Timelines and Deadlines: Customers and Investors Wait for No One
When it comes to getting things done, missing the timeline may mean a deadline missed—with an emphasis on the DEAD line of business or opportunity. At times, people mistake courtesy and diplomacy as a signal that it is okay to miss a deadline. I’m not advocating being...
Time Out for Innovation
One of the biggest mistakes businesses—or any organization today—make is a failure to allow time for working on the business itself. Current business practices have created a mindset that has every worker (theoretically at least) working every moment in the business...
Time Is a Constant – It Runs One Way
“We don’t have time to do it that way.” How many times have you heard that said or said it yourself? How about the alternative “If you don’t have time to do it right, when are you going to find the time to redo it right?” What is it going to cost you if you have to do...
The “X” and “Z” Factors
During one writing session using my tablet keyboard, I found myself without the letter "X" and the letter "Z". (I’ve used the keyboard so much over the past three plus years it has just worn out!) Now you wouldn't think those two letters would be hard to avoid. After...
The Business Cold: No Miracle Cures
In these days of sound bites and quick fixes, one-size-fits-most solutions seem to be as prevalent as the common cold and as hard to treat and cure. Most people probably have had the experience of someone from their organization reading a book or attending a...
Think B.I.G.™ (Bold Innovative Growth) Business!
Innovation is the new quality initiative. Everyone is “into” innovation. It is the new revolution that is going to revolutionize declining industries, markets, and businesses. And it can—if it is more than rhetoric and becomes an integrated systemic capability in the...
Product, Resources, and Customers – The Three-fold Objective
Every organization begins with the same three-fold objective: develop the “product”, obtain sufficient resources, and capture the market/customer. The manifestations of this three-fold mission vary in magnitude, scope, and timing. The underlying processes and...
The Way We’ve Always Done It
Have you ever driven home or to work only to arrive and not remember how you got there? You recall getting in your vehicle and starting the engine, but after that—nothing. You did what you’ve always done to get from point A to point B, but you did it on automatic...
The Variability of Weather and Women: It’s All About Perspective
The other day, one of my international clients commented that the weather in his city (and country) was like a woman. Then, he stopped with a dramatic pause (perhaps realizing we had just met and his comment might not be appreciated in the spirit meant), and I began...
The Tyranny of Customer Choice
A truism for any organization is that its customers have choices. They can chose from a range of products, services, and alternatives to satisfy their needs, from doing nothing to “do it yourself,” to doing it the most expensive way possible to finding a cheap...