Last week I participated in the ACG event – a forum for people who fund the ‘middle market’. Attendees are typically VCs, banks, investment agencies, family offices, private equity – in short anyone who has a few million to give, lend, or invest in mid-sized firms. One of the most interesting sessions was on ESG (environmental, social and...
Read MoreThere are good reasons why you should do both, and actually, for a fast-growing company, you should try to do both. There are advantages to each option, but there are also reasons why you should take care. Let’s go back to first principles and consider what we are really trying to achieve. In an earlier blog, I said that people are not your most...
Read MoreIn Ottawa, as a many other places in the world, public meetings are often prefaced with a short recognition that they taking place on native land. Sometimes these recognitions are quite cursory. At other times, they are quite long and well thought out. I’ll come back to this in a
Read MoreEarlier this week I participated in a conference at the historic Chateau Laurier in Ottawa organized by the Canadian Club on the future of Electricity in Canada. The message is that we need much more power and, given the long lead times, we need to start the building this capacity now. Right
Read MoreWatch the rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex4jjxn75os The UN said today that “the chance of evading the most severe impacts of burning fossil fuels is almost out of reach, scientists warn, unless radical changes are made—and immediately.” Wow. What are you doing about it? The phrase Planet, People, Profit has never been more
Read MoreWe are working with the owner of a $20M business that manufactures racking systems. Growth has been solid, and they have come out of the pandemic with a solid order book. Sounds good, but the problem is that they are having tremendous difficulty attracting staff, completing orders, and managing inventory in an overcrowded work-space. The owner is...
Read MoreThe UK has recently carried out a trial-based study into the practicalities and impacts of a 4-day week - and the results are just in. The idea of a 4-day week has been around for quite a long time - with much anecdotal evidence suggesting that there could be considerable benefit. This latest trial involved over 70 companies of all sorts and...
Read MoreOur client was experiencing significant turnover amongst the new hires they needed to expand their production. They told us, ‘No one wants to work anymore’. Digging deeper it became evident that a small number of senior employees had created an environment that worked well for them but made it difficult for any new-comers to fit in. And worse, it...
Read MoreCome with me on a creative ramble and let's explore .... One of the topics within my Strategic Thinking workshops is The Box. Yes, the very box that everyone advises everyone else to think outside of - without explaining exactly what that means or how to go about it. We explore the idea that the box is actually your survival map of the world as...
Read MoreI was chatting with Graham Findlay this morning (he owns 3G-Energy.com) who told me that he is learning to play the guitar. He explained that most learners hit what he called the “plateau of mediocrity”. It’s where you think you are pretty good, and you get feedback from your friends and colleagues who confirm, that you are pretty good. It feels...
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