Beyond the Quarter

Business for humans

Bite Sized Business Tips

Quick reads for the values-led business leader about meeting our responsibilities to our team, customers, owners, communities and suppliers. We strongly believe that context is everything for high level leadership, so don't take these as dogma, but simply to stimulate thought.

What do you want to rebuild?

What do you want to rebuild?

We've been forced into an opportunity. Top of mind for every CEO is team, then cash flow. Maintain sales and payment, and control cost. Rightly so. No cash flow, no business. But unless you're planning to rebuild a business that just goes from hand to mouth, you also need to ...
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This time may be testing your values

This time may be testing your values

What does a values-led business do in the current climate? Well, it can do a lot actually. Reach out to clients to deepen relationships rather than transact. Explore how to provide stability for its workforce through times of volatility. Honour its suppliers where it can, or find ways to minimise ...
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Making commitments is easy. Delivering them, not so much.

Making commitments is easy. Delivering them, not so much.

A diversified portfolio is a really bad idea when it comes to strategic initiatives. A big part of my work is helping SMEs and scale-ups turn their vision, values and strategies into reality. How do we take a list of goals, or our grand vision, or what we say we ...
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Leaders grow fastest in service of something far bigger than themselves

Leaders grow fastest in service of something far bigger than themselves

My times of most significant growth at work always came when I was serving something bigger. Turning around a very dispirited team, the most obvious thing for me was to put myself in their service. And to do it in action, not just in words. It wasn't some grand sacrifice ...
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When is it enough?

When is it enough?

One of the truly beautiful consequences of building a company serving a purpose bigger than itself is that the enormity of the mission can free you from unhealthy personal or financial ambition. When you build with a deep rooted desire to make a difference, a dent in something you care ...
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Netflix and Blockbuster - the key lesson isn't the one that's in the lore

Netflix and Blockbuster – the key lesson isn’t the one that’s in the lore

Nearly a decade after the demise of Blockbuster, we still hear it often cited as an example of the failure to see or act on innovation. It's still bandied about as a lesson in how a dominant player can be disrupted out of existence. But that's not the real lesson ...
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I wish you a happy journey for 2020

I wish you a happy journey for 2020

The journey is everything. For the last 15 or so years of my life, I’ve been realising more and more that everything we do is just a journey, and that we never get to the destination. And that this is a good thing. In all areas of our lives, including ...
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Be kind in business, and not for the ROI

Be kind in business, and not for the ROI

Given the current vitriolic and disrespectful state of politics and citizenship in the UK and US, I am worried that we're in danger of losing kindness as a core value of life and relationships. So I just did a search for "kindness in business" on Google. And the results were ...
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