Improvement projects should make things better, shouldn’t they?
I travel by ‘bus and train as often as I can, not just because of the green aspects, but because I quite like it; I get to look around and to think in a way that I can’t afford to do when I am driving, but looking around and thinking can lead to seeing and realising. For someone who has a long record of customer service seeing and realising can mean trouble. Read more…
Investing in the future is essential
Various factors may have contributed to the decline of our manufacturing capacity, but there are significant elements of the infrastructure that existed to support it still in place and one of these has been providing me with a fair bit of travel recently. Read more…
monday musings on leadership and motivation
The ability to motivate is one of those traits that we expect in a leader; keeping the team positive, productive and, for at least short bursts, galvanised should be bread and butter to a good leader as should the ability to keep the team’s collective heads up when things are not going too well. Read more…
the oddest presentation I’ve had to make
It’s a bright February morning as the sales team arrive in two cars, with the low sun shining bright off the disappearing frost. This is a big morning, for they are due to present as one of five short listed suppliers for a deal that will be worth at least £5m over the first three years of the contract on offer and, if they win, there is a lot more that they can do for this client. Read more…
providing creative space, petty politics; more from the leadership front line
The benefits of providing free space for workers to network and enjoy some refreshments was the subject of a news item on one of the TV breakfast shows last week and they had wheeled in a pundit to vouch for said benefits, the person concerned citing the restaurant as a great place for such networking to take place. This caused some hilarity for the Berkshire Belle for she, like me, recalls only too well the occasion when I was almost sacked over that very issue. Read more…
the process is a tool, nothing more
It’s been one of those weekends really. I have had a couple of things come up that have meant some internet research to find a solution to a particular set of problems and so the lap top has taken a pounding, but then so has my patience. Read more…
paying late doesn’t make good business sense
News last week that one of the suppliers to a global construction giant had elected not to accept any more work from that source because of delays in getting paid should sound warning bells to over aggressive procurement functions. Whilst the news may not have told the full story it is clear that there are moves to stretch payment terms and that many of these are beyond what is reasonable under the circumstances. Read more…
let’s stop using power words in CVs and bid documents
Last week I got involved in a cyber-debate about the overuse of power words, in this case about their use in CVs, but the principle applies more widely. I have two main issues with this abuse of language; firstly that much of it is transparently nonsense (and therefore untrue) and secondly that it wastes my time. Read more…
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the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke 