Mother Nature is a pretty wise old gal. Among other things, she is a superior problem solver. Think about it. She has resolved countless problems for plants and animals (including human). Many plants “know” how to turn towards a light source, for instance. And she helped bats to navigate without […]
A business concept is a concise description of an opportunity that contains fo0ur critical elements: the customer definition; the value proposition (or benefit to the customer) and the compelling story, the product /service; and the distribution channel or means of delivering the benefits to the customer. The business concept can […]
There is probably no single best organizational structure for all types of ventures in all situations. Rather, the entrepreneur must find the best fit, given the existing contextual factors (environment, technology, market), design factors (strategy, and models), and structural factors (complexity, formalization). A misalignment or misfit among these factors could […]
The complexity of the business world today is outstanding. Nothing is predictable. The rules of the game are changing. Just when you think you’ve figured out how to have a competitive advantage, a competitor develops a new technology. Just when you think you’ve found the right motivation tool, the values […]
The Awful Law of Unintended ConsequencesThe law of unintended consequences states that any change will be accompanied by a set of consequences that cannot be completely predicted. The reason this law is awful is that the consequences have a strong tendency to destroy all the value of your planned change. […]
There is an old Chinese saying that is considered both a blessing and a curse:“May you live in interesting times.” And that is where we find ourselves – in a world that is messy, unpredictable, often incomprehensible, and incredibly interesting; a world where old ideas of leadership and management no […]
We see growing evidence from all quarters that many companies are not loyal to their employees and that employees are less and less likely to express loyalty to their companies. People in leadership positions are challenged to find some basis other than company loyalty to hold an organization together and […]
Many companies have kept their self-managed teams a commercial secret. Hundreds of them have tried to make them work, with mixed results. Consultants extract large foes for either recommending them or unravelling the mess from the ones that failed. Self-managed-teams (SMT) often called self-directed work teams (SDWT), have acquired a […]
Decades ago the leaders of organizations seldom talked about the business issue that now reportedly keeps them awake at night: the challenge of retaining talent. Research reveals that while pay and benefits matter, you can’t count on money to retain talented people who have employment options. Key motivators include challenging […]
Decades ago the leaders of organizations seldom talked about the business issue that now reportedly keeps them awake at night: the challenge of retaining talent. Research reveals that while pay and benefits matter, you can’t count on money to retain talented people who have employment options. Key motivators include challenging […]