Category Archives: Culture
Values go beyond ‘what you can get away with’
According to Stephen Green, chairman of HSBC Holdings; Values go beyond ‘what you can get away with’ and that values are, in the end, critical to value – to sustainable value, that is Green goes on to say; “For companies, … Continue reading
Four Dimensions of Leadership
Nick McCormick very kindly sugested a podcast with himself on management tips. We had a good chat about some thoughts on leadership and spent about 10 minutes talking about; Self Awareness Relationships Systems Culture I spoke a bit more about … Continue reading
Reshaping an organisation’s social structure
Gary Cokins highlights some recent Dutch research that suggests; overall enterprise performance is improved by defining accountability for sales turnover and profit and loss simultaneously over multiple dimensions (e.g., by product, region, account, market segment, industry). This “multidimensional” concept means … Continue reading
GM’s problems are best described as suicide rather than homicide
While Bob Sutton knows GM very well (research, speaker, existing contacts there), he can’t stop himself from feeling compelled to speak his mind. Here are some extracts from his piece; I am ambivalent about whether the auto industry should receive … Continue reading
Innovation and integration are unnatural acts
While this isn’t a Carry On film, Oliver Marks says that In lots of large corporations, innovation and integration are unnatural acts. Silos block cross functional cooperation and resistance stifles new ideas and concepts. A piece in HBR then “explores … Continue reading
Organisational structure predicts software quality
Philip Preissing talks about some fascinating research from Microsoft in which the outcome of software projects reflects and is very heavily influenced by the organisational structure in which they were conceived and developed. Building in part on Conway’s Law, a … Continue reading
The New York Times is fading away
Seth Godin picks up on the long established, death by a thousand cuts currently infiltrating the US newspaper industry. What is interesting about this piece is not so much the blow by blow account of the declining circulation and advertising … Continue reading
Starbucks has been foolish [in spite of McKinsey's endorsement!]
Kim Warren has a wonderful expose of the current state of Starbucks and how they have ended up where they are now. The summary is that having focused very successfully on building a highly engaged and productive workforce which served … Continue reading
From analysis to action
George Ambler explores the language around strategy, analysis, decision making and action. There are plenty of salient points including ‘Analysis Paralysis’ and ‘The Paradox of Choice’. George wraps things up by saying The underlying principle is that: Simplicity allows people … Continue reading
Two gaps in the HR and talent space
Katherine Jones points us to two gaps in the HR and talent space, via research from Hewitt and the Human Capital Institute. 88% of businesses hold executives responsible for results, while only 10% hold the same group accountable for developing … Continue reading
