Category: Strategy

Strategy, Architecture & Problem-Solving

Port

Customer vs Enterprise Perspective

Here’s a quick exercise on perspective, scope and how we view problems.  How big is your enterprise? Follow that question with these two questions: How big is it compared to the size of your organisation? How big is it compared to the size of your team? That’s the internal focus.  Now let’s try a different…
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drops-of-water

Invest in Now

Also known as “Take care of the customer in front of you, not their future selves.”  I’m minded of this, specifically regarding how organisations can manipulate the perceived balance of power between them and their customers when applying refunds. Mistreatment I’ve noticed that it’s not necessarily specific companies, but the industry sectors they operate in.…
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Innovation

Outsourcing your future

There’s a growing trend in organisations to outsource their future through innovation labs and innovation competitions. I like to question the rationale behind these decisions and look at the host company more closely. After all, what is behind its decision to handle innovation from outside-in, rather than inside-out? Reasons So let’s explore. Why would an…
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support-2355701_1280

Failure in public sector – The Reprise

I read Vim‘s article on What Does Failure Mean for Public Services  and I wanted to respond. I wanted to build upon Vim’s thoughts from my own perspective. I’ve developed that perspective over a couple of decades working across front-line teams and supporting teams, transforming workforces across public and private sector. This results in me…
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Hospital ward

How much is too much training?

I’m divided in this, but lean towards only brief training, just enough to inform them, rather than enough to practice.   On one hand, it pays to understand why change in general is necessary and specifically, why the change that you’re about to implement is necessary. Often I see professionals who spend time with the…
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RigourAndCreativity

Art requires rigour, science requires creativity

I heard this quote the other day, but I didn’t catch who originally said it. Art requires rigour, science requires creativity The first point is that it’s contrary to the standard view. The second point is that both perspectives are valid and that there shouldn’t be that much of a difference. It then made me…
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Agreement

Draft or Final

Some organisations have a different approach to how they handle the status of a document. The approach belies a more fundamental culture of how work is commissioned and reviewed and how staff are viewed. Background One of my clients exhibited odd behaviour regarding commissioning work and approving it. Due to the nature of the engagement,…
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Gibson Guitar

Gibson, where is the strategy?

As news increases of looming bankruptcy for Gibson, the guitar manufacture, I’m left to wonder what happened. How did such an iconic brand end up in such a situation. Gibson is iconic. Ask anyone to name a brand of guitar and it’ll be the answer roughly 50% of the time. I’m reminded of Harley Davidson…
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Innovation?

Patents, MVA or GDP: None of them indicate innovation

In “When is it innovation?“, I introduced the idea of a sector’s familiarity with an concept. I’ve just read Bloomberg’s Innovation Index and I find a few of the variables used to be old-school to say the least. It made me wonder what the index should actually include to be relevant to innovation.  Issue 1:…
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Fax Machine

The Parallels Between RPA and Fax Automation

There are times when the cheap and nasty solution is so economically efficient that it can preclude doing it properly later on. Background – The Fax Just under a decade ago, I was working with a local authority client and their NHS hospital partner. The interpretation of the law at that time was that email was…
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