Conscious & unconscious stages of learning
A Practical Tool for Navigating Growth & Change Running a business means you’re constantly learning, whether it’s adopting AI, new tech, navigating compliance, or developing your leadership team, you (and your team) are going to have to master new skills on the fly, whilst at the same time keeping the wheels turning. This is where […]
Company values – what is their importance?
In a number of previous blogs, we have looked at various companies and their purpose, mission and vision several different times and from different angles. With these in place, an associated task is to think about defining your company values. Values statements serve as a framework to guide the daily actions and decisions; they represent […]
Drive the learning
Drive the Learning: The Final Step in Sustainable Improvement In the previous four blogs, we have explored the foundational elements of effective organisational transformation: Articulate intent, Know the flow, Master the measures, and Engage the people. Each step builds upon the last, creating a coherent system of improvement rooted in clarity, systems thinking, and human […]
5 Steps to Business Planning
Well, it’s that time of year again, the Christmas songs are out and I’m already out of Whamageddon, having heard that damn song “Last Christmas” on the very first day of December! All far too early for me! In the words of another famous singer, Mr Lennon, “Another year over and what have we done?” […]
Mission, vision, values… what’s the purpose?
Many organisations publish their mission, vision and values statements but what is the purpose? The question above is actually two questions: The obvious one of “what is the purpose of a mission, vision and values statements?” The second is perhaps more interesting: What is the “purpose” of an organisation and how does this differ from […]
SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis is probably the archetypal marketing or business planning tool, the origins for which seem have been lost in the mists of time. Some credit an American business thinker, a guy called Albert Humphrey, who worked at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) for its invention. However, whilst he developed other tools, […]
Porter analysis
When to use it Porter’s Five Forces Model is another well-known, top-level, battle-hardened, often deployed tool for analysing the external competitive environment a business faces, but whereas PESTEL works at the macro-environmental level (looking at the issues beyond the control of the company), Porter works at a level below that, where, very significantly, given the […]
PESTEL Analysis
PESTEL analysis is probably one of the most well-known, top-level, battle-hardened and frequently deployed business planning tools – a great tool! PESTEL being an acronym for Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Environmental and Legislation. When we first came across the tool (some 30 years ago) it was simply PEST analysis: the EL has been added along […]
The chain reaction
My management hero is a fella called Dr W. Edwards Deming and he developed his “chain reaction” model to explain how improving the way in which an organisation works, and how improving their products and services are delivered, can have a very positive impact on efficiency, effectiveness and productivity, which ultimately filters through to the […]