Taking Management Seriously.......

90% of the problems I find when I work as a consultant with organisations can be traced back to poor management. So why do we not take management seriously?

Management is the only 'profession' that you get promoted into because you are good at something else and the only one where no preparation is apparently though necessary. Why?

By the way, it is not the individual managements fault, it is the 'system' that does not value management as a profession.

If we were serious about sorting out UK Plc then for me the one thing we could do which would have the biggest impact is to develop better managers in both the public and private sectors. It is not about banks or government policy where the solution lies, we are looking in the wrong place.

Successful Entrepreneurs

I have spent a few hours this week in the company of some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the Hull and East Riding region. What did I learn? The experience reminded me how high performing entrepreneurs are so different from ordinary managers, public sector people and bureaucrats.

Entrepreneurs have passion, energy, focus and commitment in spades. They get hold of an issue and just fix it by taking action, solving problems and having fun doing it!

So refreshing, it lifted my spirits..... Why the hell do I work with anybody other than these kind of people..... God only knows.......

The Myth of Innovation

Innovation is overrated. There I have said it......

Recent research by Harvard Business Review found that of 48 'innovations' 34 were copies of what previously existed. 98% of the value generated by the innovation is actually captured not by the innovators but by the copy cats.

So you heard it here first.......imitation is more valuable than innovation. So a practical tip is to ask who does this best?, find out and then copy it.

Creating Superior Opportunities

When working with clients I ask some questions which have helped unearth superior opportunities. The best opportunities are visible but not seen in my experience.

Here are the questions:

- What big problem is keeping customers awake at night?
- Is the problem widely recognised?
- Does it affect other industries?
- Are radical innovations required to tackle the problem?
- Can tackling the problem change industries economics?
- Will addressing the issue give us a fresh source of competitive advantage?
- Would tackling the problem create a superior opportunity for us?

10 Things to Do to Create a Great Business

How can a business move from good to great? Here are 10 things they need to do to achieve that accolade.

Firstly the top team need to get a shared strategy – where are we going and what are our priorities? Strategy is the start point for all great businesses. Part of this process is to develop a compelling vision which inspires customers and employees to want to be involved with the business. ‘If we were in 2015 and we were very successful what would we have accomplished’?

Great businesses require great leaders. Leaders set stretch goals that inspire people to go the extra mile and produce results beyond expectations. A recent major study of what people wanted from their leaders was honesty, inspiration and competence.

In order to create customers, great businesses focus on effective networking which has the highest correlation with successful business growth. How do great businesses actually create new customers from network contacts? They use the entrepreneurial approach to business development. Find a real customer problem, solve it and then sell the solution to everyone else. That’s it. Simple but incredibly powerful.

Once they have created customers, great businesses set out to delight them in order to keep them. The benefits of delighting customers are high levels of repeat business, new opportunities from referrals from delighted customers and a lowering of sensitivity to price.

Running a great business requires great people. How many of your people consistently produce results beyond your expectations? This is a critical business question. In the great businesses it would be many people at all levels in the business. Selection is a key business task.

Great businesses also control they key factors in their recipe for success. This might be product quality, delivery, service, personal relationships or cost. They know that what gets measured gets managed and they do not leave this to chance.

Finally, great business leaders invest in themselves. They are inquisitive, they want to learn how to do things better, they rarely get complacent or rest on their laurels. So when was the last time you read a business book, attended a training course or invested in a coach?

So there it is – 10 things to do to create a great business.

Body Language

65% of communication is via body language. Could somebody please tell the politicians.....

Brown's fake grin, eyes cast down = lying.
Cameron's eyes to camera, positive hand gestures = passion and self confidence. Clegg's eyes to camera, natural smile = honesty.

So watch their bodies not their lips.