• SERVICES
  • ABOUT US
  • PROJECTS
  • PEOPLE
  • RESOURCES
  • CONTACT

Graham Birkenhead

Leadership & Management

Culture - Where do I Start?

Graham Birkenhead, November 8 2022

Most CEOs and company executives in North America now recognise that improving their corporate culture would have a very positive impact on their business' performance. They recognise that culture is up there with strategy, marketing, brand, finance, and IP in terms of importance. And most also admit that their culture is not where it needs to...

Read More
Leadership & Management

6 Ways to become the Workplace of Tomorrow – Today

Graham Birkenhead, November 1 2022

Sun Tzu said many things concerning the art of war that are just as applicable to the art of business. For example, "In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”  There are many aspects to the world today that we could describe as chaos, and in each there will be opportunity for those that care to

Read More
Leadership & Management

Stay in touch with your Inner Elephant

Graham Birkenhead, September 20 2022

Those elephants just sneak into the room with you, hide in plain sight whilst tucked away in corners, and cause havoc with your company’s performance.  If only we could do something about that. Humans have an amazing ability to see and notice things that are different or changing, but we are generally less good at seeing things that don't change....

Read More
Leadership & Management

Of Mice and Elephants

Graham Birkenhead, August 16 2022

I have worked with senior managers and executive teams who wouldn't recognise strategy if it bit them on the proverbial; conversely, I have worked with great strategic thinkers in the most unexpected places with much less responsibility.  The ability to think strategically has nothing to do with your role or seniority, although one hopes that execu...

Read More
Leadership & Management

Strategy is a Verb

Graham Birkenhead, August 9 2022

We often have a strategy for this and a strategy for that - and we have strategic plans etc. Having quantized approaches to achieving goals can work well, especially when you know where you are and you well understand the nature of the system around you.  However, when we are running businesses, with bigger, fuzzier and further out goals and much m...

Read More
Market Strategy

The World is Going to VUCA

Graham Birkenhead, August 2 2022

Anyone remember VUCA?  It’s an acronym that stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. I’ve used VUCA as a strategic planning tool when trying to understand what was going on around me and so increase the chances of coming to an optimal course of action. As a concept, it was first described by the leadership guru Warren Bennis in...

Read More
Leadership & Management

I don't have a Toxic Culture – Do I?

Graham Birkenhead, May 31 2022

A recent UK employee study paints a rather troubling picture of company life. It found that: The study went on to identify that roughly half the people would leave a negative on-line review about their company, and that nearly 50% wouldn't even apply to a company that had negative online reviews.   At a time when so many companies are struggling to...

Read More
Leadership & Management

The Secret Ingredient for a World Leading Culture

Graham, May 17 2022

We intuitively know the correlation between company culture and company success (including success in attracting and retaining great people). Research shows that companies who’s staff describe their culture as good or excellent seem to be thriving in all respects. We also know how to build an outstanding culture:

Read More
Leadership & Management

When does a Square Peg fit perfectly into  a Round Hole?

Graham Birkenhead, May 10 2022

We often use the term 'a square peg in a round hole' to describe someone that in some way just doesn't fit either in the role, the office, or just the culture.  That interpretation comes from an early 19th-century philosophical treatise* that considered people and their situations as a wide range of shapes - including triangles and oblongs, and...

Read More
Leadership & Management

Your Employees: “Should I stay or should I go now?”

Graham, April 19 2022

There is undoubtedly a bit of a major transformation of the working world going on. Some say it's a "clash” between old school and new school management.  Unemployment has never been lower, the number of job vacancies has never been higher, and yet there are more and more people choosing not to work – or not do paid work.  And this leads to greate...

Read More
Previous
Next