Most Executives and Managers today have not faced difficult market conditions. Those of us with a few grey hairs, remember and learnt what was needed through several economic crises. Some tips in this video though!
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Revenue Growth through Operations
Your Gross Margin is an essential statistic to live and breathe. Improving your margins is something everyone should do every day! Enjoy the video.
Continue readingRevenue Growth from Sales
One of the top business concerns this year is Revenue Growth. The difficult economic conditions of Brexit and the US-China tariff battles have been exacerbated by the Coronavirus sweeping China and infiltrating other countries. These conditions make people reluctant to spend, so your Sales people are telling you I have no doubt. Enjoy the video.
Continue readingHuman Resources or Human Relations?
The HR department has evolved rapidly over the last 50 years. Is this a valuable evolution or is the HR department doomed to die out?
Continue readingSoft Skills for Hard Results
“Soft skills” – just that name makes you think of pink and fluffy, everybody being happy clappy and nothing getting done! Reality couldn’t be further from that image. It takes high strength of character to talk to people and explain your decision that worked out badly, to apologise, to ask for the extra effort that the organisation needs. It is much easier to hide behind hierarchical status and fudge the issues. Unfortunately, performance is the casualty, along with the people’s mental health! Enjoy the video.
Continue readingEncouraging Innovation
I’m sure somebody rightly famous said “Innovate or Die”. It’s not a bad maxim, although the obsolescent part of the product Life Cycle curve can be a profitable strategy. Of course, the advantage of innovating is that you can expect a premium price while your competitors catch up. It can be a highly profitable strategy. But, like everything, you have to manage it properly. Enjoy the video.
Continue readingBrexit and the Frog
Brexit, are you fed up of hearing about this now? This seems to have been in the air forever! But, in reality, it hasn’t been a live issue for long. The Referendum was never expected to return a Leave vote, for obvious reasons. The Leave majority was a shock and galvanised businesses into action to consider trading conditions when we put a tariff barrier between us and our nearest neighbours. The sudden shock produced a reaction. Human beings are good at determining relative differences: warmer or colder, nearer or further, louder or quieter. Business could see what Brexit might mean! But what about the slow change, the slow decay of our productivity?
Continue readingThe Two Types of Change
We all know that change is hard to do. The best laid plans often crumble in the face of a lack of willingness, both overt and covert. How do we make change more likely to succeed?
Continue readingManaging Individuals
Do you manage Individuals or do you manage a cohort of Human Resources or Units of Labour? The problem with human beings is that they have feelings and a brain. They sense when they are cared about and when they are not. If you don’t manage your organization with your people in mind, they won’t work with your organization’s needs in mind either. The odds are that you haven’t experienced a team working, with their brains and good-will, releasing voluntary effort. If you had, you wouldn’t need to watch this video!
Continue readingManaging managers
You have seen me speak a lot about managing people. As you progress in your career you will find yourself managing managers. How you do this, how you do this well, is of even greater importance because your management of managers, also impacts on those managers direct reports. You may have heard the saying “rain” falls downhill, or something like that. But how do you get what you expect from your managers?
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