Does your organisation run like a well oiled machine or does it feel like you have square wheels? Enjoy the video.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Operational effectiveness
Managing in Turbulent Economic Times
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!
Continue readingRevenue 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 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 readingCybersecurity
Do you ensure your computer systems are protected? Do you spend money on firewalls and expertise to keep the data you store safe? This is a necessary expense these days, necessary but not sufficient. Watch the video.
Continue readingLack of Investment
Are you struggling to get investment in your business? Do Lenders not think the Risk/Reward ratio is satisfactory? Then do the other thing! Watch 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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