Volkswagen, Porsche’s parent company, is planning to take Porsche public. Investors expect it to be one of Europe’s largest-ever listings; the IPOs could raise more than $10B. What a stock market debut this could become for Porsche! At the same time, news about Boeing tends to be less exciting, to say the least. The company
Why Porsche Is Flying High, And Boeing Isn’t Read Post »
Ask any business owner how they’re doing, and chances are high you’ll get a response like “Overwhelmed”, “Busy”, or even “Taking it day by day”. They’re often overwhelmed, dismayed by the length of their to-do list, or even just simply wondering if all the work they put in day after day is even getting them
How you have the most productive day Read Post »
The Four Winning Mindsets for your Breakthrough Life In our current times of transformation, global crises, and search for meaning, mindset is more important than skill to secure success. Sure, skill matters, but only so much. Studies show that over the long run, people with the right mindset can outperform those that started out with
The Four Winning Mindsets for your Breakthrough Life Read Post »
When we realize a change, a problem, or threat to a status quo we naturally try to regain balance. We panic or develop fear, and react in ways to get rid of the problem. Once we’ve achieved that, we relax and enjoy the regained balance. Until the next threat occurs and the cycle starts anew,
How passion-driven entrepreneurs create reinforcing loops Read Post »
The Four steps to Intentionally Creating Success – Nearly half of new businesses fail within the first 5 years
And one of the top reasons? No plan. Running a business without a plan is like trying to travel to a new place without a compass, a map or GPS. As a result, you can get off track very quickly, and mess up dreams, your business, your personal finances.
To avoid all this, and to turn my own dreams into reality I run every opportunity, idea, or tactic that comes my way through a simple process. I use it in my own business (and help my clients do the same) to determine whether it’s a direction worth pursuing. It saves you months of agonizing and headaches.
The Four steps to Intentionally Creating Success Read Post »
How Fear and Complacency Stand in the Way of Your Strategy
By Alex Brueckmann
A friend recently told me how much he enjoyed riding the ancient tractor they use in his family’s forest: “There are so many moving parts, all running flat out all the time, and you have to be really careful shifting it up a gear so things line up perfectly, but you’re off to the races once it’s in gear!”. That’s what your business might feel like as well: while still producing the result you want, it might feel a bit rusty, slightly dated in how it functions, not quite what you need anymore.
How Fear and Complacency Stand in the Way of Your Strategy Read Post »
While we are still fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, the next crises are already lurking in the background, around the corner. Inevitably, there will be another crisis. We just don’t know when it will hit and what type of crisis it will be: economic, health, state debt, political, environmental, all of these combined? Living in an
6 Critical Capabilities in a Post-pandemic World Read Post »
The Business of Habits
By Alex Brueckmann
Habits are something mighty. So mighty they can destroy you: drinking, smoking, doing drugs, eating junk food. Other habits are less dangerous but harmful nonetheless: excessive social media consumption, binge watching your favorite streaming site, not getting enough sleep. Then there are healthy habits – they make us happy and can even help us become champions: physical exercise, playing an instrument, spending quality time with your spouse, kids, family, friends.
The Business of Habits Read Post »
Let’s unbuzz the buzzword “Strategy”
What Strategy is, and what it is not:
If you asked five of your colleagues what ‘strategy’ is, the odds are that you will receive six different answers. They might range from “a plan of how we create value” or “our priorities for the next few years” to “our approach to winning against our competitors” and “a framework against which we make decisions”. There is nothing wrong with these answers; and as a matter of fact, if you research business literature for a definition of the term strategy, I am pretty sure that you will find suggestions that match those ideas to a large degree. So, which definition is the most accurate? Who’s right?
Let’s unbuzz the buzzword Strategy Read Post »
The culture imperative for executives – The supercharged organization
Culture is everywhere. Every organization, department or team has one. They either consciously created it, honed it over time into what some organizations call their ‘secret sauce’, as in ‘not copyable by the competition’. Or they have a culture that just appeared, accidentally, whatever it might be. Trust me, you don’t want an accidental culture. I’ve been there, I have seen what these cultures can look like and what they do to people. In accidental cultures, there are hardly any boundaries, the doors are open to all kinds of behaviours, even toxic ones like lying, cynicism, gossip and avoidance of accountability. As a result, people will burn out and leave. This is true for all kinds of organizations whether non-profit or for-profit.
The culture imperative for executives Read Post »
How corporate jargon kills performance – One of the most interesting characteristics I try to uncover at the start of a collaboration with a client is this: the amount of corporate BS and jargon that people use in conversations and meetings. While this might sound odd for a consultant like me (I realize that us strategy guys use a lot of weird lingo ourselves), but it tells me more about a team’s ability to reach results than you might think. Apart from being an annoying habit, why bother? Because corporate BS and jargon are more than just annoying. They are real performance killers.
How corporate jargon kills performance Read Post »
You have a 90% chance of being in a company that has a skill gap. You also have a 60% chance of being in one that wastes money on learning and development. Recent research shows that 90% of companies are aware that they will have a significant skill gap in the years to come. They see that they don’t have the capabilities today that they will need in the near future to be able to deal with the challenges that are coming their way. While this is the overwhelming majority, at the same time, only 16% believe that they know how to close these skill gaps. Essentially, they feel they know what they need but they don’t know what to do about it.
You have a 90% chance of being in a company that has a skills gap Read Post »
You will leave one behind – if you want to or not!
Have you ever thought about the legacy you want to leave behind as a leader? About the moral imperative of leadership? About how you want to be remembered? Once these questions have entered your head, it is impossible to unthink these thoughts. And that’s where you might want to begin to explore and shape your own legacy. Legacy is like culture: every individual and every organization has one. It is either consciously honed over time, into a secret sauce that distinguishes your competitiveness and offering from others in the marketplace, or it somehow comes to life, subconsciously, by accident, and just happens. Maybe it occurs somewhere in between with some efforts here and there, not really seamless but kind of alive, just like Frankenstein’s Monster. So, what does that mean? You will leave a legacy, if you want to or not, so you better start building it consciously.
What is your legacy? Read Post »
I first got in touch with strategy as a discipline in business school and found the subject incredibly boring. It was taught with little corporate context and had no visible connection to my own life. To me, at that point in time, strategy was all about theoretical frameworks without connection to the outside world. However, early in my post-university career this perception changed rapidly – and I realized how conscious leadership and strategy are intertwined, and how both are essential ingredients to business success.
Organizational Values are an interesting, fun to explore subject. I challenge you to play a game of buzzword bingo with me. Take out a pen and paper and write down the first ten positively attributed potential organizational values you can think of. I will do the same. Next, check out websites of organizations or brands you regularly interact with. Read their value statements. The first to hit all buzzwords on their list wins. Ready? Go!
Organizational values – Let’s play a game of buzzword bingo! Read Post »
Let’s think ahead. With the Covid19 vaccination roll out in full swing, leaders are now imagining the post-pandemic organization. Visualizing how your business should look like some years down the road and distilling this future into a vision statement is your first step. Formulating a new vision, at some point in the process, leaders inevitably ask the question: “What makes a vision a great vision?” Since every organization has their specific history and context there is no generic answer to that. But there are some guidelines that will help you craft a powerful vision statement. I pulled these together, based on the vision statements I’ve helped clients create over more than a decade.
Imagining the post-pandemic corporation: what makes a great vision? Read Post »
Navigating the terminology jungle – A glossary on Organizational Identity
9EOI – The Nine Elements of Organizational Identity Read Post »
