How would your company look if you made an explicit decision to be guided in your strategy, your operations and your decision-making by a principle to improve lives rather than maximise profit? What if you decided what level of profit is necessary to achieve that goal, settled for that, and then used your P&L in […]
Protect & Build Better
Recession if you have a conscience AND run a business
“Do you think we’re about to go into recession? How’s that going to impact?” I’ve been getting asked this a lot by the owners and CEOs of companies I work and interact with. And honestly, if the professionals in the FT can’t consistently call it, I’m pretty confident I can’t. So I’d rather figure out […]
Switch your problem perspective to what you can learn
Mother nature ripped a hole in your strategy. Government flip flops hacked it bigger. Then the wonderful variety of individual human responses, alongside an uncertain but hoped for recovery made that hole a shape-shifter. What if we actively welcomed problems as a way to grow rather that fearing and avoiding them? What if we built […]
You can’t have it all. But you can have what’s important
I get somewhat fed up seeing and hearing advice about how you can “have it all”. Sure, at some level, usually a transactional one, you can go from either/or to both/and. But at a life level? At a company level? Or at a country level (the main reason I don’t envy politicians)? Not so much. […]
Give them a chance even though they might fail
I’ve often given young(ish!) people in my team positions of relatively large responsibility. Almost every time I’ve done it, they’ve succeeded. Almost. Every. Time. I’m not suggesting that the responsibility should be given lightly, or given to anyone who asks for it. You still need to choose carefully – both the person and the level […]