Your “Noble Sales Purpose”
on Dec 12 in Taking Action tagged Add new tag, People, Selling by KeithThis story from FastCompany.com came in via a LinkedIn update the other day, and I thought it made interesting reading:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3003455/one-minute-change-will-transform-your-company
Thought provoking - what’s the one single thing everyone in your business needs to do?
In praise of volumetric models
on Nov 21 in Planning, Understanding tagged Analysis, Planning, Technical by KeithI’ve just been building a volumetric model for a large volume consumer-market website. We wanted to make sure that we sized the initial launch infrstructure correctly, and had an understanding of the cost of growth (of both transactions and data volume).
It’s been a doubly useful exercise - as well as giving us the figures we needed, it has also highlighted an unexpected consequence of (an otherwise very sensible) archiving policy decision. This has allowed us to tweak a policy and create a new approach to one aspect of marketing, saving thousands of pounds per year.
Certainly good anecdotal evidence to support the old programmers adage that “it’s cheaper to fix it on paper…”!
Paralympians and Your People
on Sep 10 in Understanding tagged People, Teamwork by KeithWe took the week off last week, so that we could head down to the London 2012 Paralympics - which was simply stunning, by the way, and hugely inspirational.
There is just so much I could blog about from that week beyond the obvious sporting endeavour - organisation, good-humour, commitment, achievement, sportsmanship, generosity of spirit - the list goes on and on.
One thing that really did hit home for me though was the changes in attitude that I really believe the Paralympics will have started.
Paralympic sport is a lot about celebrating, challenging and competing in what people can do, not what they can’t do.
What a great way of looking at life in general; and at the people we interact with every day…
Highly Commended in the 2012 BitC Awards
on Jun 21 in Blog tagged Community by Keith
We’re thrilled to have been Highly Commended in the 2012 Business in the Community Awards for Excellence in the East of England!
The Awards for Excellence, run by Business in the Community, commend the best examples of business as a force for good. This year Business in the Community celebrates 30 years of supporting and encouraging businesses to genuinely transform their businesses and their communities. Read More
Supporting Prioritisation Across The Business
on May 11 in Priority, Understanding tagged Prioritisation, Teamwork by KeithBit of food for thought today.
We have been working with a client recently on a simple, clear way of prioritising both strategic and day-to-day demands on time (in this case for the IT department).
If It’s Too Hard, Abdicate It…?
At Critical Action, we’re great believers in the principle that managers and leaders can’t create two independent sets of priorities for strategic (”we must improve the business”) and tactical (”we must keep our users and customers happy”) activities, and abdicate to operational staff the balancing of the two in the real world. Read More
Planning Improvements - for startups?
on Mar 19 in Blog, Planning tagged People, Planning, Technical by Keith
In my last blog post, I outlined three key stages we use to help businesses improve, and I covered the first area (Commercial Imperative - the “why do it?”):
This time around, we’ll look at “Planning Improvements“ - how to change the way your people do what they do, and how to give them better tools. These are the old classics of “people, process and technology”.
- Commercial Imperative - what’s the case for doing it - the “why”
- Planning Improvements - the what, where, how of action/change
- Taking Action - the who and when to make change happen
Hold on. You’ve only just started - how can you improve!?
Well, we believe you can, and should, make improvements every day. Read More
Since 2012 is “the year of the startup”…
on Jan 12 in Blog tagged by Keith
I’ve read a good number of headlines and articles lately that proclaim 2012 to be the year of the start-up. I suppose there are optimistic and cynical ways of viewing why that might be, but I thought I’d use this as the inspiration for putting my thoughts down in some blog posts aimed at the newer business.
Decide, Design, Deliver
We do a wide range of work, sometimes with long-established businesses, sometimes with start-ups. Read More
Lower price? OK, use it more…
on Nov 16 in Strategy tagged Analysis, Selling by KeithIt’s been a really busy few months, and what we’ve loved is that much of the work has been really creative.
Our bread and butter is helping businesses dig into how they do what they do, and looking for how we, they and their staff can make incremental improvements. Very satisfying.
The work we really love though, is to look at the situation and help an organisation come up with fabulous new stuff - great, unexpected, (positively) disruptive ways of doing things.
We came up with a really intriguing business model for Qton Solutions (a favourite client of ours because of the idea-storms we generate together!) to consider. Read More
Learning online - 85,000 at a time…
on Sep 26 in Understanding tagged Community, Future by KeithKeeping the Mind Fresh
I’ve always tried to do at least one course or qualification each year which is nothing to do with “the day job”. This is partly for relaxation, but also because doing radically different things forces you to think differently Lastly, it reminds me what it is like to have to start from scratch again, acquiring knowledge and skills. It keeps the brain fresh.
For example, I went to night school and studied British Sign Language for 4 years (after starting out with just a one year introduction course!). I followed that with a course on welding - slightly different. After that, I started Pilates classes (I’ve broken too many bones to go back to rugby again). Read More
This month’s reading…
on Sep 20 in Strategy, Understanding tagged Future, Strategy by KeithI’m re-reading a couple of my business books this month, both of which I felt it was worth mentioning. Both are thought-provoking, and full of practical things to try, even if you don’t agree with everything in them.
First up is “What Would Google Do?” by Jeff Jarvis. Not just an interesting manifesto/thought piece, but also interesting to look at 2009’s predictions through 2011’s lens!
Second is “Yes! 50 secrets from the science of persuasion” by Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini, which never fails to give me ideas for new things to try and new ways to look at old problems.
If you’ve not read them, give them a try - I’d love to know what you think of them.