“Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”
Jim Rohn
Strategic Concepts Quote of the Week for May 23rd, 2011 Keyword: Sacrifice
“Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily lives, and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom”
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
In honor of those who have sacrificed
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
In honor of those who have sacrificed
Strategic Concepts Quote of the Week for May 16th, 2011 Keyword: Value
"People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value."
Stephen R. Covey
Now more than ever the ability to change is critical to business success. People are motivated to take the actions necessary to change by what they value. Often when you find an unmotivated person they are doing something that is in conflict with their core values. They are easy to spot as they will be in the "ain't it awful" club and what is worse, they will recruit others into this club as well.
In business this is why it is critical to the success of the entire organization that management knows the core values of every team member and accounts for them in their management. Knowing what motivates a person to be willing to change can mean the difference between a fully engaged, productive team member to someone that is difficult to work with, provides poor customer service and drags other team members down with them.
Values are hidden. Unlike emotions people don't wear them on their sleeve. A simple online assessment can help you determine your team members values. Having this knowledge you can adjust your management practices to appeal to what is most important to them with the result of more workplace engagement (and productivity) and less stress on the entire team.
Eric Langley, Sr.
Stephen R. Covey
Now more than ever the ability to change is critical to business success. People are motivated to take the actions necessary to change by what they value. Often when you find an unmotivated person they are doing something that is in conflict with their core values. They are easy to spot as they will be in the "ain't it awful" club and what is worse, they will recruit others into this club as well.
In business this is why it is critical to the success of the entire organization that management knows the core values of every team member and accounts for them in their management. Knowing what motivates a person to be willing to change can mean the difference between a fully engaged, productive team member to someone that is difficult to work with, provides poor customer service and drags other team members down with them.
Values are hidden. Unlike emotions people don't wear them on their sleeve. A simple online assessment can help you determine your team members values. Having this knowledge you can adjust your management practices to appeal to what is most important to them with the result of more workplace engagement (and productivity) and less stress on the entire team.
Eric Langley, Sr.
Strategic Concepts Quote of the Week for May 9th, 2011
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
Winston Churchill
Financial performance, either good or bad, is a measurable result of the clarity of a business leaders vision, the execution of the strategy and the effectiveness of the organization (people, processes and technology). Financial numbers reflect how well vision, strategy and organization are aligned toward an objective. Some questions we can all ask ourselves:
Financial performance, either good or bad, is a measurable result of the clarity of a business leaders vision, the execution of the strategy and the effectiveness of the organization (people, processes and technology). Financial numbers reflect how well vision, strategy and organization are aligned toward an objective. Some questions we can all ask ourselves:
- Where do I want my business to go?
- In what direction is my business currently going?
- Is my current strategy profitable?
- Am I operating as efficiently and effectively as possible?
- Do I have the right people and systems in place?
- What do I need to change -
- clearer or different vision,
- different strategy, or
- organization (people, processes and technology)?
For instance, Alfred is in the buggy whip business. Demand for buggy whips is down. In looking at the three things Alfred can change, vision, strategy and organization, Alfred decides that since the business has been selling buggy whips profitably for 120 years he has no intention of changing the company vision. He wants to continue being the best buggy whip manufacturer in the world.
Alfred determines that their strategy is needs to be modified so he decides to buy other buggy whip companies to increase his economies of scale. He feels the organization of the business does not really need to change much, he'll simply close the other buggy whip factories after buying them and sell the customers his whips instead.
We can all see the problem here with this old but still valid story. Alfred is changing the wrong component. His narrow vision is no longer valid because the marketplace is shrinking, and his business along with it. By buying other buggy whip companies he is only delaying the inevitable failure of the business.
In this true buggy whip business story the actual stakeholders choose a different path. They changed their vision. They realized that there organization had strengths that could be realigned to a new vision and strategy. They decided to sell fishing line and took advantage of the increasing recreational sportsman marketplace.
Changing their vision meant they needed to change their strategy as well, but not by much. They were used to selling their buggy whips through dealers, now those dealers would be retail stores. And, as noted, they were already taking advantage of their existing organizational strengths, just redirecting them.
Changing a company vision is a drastic but necessary step, especially if the company vision is narrow. Broadening the company vision (up to a point) allows lower level components such strategy or the organization to be changed in the future without affecting the overall vision.
Strategic Concepts Quote of the Week for May 2nd, 2011
“Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.”
William Blake
William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter and print maker. He has quite an extensive Wikipedia page.
William Blake
William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter and print maker. He has quite an extensive Wikipedia page.
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