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As I watched the 11th September attack on the World Trade Centre, seeing the planes fly over and over again into the buildings, I was struck by a need for us to do something, something different, and this got me asking myself some questions on the nature of the change process. Change is a feature […][...] read more » Nature of Change

I guess that it is true to say that we are now in the latter days of BPR and that there are not many major corporations that do not to one degree of another bear the scars of their attempts to re-engineer their businesses. There has been a lot of debate as to why 30% […][...] read more » Breakthrough Personal Refocus

It is a truism to say that we live in a changing world, but it is necessary to understand this to recognise that Change is unavoidable. If you aren’t leading it and making it happen, then someone else is ‘doing it to you’! Systems and businesses are just like people; they grow older and begin […][...] read more » No Pain, No Gain

A scientist set up an experiment with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, he hung a banana on a string and placed a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey started to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touched the stairs, the scientist sprayed all of the other monkeys […][...] read more » Out of the box

The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years. In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant. An 18-month-old female […][...] read more » 100th Monkey Syndrome – How change happens?

We have been hearing all sorts of gloom and doom from the press about the fall-out in the banking sector and consequences of (according to Wikipedia) a “sustained period of careless and inappropriate lending.” However there is another sort of credit we don’t talk enough about or give enough of, the credit for doing something […][...] read more » The Other Credit Crunch

Perverse as it may sound this is a big challenge! There is most of the complexity of a big business and less heads and hands to cope with it. This means that the leaders in a smaller business need to grasp a number of disciplines and ideas that would have specialists in a larger one. […][...] read more » Managing a Smaller Business

I suspect that many of today’s leaders, like me, were brought up watching westerns on TV, listening to John Wayne mouthing phrases like “A man’s got to do, what a man’s go to do..” and watching him ride off into the sunset. This, in a way, typified a generation’s thinking of what strength and leadership […][...] read more » The Value of a Sounding Board

or Lessons Squash Strategies can teach Business Leaders. Hashim Khan won the British Open squash championship 7 times between 1951 & 1958, and is considered one of the greatest squash players ever. He was asked the secret of his winning ways and he needed only 67 words to explain them! His English was a little […][...] read more » Leadership: Keep Your Eye on the Ball

We constantly hear people talking about Leadership these days; great politicians, soldiers, explorers, sportsmen (and women), but what does it take to be a leader? Does it mean that they are the best technically at what they do? I suppose sometimes this is true. Does it mean ‘being in charge’? Well sometimes this is part […][...] read more » Leadership: What it takes?