Growing a Business Successfully Requires a Look in the Mirror

Growing a Business Successfully Requires a Look in the Mirror

Achieving sustainable growth in any business can often be challenging. A recent study of growth, published in the Harvard Business Review, of 10,897 publicly held companies over a 43-year period showed only the upper quartile of firms achieved an inflation-adjusted growth of 11.8 % per annum. Of the top quartile of firms, only 15% were…

The need for both KPIs and OKRs

The need for both KPIs and OKRs

Headline: “Business Metrics Gone Awry: The Dark Side of Relying Solely on KPIs” Subheading: “Corporate Missteps Highlight the Pitfalls of Blindly Chasing Key Performance Indicators” We read about it all the time; in a shocking turn of events, the business world is abuzz with meteoric fall of some company and its CEO, its CFO, or…

Considering the Entire Employee Lifecycle

Considering the Entire Employee Lifecycle

I wrote an article entitled “The Strategic HR Department” where I shared my thoughts on the characteristics of a Human Resources Department that is strategic with a purpose of being an accelerant of the organization’s ambitions rather than one that is a bureaucracy whose emphasis is on compliance. Of course, compliance is an important responsibility…

Establishing Kill Chains in Business Operations

Establishing Kill Chains in Business Operations

In my book, “State of Readiness” is a brief discussion on “Effects Chains” (pgs 271-277); which is really a re-branding (for purposes of sensibilities) of “kill chains” that I borrowed from military parlance and adapted to business. In the context of the military, a kill chain refers to a series of stages or steps that…

Harvard Business Review

How to Design an Agenda for an Effective Meeting

Summary.   To prevent holding a meeting in which participants are unprepared, veer off-track, or waste the team’s time, you should create an effective meeting agenda that sets clear expectations for what needs to occur before and during the meeting. Seek input from your team members to ensure the agenda reflects their needs and keeps them engaged….

excellence mediocrity signpost

The 4 Keys to Achieving Excellence

Like many of you, I’ve had a lifelong quest for learning and for trying to improve my own personal performance and drive excellence in my companies. Excellence is defined as “the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.” Synonyms for excellent and excellence are distinction, first rate, superb, blue chip, choice, first class, five-star, top…