Over the last couple of weeks, quite coincidentally, I’ve had to contact a surprising number of customer service desks. This has included IT, hotels, airlines, banks, and stores etc. These required me to interact with FAQs, text bots, live chat, voice activated option bots (speaking/listening), and in most cases, I ended up 'communicating' in...
Read MoreSometimes, the cause of falling revenue is obvious – a major client fails, a sales channel quits, input costs increase, a new competitor enters your market. But more often, the cause is really hard to pin down and it can be really frustrating. Far too often we leap to price (our competitor is undercutting us), or sales effort (let’s have a sales...
Read MoreTalk to any manager in companies these days and you will hear things like: Leaders know that success in today’s business environment depends on adaptability, responsiveness, and the ability to learn faster than the competition. And that, in turn, requires people 'to think' - not just follow instructions, and
Read MoreBusinesses survive and thrive for all sorts of reasons. Many of which are outside of our control. But many of them aren’t. There are strikingly few barriers to starting a business and consequently all sorts of dumb ideas, poorly executed, are attempted. As a result, only 10% of startups actually get into the
Read MoreWhen I run Lean or Continuous Improvement sessions, I often explain that around 70% of our daily activity doesn’t add any real value to what we’re trying to achieve. That figure rarely surprises anyone. In fact, when I ask people to guess, they often land somewhere around that number
Read MoreWith some trepidation you strip down to the basics and attach the required ankle tracker. You have made a foolhardy(?) decision to go ahead with the venture. Physically you are committed. Mentally – not so sure. You shuffle forward to the end of the dock. The man says, “The timer starts when you step on the
Read MoreThinking and acting strategically isn’t just about deciding where you want to go. By definition, strategy is an ongoing process of working to achieving your goal, reaching your destination, and navigating a series of waypoints along the way. Consider it as a journey into the future, and like any journey, there are bits of it that are under your...
Read MoreFor those who celebrate it – Happy Canada Day! Even if you are not fortunate enough to be a Canadian citizen, do feel free to celebrate the very fact of Canada. In many ways the world could use a bit more Canada just now. Here in Canada, we have muddled along quite well for the last 157 years managing to avoid too much controversy and minding...
Read More“There’s no I in team” is one of those phrases that gets trotted out whenever someone needs to be reminded that it’s not all about them. It’s catchy. It sounds wise. It gets printed on posters, stitched into corporate training slides, and dropped into motivational speeches. I cringe every time I hear it ..... it seems to gloss over the vital...
Read MoreEarly in my career, I was handed a juicy but daunting task: break our company into the OEM market. We were a Montreal based truck spring manufacturer. While we had highly automated equipment, we kept the ability to make springs by hand, one at a time. When I joined, we were comfortably selling parts to small, independent truck repair shops. But...
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