Leaders – born, made and otherwise
I was stuck in Frankfurt Airport with a cup of coffee and a delayed flight to look forward to. I spend a lot of time in airports waiting on delayed flights with the obligatory coffee in hand, but I digress. It’s at times like these, when the mind has time to wander, that I do […]
Belted Bullshido
I was once asked what my ‘highest level of Lean 6 Sigma Belt’ was. Technically, by the many and vague measures that currently exist, I’m a Master Black Belt, however, as I penned my usual barbed response to Bullshido requests, I was reminded of a true story at a client. You’ll remember my ’70s introduction […]
Goal setting – dreams, wishes and being SMART.
Goals. We all have them. Personal goals, business goals, life goals, career goals, whatever. Unless you are the Scotland football team, goals are our bread and butter. We all have an idea of what a goal is. We all have ideas around how goals are set and agreed. Indeed, there are many recognised methods for […]
Fad Wars, Fad Shaming and ‘keeping it basic’.
There has been a lot of talk on various platforms on the topics of Fads and their proliferation in the world of business improvement, self-development, and almost every field of human interaction. I myself was introduced to the concept of fads in 1973, and again in 1977. In 1973 I was just a nine-year-old kid, […]
Standards and Discipline
The Japanese instilled a really strong mindset in me that that centres around two things: Standards and Discipline. In a ‘similar, but different’ way, the military refer to them as ‘skills and drills’; the drills are the standards, and the skills are the competencies and disciplines to get them done fast and effectively. Let’s look […]
A digital prescription for the pharma industry
Supported by a robust sales force and tight cost controls, Pharm Ltd. experienced sustained double-digit growth over a number of years, only to find that their supply chain struggled to keep pace.
Within the construction industry as their overdraft
Many businesses, large and small, have a huge source of great ideas that can help them improve, innovate, and grow, and yet so many of these companies never think of using this amazing corporate asset. What is this highly valuable asset? Its own people.
Strategic and commercial approach with issues
Says Morgan Fraud, the author of The Thinking Corporation, “Given that we are all capable of contributing new ideas, the question becomes how do you successfully generate, capture, process and implement ideas?” Becoming an organization capable of answering this question can benefit in a number of ways
Seven weeks working ‘pro bono’ with a charity
Growth through innovation/creativity. Rather than be constrained by ideas for new products, services and new markets coming from just a few people, a Thinking Corporation can tap into the employees.
Retail banks wake up to digital lending this year
The effort vastly improved the company’s planning and execution functions, created and implemented a new stock policy that accounted for specific SKUs and key variables, streamlined the order preparation process and reduced distribution transport times.