So what is innovation and why is it important?
Management has a reputation for overusing words to a degree that they lose their ordinary meaning, and eventually lose relevance, even for the best intentioned of managers. Management speak, especially when not genuine, has the capacity to make eyes role and attention switch off, and rather than encourage performance can act as a disincentive. Innovation is a word that is used frequently, and it is the overuse of the word that blurs the importance of what innovation can be for you and your business. “Innovation is a new way of doing things” is the definition provided by Moody and NoGrady …
Time to get a handle on what your customers want (and control your debtors)
Most businesses that have taken a Christmas break start back at work today. There will be a range of different levels of energy in your business, from those that are refreshed after a break and really keen to get back into making things happen, to those that just don’t want to come back. From a leadership perspective, this is a great time to show the way, and demonstrate the standards you want maintained. In many ways, you will find your people ready to accept some of those changes that you have been meaning to get around to, but just haven’t …
What are the most important ingredients in that elusive recipe for success?
So if there are three critical aspects to business success, and focus is important to achieving success should you focus on only one aspect or are each of them equally important? It really does depend on where you and your business are right now as to what drives your activity and focus. I can recall the times in a number of businesses that I have been involved in where everything seemed to run perfectly. The customers were happy and paid on time, new business was generated by referrals from satisfied existing customers, our market was buoyant even though the economy was reportedly …
The aspects of your business that help you define success
There are a range of drivers that help define success for a business, and a lot has been written about what it takes to achieve success in a diversity of books, articles and blogs. No one but you can define what success means for you. While we all have our own view of what success look and feels like, and it is arguable that the criteria for personal and business success are different, there are many “core” elements in all our versions of success. Some of these include achieving a level of financial sustainability beyond mere survival, fulfilling a worthwhile function …