Seen it all before? After once complaining that things appeared to be going round in circles, a wiser, older colleague replied saying that things only appeared to be going round in circles. In fact, they go round in spirals. Viewed from below, a spiralling object would indeed look like it was going round in circles.
Measuring success in a commercial organisation is like peeling an onion: you peel back the surface layers – the things that occupy attention – and you are left with a single metric: profit. All the focus on, for example, customer care, employee development, innovation, is ultimately for one purpose, making money. But what about organisations
There’s a lot of fun to be had at the expense of consultants. Everyone enjoys the classic joke that consultants get paid for looking at your watch and telling you the time. This is both true and false at the same time. It’s true because that is indeed what consultants do, but false because it
The point of managers is to change things. They wouldn’t be needed if it were otherwise. The world is full of problems, surprises, and challenges that require businesses to adjust constantly. A tweak of the engine is usually sufficient, but sometimes you need to hit it with a hammer. It’s this type of shock-inducing, transformative
What’s your theory of management? I absorb each new theory with enthusiasm hoping this will be ‘The One’. While each brings a fresh and valuable insight, I know I’ll retain only a vague concept and a catchy title, such as ‘black swan’ or ‘tipping point’. At business school I learned about the ‘Theory X’ manager,