in Innovation, Strategy
Can you predict the future? Nope. But you can anticipate by asking questions, and therefore shape the future. The key question to ask your self is: what are the key elements that will drive change?
There are three. Of which you will learn about in the following webinar from Stanford Business School.…
in Leadership, Strategy
Why do companies insist on a one-size-fits-all template for strategy? Is it because the MBA types come in with their unimaginative frameworks that speak to unimaginative executives? I certainly think so.
The ones who are at a fault the most, McKinsey, recently published a series of articles about the Art of Strategy. What’s new about strategy in the article?
Absolutely nothing.…
This is a question I get asked very often (goes with my blog name). The topic of strategy is vast, it is filled with stratagems and other thinking that can be confused as cookie-cutter solutions. Strategy is heavily dependent on context, so, there isn’t one single way to change the game. But, for me, there is a psychological tactic you can use to change the perception of how the game is played.…
in Leadership, Strategy
Culture tells us what to do when the leader isn’t in the room. We’ve all heard this before, and being able to achieve this is one of the daunting challenges of leadership.
It is not unusual to be in a strategy session and come up with all kinds of great quotes and soundbites, that are quickly forgotten when everyone leaves the room. The key is to be able reduce those great quotes into “concrete behaviors” that happen on a daily basis.
For me, the challenge is ongoing. And to face this challenge, I use a code: FLUSH.…
in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy
Cultures of innovation are naturally dynamic. Employees think of new ideas and try them on the fly. Processes and procedures are fluid. There often is no one right answer to a problem, but rather experimentation drives many projects, efforts, assignments, and ultimately opportunities for improvement.
With that said, in my neck of the woods, businesses are the complete inverse.
Take a recent experience I had with the marketing manager of a telecommunications company based in Tijuana. With Startup Weekend Tijuana 4 coming this week, this marketing manager enthusiastically let me know that she signed up to participate. “Great!”, I said. But there was one minor problem: she didn’t want me to tell her boss about it.
Sucks!
According to her, the boss doesn’t want people to have their head occupied in anything other than what they’re supposed to be doing at work.
Sound familiar?…
in Innovation, Strategy
General Assembly 2013 (Photo credit: Paradise Nazarene)
What business are you really in?
Most can’t answer this question. And if they do, it is a rather functional driven answer such as: we make vacuums.
How meaningful and memorable is that?
I was reading through a note about General Assembly, a co-working space, and how it is shutting down it’s co-working services for entrepreneurs and instead focus on education:…