This time next week, the world’s strongest economy will be choosing who will lead it. Over the last four years, the world has seen the impact of a particular style of leadership that will have an impact for years to come. There is much we can learn from that leadership.Here's what we can learn.In difficult times, people look for strong leaders, pe...
Read MoreTrust is the connective tissue that binds together everything that we do: our relationships, our actions, our expectations of others. We expect businesses to deliver on their promises and behave responsibly. We expect that we can move around our communities safely, depend upon our relationships, and rely on certain truths.The COVID-19 pandemic has...
Read MoreOver the last few weeks we've been talking to a number of companies in Latvia that are interested in exporting to North America. These companies include metal fabrication, construction products, IT services and many other areas. For the most part they are well established firms trading in Europe and Scandinavia with a wide range of products and se...
Read MoreThis is the second of two articles exploring the connection (or rather, often the lack of it) between strategy and operations. Last week we discussed how ‘doing strategy’ was about keeping in your mind’s eye on what you want to be and where you want to go as a company, while at the same time being aware of the art of the possible. The future is un...
Read MoreThis is the first of two articles exploring the connection (or rather, often the lack of it) between strategy and operations. The two things are separate but inseparable. Any organization needs them both to be working in harmony and feeding each other. We see many companies embarking on an exercise of strategic planning while simultaneously dri...
Read MoreNo matter what business you are in, there has never been a better time to expand your business. The opportunities being created by the pandemic are truly staggering. On March 17th I wrote a blog called 14 Days From Now that hypothesized about the future. Apart from being way off on the 14 days (we are now at day 204) the opportunities I referenced...
Read MoreFor as long as I can remember, I have been interested in why people do some things and why they don't do other things. Why some people achieve a little or a lot – seemingly regardless of how big or small they think. The nature of luck - is there such a thing or do you make your own luck? And, the roles of motivation, challenge, power and fear, cul...
Read MoreOur world is built on tectonic plates that shift slowly and surely under our feet. Occasionally the plates ‘stick’ until the pressure builds up sufficiently to ‘unstick’ them in what we call an earthquake Much like an earthquake, the pandemic has caused many of the trends underlying the world we have built to move very quickly. Political, social, b...
Read MoreBy the late 40s, the US Air Force was experiencing an unacceptable increase in the rate of air incidents and crashes. This was the era of the introduction of jet aircraft. Apart from appearing to be pilot error, there didn't seem to be a common underlying cause. But there was. Back in 1926, the Air Force realised that pilots came in all differ...
Read MoreI love open water swimming, the fresh air, the peace and quietness, the natural smell of water rather than chlorine, and having the sense of going somewhere rather than bouncing off a wall every few strokes. As you swim along with your head down, you are thinking about what your body is doing and how efficiently you are moving through the water, i...
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