Monthly Archives: February 2011

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Don’t be limited by what you’re good at

Feb 23rd

My colleague Rupert wrote last week about challenging constructs.

I’ve been working recently with some companies that are by any reckoning very successful.   They’re highly profitable, well led and well managed. They’ve developed strong business ‘formulas’ in their different markets and are disciplined in sticking to what they know works.  They have stripped costs out, made their supply chains highly efficient, and honed a way of growing their existing businesses.   In short they’re doing all the right things and delivering the results. 

So what’s the problem?

It’s this.   The very discipline of their approach is an inhibition to thinking more broadly about their

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Could something stunning happen if you freed your mind?

Feb 16th

Travelling to work the other day on the bus, I absent-mindedly reached for my iPod and looked at it.  Simple, minimalist and beautiful.  And a great example of what can happen if you question your constructs.

By construct I mean an assumption or web of assumptions that helps us make sense of our world.  Constructs help us organise our activities, and identify important things from the extraneous.  They can occur on multiple levels:  individual, organisational, business model, and industry.  Multiple constructs typically converge and form a ‘dominant logic’ for a company and for an industry.

Here’s one:  “Construction work is dangerous –

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How to do more with less

Feb 04th

“My mantra is simplification, both internally and with the clients I am working with. That means always asking the questions, is this the simplest way of doing it? Is this an elegant way of doing it? Is this absolutely necessary, does it really add value? Is it freeing up time for people to add value doing the things that really matter, or is it just eating up your time? The most successful businesses have simplification ingrained in their DNA”

In these belt tightening times, exactly how can businesses keep growing? Management Today gathered a group of corporate leaders and asked what

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