VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) is the new normal in global business. After decades of building finely wrought supply chains, it took just a few days of “Black Swan” events in the past year to break them apart. In fact, 2011 was a record-breaking … Read More →
Category Archives: Strategy
A Liberating Structure…
Do you have a strategy? And what are your chances of executing it? Is it based on penetrating insights and clear choices about direction, or is it endless analysis or superficial PowerPoint template-style presentations? Is there a rich dialogue taking advantage of the full spectrum … Read More →
Maps, Diagrams…. and Strategy
The London Underground Map has long been an example of fantastic graphic design and cartographic innovation; simplifying the complex labyrinth of the tube network and providing a straightforward representation of the many routes, connections and entry and exit points. This is a particularly powerful depiction … Read More →
Putting the ‘T’ into Leadership
No, it’s not an example of our bad spelling; it’s a way of overcoming ‘silo thinking’ and looking at a critical leadership quality necessary for establishing joined-up thinking and behaviour. Beyond the Function… Most big, positive changes in business – for example, bringing to life … Read More →
Asking the Right Questions
We want answers! We want accurate forecasts; we want to know the specific, measurable, actions that will give us the outcomes we desire; we want opportunities without the risk; we want certainty, whatever the circumstances; we want to be ‘in control’. Well intended, maybe, but … Read More →
The ‘Gap’ – Excuses or Creative Tension?
‘Mind the gap’ is a phrase that will be familiar to passengers of subway systems the world over. While clearly a warning in the context of passengers crossing the gap between the station platform and the train door, the same notion potentially holds the key … Read More →
The Transformation Roller Coaster – Grandma’s Advice
Grandma is on to something. Despite the rhetoric – annual reports, internal pronouncements and management fads awash with the platitudes of ‘transformational change’, ‘breakthrough performance’, ‘step-change results’, et al – most organisations still choose, consciously or unconsciously, the merry-go-round. In many ways this is understandable … Read More →
Trade-offs – in B&W or Colour?
Making trade-offs is an integral part of developing meaningful strategies, a critical element of owning a particular space in your customers’ mind, and a powerful means of focusing your organisation on what to do to win – and just as importantly, what not to do. … Read More →
Control and Growth – Tipping the Balance in a ‘VUCA’ World
We Live in Dynamic Times Natural disasters, technological disruptions, transitory advantages, fractured markets, multifarious competitors, increasingly demanding customers and fickle consumers. Thanks to the military, we have a useful descriptor for the conditions and environment these drivers create; ‘VUCA’ – volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity… … Read More →