How to create wonderful staff engagement – an unstoppable army

Two of the biggest challenges Chief Executives ask me about are: Why aren’t my staff engaged…. more productive? When they clearly have far greater ability, why do they keep on asking the same basic (boring) questions over and over? Why are they not thinking for themselves? Conventional wisdom on staff engagement really does not help. […]

Read More

How Death Can Be a Gift: Steve Jobs

People all over the world sent in tributes about Steve Jobs when he died in October 2011. They poured into Apple Stores to tell the staff how highly they regarded him. Do you remember that just a few years beforehand Apple was regarded as miniscule in comparison to Microsoft? Today the company is the highest valued […]

Read More

How to Smash Staff Performance Levels

Business leaders are asking: “How can I improve staff performance – to achieve more without increasing costs?” The dynamic is wrong – staff mainly come to work to pay the bills. Team that achieve outstanding business results are very different. A team that inspires The Red Arrows air display team is a great analogy: 9 red […]

Read More

Interview with Fast Growth Company Bybox

A £40 million revenue company, ByBox, is one of the fastest growing companies in the UK and Europe. Indeed they are in the “one percent” of companies that we have been talking about in previous articles. A great example of a growth company. Stuart Miller, their MD, told me what drives their success – and […]

Read More

Why successful companies are not the top innovators

Innovation is becoming increasingly popular. People seem to think it is the key to successful growth. Yet Jim Collins most recent book Great by Choice, which is definitely worth reading, shows that this is not the case. Let us stand back and ask: “What do we really mean by innovation?”. Is it: • creating something […]

Read More

The mighty war of the top technology companies

The world of high technology today is enough to mesmerise anyone. It is a battle of the fast growth giants. Many of the main players have only been around for a few years but they are massive. The strategic game is complex and fast moving. Who will win? That is anyone’s guess. The massive drive […]

Read More

Is a business vision essential for success?

In most companies I get to know, their people pull in different directions. Its starts from the leadership team downwards. As a result MD’s ask me “Why are my staff not more committed? Why is productivity not higher?” Businesses do not realize that THE no. 1 thing is to get everyone pulling in the same […]

Read More

Why companies have the brakes on re business growth?

Imagine this business growth analogy: A 50 foot high water pipeline. It takes a huge amount of effort to pump water up to the top. Then imagine that the pipeline bends horizontally and, because of many leaks, most of the water leaks straight back out again! Would you not be appalled? What a ridiculous waste. […]

Read More