Thinkers commonly make the gross error of confusing what they see with what they want to see; the great and good thinker only forecasts futures…
Managers often need reminding that the bottom line may be the end-all of business activity, but that the top line literally comes first. Unless somebody,…
The underlying thought of the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) is that, because managers are none too bright, the greater the complexity, the more…
Do you feel that your work as a manager is getting more and more complicated? You are almost certainly right. In an increasingly complex world…
Few managers today can have escaped exposure to the management industry. They have very likely been taught some aspect of management, been exposed to some…
Interesting evidence about predictions is covered in a book by Philip Tetlock entitled Expert Political Judgment: How good is it? The answer is directly relevant…
‘Mavericks’ are by definition rare beasts in business management or any other organised activity. The dictionary definition of itself explains the rarity. The word is…
What’s the most valuable attribute that a manager can possess and develop? The last time this question bobbed up, the answer was ‘rare sense’ –…
Why do business idols, both individuals and firms, develop feet of clay? For anybody who believes this cannot happen to their leader, or their organisation,…
A millionaire reader once told me that he had built up his eminently successful business by following these dozen points from my 1980 book, The…
How would you like to achieve the financial benefits of a major company shake-up… without severance costs without any people/organisation issues, but… with an immediate…
For every business and every manager, there's nearly always a distance between 'where we are' and 'where we want to be'. It's the crucial divide…
Strategy has been having a wonderful run for management's money. Once, strategy was the somewhat arcane province of long-range corporate planners. Now senior managers themselves…
You don't change for its own sake – you change to realise the strategic vision. What must the firm excel at? What does that mean…
Every senior manager makes a critical decision every day of his or her working life. Mostly, the decision is unconscious, but is no less vital…
Quality is a word from which few managers can hope to escape for long these days. That's not quality meaning 'goodness, beauty, luxury, brightness or…
Great coaches no doubt differ in their styles as much as great athletes. But the coaches must all have eone thing in common: they are…
People are the key to organisational success, and also the cause of corporate failure. This contradiction sets real problems for top managements. They want their…
What does Mercedes-Benz have in common with H.J. Heinz and Coca-Cola? The obvious response is an enormously strong brand. But the more significant issue is…
Top managers have never lost their fondness for declaring that people are the 'greatest asset' that their corporations possess. Like other popular maxims, this one…
The concept of the all-powerful customer is nothing new; Peter Drucker wrote long ago that 'there is only one valid definition of business purpose –…
Everybody makes mistakes. But the biggest mistake of all is failure to learn from error. The lessons of misjudgements, miscalculations and mismanagement teach more than…
Entrepreneurs don't on the whole read management books, and most such books don't seem to be written for them – especially those who run smaller…
The easiest task in management is buying another business – you only need to identify the acquisition target, work out how much you want to…
The romantic image of the founder-millionaire wearing overalls. tinkering visibly with some mechanical marvel in workshop or lab, is often reality. So it was with…
How the boss behaves has a profound effect on how other managers perform – and thus on the performance of the entire outfit. That's a…
How far is my company away from failure? The question itself sounds like an admission of inadequacy. The confident manager surely doesn't walk around waiting…
When markets are changing rapidly and unpredictably, strategies and tactics must also be flexible. So revolutionary companies, within a broad visionary context, delegate strategic planning…
Management and numbers go together like Scylla and Charybdis. Every manager knows that numbers, above all financial digits, are the essential guides which steer them…
All empires famously carry within them the seeds of their own decay. That sobering conclusion applies with equal force to commercial organisations. There's plenty of…
To achieve anything, you must have a direction, a purpose, an aim. Without that fundamental bearing, you can never know how to channel your resources…
Managers are constantly asked to behave like entrepreneurs. The other way round, entrepreneurs are often asked to behave like managers. The manager is supposed to…
All companies are management academies, good or bad. Very few concerns see themselves in this light. But companies of all sizes inculcate methods, judge managerial…
Managers have become increasingly concerned with 'change management', and like it or not, that's moved from desirable skill to indispensable process. Few companies, though, have…
All companies today want to stay or become entrepreneurial. But what are the attributes of the entrepreneur? The most convincing list by far was assembled…
That giant of customer service, the late Sam Walton, advised other managements to 'break all the rules.' That was the tenth and last of the…
Teamwork is one of the rallying cries of the new management. Many of the results have become legendary, like the ultra-successful 1989 launch of the…
Success in management and success in sports have the same roots. In business as in games, players must master two critical aspects: the techniques (including…
Artifical barriers between leaders and led are only one obstacle to true teamwork. Interdepartmental and cross-functional rivalries – what Americans call 'turf wars' – are…
All sportsmen know that the basic essentials of their game can be expressed in very few words. The greatest squash player of all time, Hashim…
If you haven’t caught up with the extraordinary changes in the business/management world, it’s time you did. The best pocket-sized description of the changes, which…
All success hinges on how well you manage one person – yourself. But you won’t get as far as you could progress simply by trying…
These principles, taken from my book, The Unique Success Proposition, constitute the Success Quotient, which holds the key to all forms of human achievement. The…
One of the most important weapons in the armoury of the lateral thinker is another invention of Edward de Bono’s – PO. Challenge is of…
The one subject on which all managers should have strong and well-informed opinions is management itself. Everybody has had the miserable experience of working for…
I’ve been reading with mounting horror a book called 'Rip Off' by David Craig. The cover justly describes it as, ‘the scandalous inside story of…
This is how NOT to buy a business… Have a strategic grand design and make it a ‘must’ – by definition that excludes all other…
I get the feeling that in the constant struggle between leadership and management, leadership is getting the upper hand. The conflict arises because the failure…