Sunday, 5 of February of 2012
"We Help Managers Make a Difference
Want to prepare yourself for the future? Think bigger than your job. Think about what happening in “bigger boxes” and consider how you and your job might be affected.
What's happening in your "bigger boxes?"
If you are serious about “thinking bigger” you need to “read wider.” Grab a recent edition of Business Week or The Economist and consider how some of these stories may affect you and your company in the not-too-distant future.
My friend Leo often works with organizations facing a tough decision. One of his opening questions is “How much time do we have? Five minutes? Five hours? Five days? Five weeks?” He tries to get his clients to deal with the reality of an irreplaceable resource. We can borrow money. We can use subcontractors. We can rent space. But we only have so much time and we have to use it wisely.
We don’t want to “shoot from the hip” nor do we want to succumb to “analysis paralysis.” But if you wait before you start acting, you only reduce the amount of time you have left and will force yourself to take greater and greater risks. How much time is left before your competitor forces you to react? How much time is left before your best workers retire? How much time is left before your kids are “grown and gone?” How much time is left before you retire?
How much time is left?
I’ve been away from this for a while but have decided to return in a more focused manner. My intent is to issue a weekly thinking exercise to help anyone interested in improving their critical and strategic thinking skills. I hope you find these comments and exercises helpful.
Assumptions Gone Bad: Assumptions are the foundation of personal and business strategy. Sears assumed they understood the needs and wants of middle-class America. True for about a century; wrong for the past fifteen years or so. Martgage and financial service companies assumed that the price of a house would always go up. Right for fifty years — bad assumption starting around 2007. Kodak assumed that film would gradually decline and that they had time to shift to a digital world. Oops.
Look at the assumptions you have been using in your personal and professional life. Are any of them “going soft” on you? Do you have a big decision coming up? Document your assumptions, vet them with people you trust, and review them every six months or so. Watch for “assumption erosion.” It’s a killer.
OK, this is shameless self-promotion, but I have to say that I’m really looking forward to the challenges of 2010.
New Book: My friend Leo Hopf and I have finished the final rewrite on our strategy book that will be published in May or June of this year. ReThink, ReInvent, RePosition: 12 Strategies to Make Over Your Existing Business has been in the works for a while and our publisher moved it to the front burner. The timing is perfect for companies as they come out of the current recession.
New Offerings: I’ve been facilitating workshops focused on critical and strategic thinking for about six years now. I’ve added two workshops to my offerings.
New Office: The southwest has appealed to me for quite some time, so I’m adding an office in Tucson, Arizona. Now all I have to do is build a book of business.
Bill is a consulting-educator who helps organizations succeed by helping managers excel and prepare for their tomorrows. He connects Louis Pasteur’s quote of "Chance favors the prepared mind" with today’s business realities.
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