussion and described a successful action that helped to build the momentum of behaviour change and added to the excitement that something different was happening.
Continue readingWhat’s your Business Culture?
How do you operate? Slow and steady, taking a well planned step at a time? Or do you dive into the unknown and hope/expect/believe you can deal with whatever you catch? There are implication for both cultures.
Continue readingCompetition and Innovation
Any competitive enterprise is a race of some sort. You train to be better at the techniques you know. You seek out coaches who can help you achieve that new advantage. Occasionally, someone comes along with an innovation, like the Fosbury flop in 1968, that everyone rapidly copies. Just like athletes, your organization has to train and innovate, if it is going to be in the race, never mind win.
Continue readingOutsourcing
Outsourcing has become a highly emotive subject, joined through the media with the effects of redundancies and the flight of jobs to lower cost countries. Off shoring is a subset of Outsourcing: the process is sub-contracted to an organisation in another country. Outsourcing is a modern fashion. Henry Ford thought it wise to own or control the raw material supplies for his automobile plant. He owned iron ore mines, glassworks, a merchant fleet, a railroad, blast furnaces and an electrical power plant to ensure he could control everything needed to produce that black Ford automobile. Not many companies have achieved that height of vertical integration. Today auto plants are assemblers of sub-contracted parts.
Continue readingNew Ideas
I was trained to think that a good Engineer could do for £1 what any fool could do for £5. The lower the cost, the less energy and resources are used to create the item. The mindset of continually reducing waste, improving performance, and increasing value is very powerful. If you look at the business scene in the UK, you will find great examples of success in continuous innovation. But how do they do it? It is a simple process. You get a new idea and see if you can use it to good effect. It is that simple.
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