How can established organizations innovate their business model? That is the question that I’ve been putting a lot of thought into recently. Two ideas collided this week that gave me some insight into the question. First, in the comments on my post about different business models leading to different outcomes, Greg Satell said: A business […]
I’m starting up a couple of live consulting projects with some of our MBA students. Even though we are very early in the projects, they have already reminded me of just how critical it is to develop the ability to live with uncertainty. This is the fundamental point that Jonathan Fields makes in Uncertainty: Turning […]
Of all the management writers I’ve read, Peter Drucker probably generates more interesting quotes per page than anyone. Tom Peters and Joseph Schumpeter come close too. Here are six thoughts triggered by reading his book Management Challenges for the 21st Century: And yet very few institutions know anything about the noncustomers—very few of them even […]
If the budget that you’re managing blows out one month and you’ve spent 200% of your allocated funds, what happens? In most organisations, a negative surprise like this leads to painful forensic investigations. To improve efficiency, it is important to stamp out negative surprises like this. Conversely, what happens if one of your revenue areas […]
One of the most common excuses I run across for not innovating is risk aversion. Organisations don’t innovate because they’re risk averse, or so they say. But is innovation really so risky? Yes, a new idea might not work. But in many cases, not innovating is even riskier. Here is how Peter Drucker puts it […]
Yesterday I looked at Eight Models of Business Models and Why They’re Important. However, in writing about how different people conceive of business models, I didn’t have enough space to address the really critical issue with them: What can you actually do with a business model? Once you’ve defined your business model, here are three […]
One really good way to get traffic to your blog is to take a shot at a broad class of people, and do it with a catchy title. The latest version comes from FastCoDesign, which published the post “Do Innovation Consultants Kill Innovation?” Gregg Fraley and Jeffrey Phillips wrote quick responses, both affirming the negative. […]
One of the frustrating things about following politics is the idea, apparently deeply engrained, that you must never change your mind. If you do, you’re a flip-flopper, or wishy-washy, and you’re clearly not to be trusted. The main problem with this line of thinking is that it is utterly and dangerously wrong. We live in […]
Noun 1. exigency – an unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty; I’ve had some jobs in which I’ve performed pretty well, and some where I haven’t been quite so good. Probably the worst job I’ve ever done was part of my portfolio when I was managing sales & marketing for a polytechnic in New […]
