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Let’s all stick to our own knitting!

Jul 28 2014

I’m about to insult lawyers.

The rest of you – you needn’t cheer quite so raucously. I only choose to use lawyers as an example of a highly trained group of professionals, skilled and experienced in what they do and good at their multi-faceted jobs, but because of that, think that they can self-handle other aspects of their business where different specialist skills and experience are required.

I could have chosen accountants, or doctors, or engineers (there, some of you are not so comfortable now are you?).

One of my clients is a firm of commercial lawyers specialising in insolvency. In their business they run the constant risk that their clients cannot pay. To give them their due they always perform at their best and never stint on service, despite this possibility, but now and then, they get caught.

In one such instance they worked for an owner of advertising billboards scattered around the suburbs. Having satisfactorily won the case for their client they found that the client is cash strapped and unable to pay them, asking for a payment plan over a year or so. Clearly not a good situation. The senior partner, true to the entrepreneurial spirit of the firm then negotiated a contra arrangement where they get to use two billboards and paste up advertising for the law firm over a year. In this way a $20,000 doubtful debt is used to gain $40,000 worth of billboard advertising – quite an advantage? Read More

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Leadership Vs Management

Jul 24 2014

harvard pic Harvard Business School change management guru John Kotter outlines the fundamental differences between Leadership and Management as follows:-

– Establishing direction vs Planning & Budgeting
– Aligning people vs Organising and staffing…
– Motivating & inspiring vs Controlling & Problem-solving.

In Kotter’s view, while management produces an order of predictability, order, and the capacity to attain desired short term targets, the qualities of Leadership prodeuces change, often to a dramatic degree and often potentially useful change to create a future vision.

In my consulting, I use my own process called vision-driven planning, first creating a vision for the group (in great detail, to the degree that it is internally viable and credible) which is then quantified through a Balanced Scorecard approach (“If we were to achieve our vision, how must we look and behave in the area of…”). The quantification of the vision is converted into Performance Measures, and then these are redirected as Strategies. Read More

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The challenge of merging two corporate cultures

Jun 05 2010

teik oh old Teik Oh

The most challenging change management initiative is the proper management of a successful merger between two organisations. While the actual steps and processes in themselves are not uniquely different or any more complex than any other business reorganisation, the cultural environment in which a merger takes place creates a very different situation.

Unlike any other change management engagement where disparate groups at least work under one singularly identifiable organisation, a merger brings together two totally unique groups with different core values and working environments that need to go through the same change and emerge united. In a merger, while there are usually areas of “fit”, it is unlikely that the deeper indicators of corporate culture such as corporate history and corporate experience will have any but the most remote of matches. Read More

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Creating A Resilient Organisation

May 07 2009

Organisational culture and behaviour rests on the prevailing climate that exists in the firm. This climate can encourage resilience to appear in an organisation, or it can in fact encourage a set of circumstances where the organisation breaks at the first sign of crisis.

A summary of the prevailing attitudes that encourage resilience (or lack of) is in the following table:-
Studies have shown common characteristics of “resilient” organisations, or organisations that have stood the test of time in the way they are managed, successful corporations and those that have “kicked in” the extra mile to out-strip competitors. In particular, Tom Peters’ work in “In Search of Excellence” (1979) and his later book “Thriving on Chaos” (1987) and Jim Collins’ work in “Good to Great” (2001) have identified characteristics of such successful companies.

In “Thriving on Chaos”, Peters summarised his earlier work into 5 characteristics of a successful corporation:-

Total customer responsiveness
Fast paced innovation
Flexibility by empowering people
Leadership at all levels
Systems that can handle chaos

Comment 13

Tried Direct Marketing?

Mar 11 2009

sale In these recessionary times, business owners beat a retreat. SME owners look at cost savings, financial controls and expenditure. However if this is done in isolation, that is, if you rush to control costs without also looking at the top line, your bottom line will start to shrink anyway!

The other unquantifiable cost is, if you withdraw into a cost-saving shell, what happens to your business goodwill? How will you be seen by your customers? Is that affecting your brand? As you cut expenses, without looking after your market, perceived services may suffer. When the good times roll again – and they will – are you going to be ready to take on the competition again or will you be behind the 8 ball rebuilding your reputation and name-recognition?

Counter-intuitive as it is for SME owners in a period of financial slow-down, SMEs must continue marketing efforts. “Marketing” is not only “advertising” which is what SME owners think when they think of marketing. In fact, advertising may be your least effective marketing cost in a shrinking economy. Read More

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Let’s all stick to our own knitting!

Leadership Vs Management

The challenge of merging two corporate cultures

Creating A Resilient Organisation

Tried Direct Marketing?