Tag: Organizational culture
-
Leadership Stories: Things are not always what they seem
All outward appearances were that this old lady should not be taken seriously. Unfortunately for the salesperson, she had honed her negotiating skills with more than 10,000 hours of experience. Here is the story. A Master at Work One of my favorite things to do with my grandmother, Baba Vickie, was to go shopping. It didn’t…
-
Leadership Stories: The Value of Hard Work
From a young age, I was taught that there is honor in any job well done and that there is opportunity around every corner. All it takes is a goal, a desire to get there, and a lot of hard work. My family’s story is the embodiment of the American Dream: If you work hard,…
-
Creating a Powerful, Entrepreneurial On-Site Sales Force
Nothing happens in any business until a sale is made. There is no order to fulfill, no customer to serve, no money to count. So who do you entrust with this all important job? . . . Everyone. Sounds like a great concept, but when you have a full time, professional sales force that is…
-
6 Steps to Cultivating Entrepreneurship in your Organization
No doubt about it. Empowerment is a great way to motivate people and unleash their energy and talents. But here’s how to reach an even higher level of performance: Create an entrepreneurial culture. Think about it. On the one hand, you have a highly motivated employee. On the other hand, an entrepreneur who owns the…
-
Effective Communications: The Catalyst for Everything You Want to Accomplish
Innovation engineering…empowerment…entrepreneurialism…employee engagement… These are big themes. Powerful ingredients. And when they come together, they can help you accomplish great things. But it won’t happen without great leadership and a high-powered, multi-faceted, never-ending communication campaign. Nitin Nohria, Dean of the Harvard Business School, once said that “communication is the real work of leadership.” I’d like to…
-
Fair is not Equal: How to win the hearts and minds of your people
I once had a union official lodge a complaint that we were not treating everyone in the factory the same and that it had to stop. I told him that if he insisted, at my next “all hands” meeting I would announce that the union told me to treat them all poorly. The reason –…
-
How to get the most out of your R&D Budget
The 2012 Booz & Company Global Innovation 1000 Study reveals that successful innovators bring clarity to the early stage of innovation – that critical time when ideas are generated and selected for further development. The study also suggests that the most successful innovators in all industries have developed a consistent, manageable set of principles, tools,…
-
Praise for The Perpetual Innovation Machine
Take a look at what executives and thought leaders are saying about The Perpetual Innovation Machine, a book that describes a holistic approach to management which uses data-driven analysis, skillful prioritization, inspiring leadership and the ‘lost art’ of employee engagement to achieve exceptional results. Competition in the 21st Century is about ‘innovation as a mindset…
-
Building an Innovative Culture: 8 Key Components
Innovation can be built into a Corporate Culture. By incorporating eight key components, you will be able to build a highly focused, pragmatic Perpetual Innovation Machine that will help your organization continually achieve breakthrough performance. Here’s a quick rundown. 1) A sharp focus on your top business priority. Let’s face it. All of the result measures you…
-
Innovation and “Stealing Shamelessly”
Creating an innovative culture starts with creating an open culture. An open culture is accepting of ideas regardless of their source – other companies, industries, people – and is willing to implement what they have learned to improve their own performance. A great illustration of this concept from the greatest innovator of our time, Steve Jobs . . . . he obviously…