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About a year ago the government started this programme.  GrowthAccelerator is a new, premium service that will help England’s brightest growing businesses achieve their ambitions with rapid, sustainable growth. It’s a partnership between private enterprise and government. And it’s affordable. GrowthAccelerator’s network of world-class growth experts work side by side with leaders of high-growth potential […][...] read more » Growth Accelerator

As previously admitted, I’m a Quins fan and I spent a miserable afternoon this Sunday shivering on a touchline in freezing temperatures to watch my team play a dreadful game against their most dangerous rivals.  Saracens had just nudged us off top place in the league and we needed to to beat them in order […][...] read more » The Power of Leaders telling the Truth

I admit it, I’ve become a diehard rugby fan, and I support Harlequins.  It seems I became a supporter at a pretty good time because in the last three years (since I have been going regularly) I have seen them first win the Amlin cup, then the Premiership last year and this year the A […][...] read more » It is amazing what a bit of trust can achieve

I read two interesting and contrasting articles today talking about two corporate giants, Microsoft & Google.  They both have very strong cultures and it is interesting to examine the impact of them.  I’m not pretending this is an in-depth analysis, just an interesting raising of the corporate veil to give a glimpse at what lies […][...] read more » A tale of two cultures…

This is the second in a series of interviews where I interview a number of the people who played a part in Harlequins remarkable turnaround from the team that was relegated in 2006 to the team which won the premiership this year.  This was a 10 year journey and it can teach us come interesting […][...] read more » Change Lessons from Harlequins – Tony Copsey (ex MD)

As a Change professional, and a keen rugby fan I have been fascinated by the journey Harlequins Rugby club have been on for the last 10 years  or so.  Of course, now Harlequins are the premiership champions and have provided 9 players to the latest England squad currently touring South Africa, both the press and […][...] read more » Change Lessons from Harlequins – Mark Evans ex-CEO

We were in the the woods this morning, and as I mentioned in a previous blog, they now tend to leave dead trees standing or where they fall and this wood seems to have more than its fair share of trees that were damaged in the hurricane or just dead.  This tree has been converted […][...] read more » Change lessons from Woody Woodpecker

I was recently consulting with a client who had sent me a complex and and very detailed agenda for comment.  My initial reaction was confusion, I wasn’t sure what he meant or how the items fitted together.  Part of this was due to lack of familiarity with the details of the project (it had moved […][...] read more » Simplicity v Complexity

It is 20 years since these yellow Cyclopes were introduced to make our roads a safer place.  Well they have changed the way we drive but what have they achieved?  Roger Reynolds was the policeman in charge of the initial project, and he thinks “It’s a fiasco now”. The first one was located on the […][...] read more » What the Gatso can teach us about Change

Someone raised the question the other day “How do you stand out from all the other coaches?“. A very good question but one which applies just as well to many, if not all businesses. I think in this area especially, the answer is ‘dare to be different’. If you are a ‘me too’ coach offering […][...] read more » Dare to be different