Problem Solving at great heights
Just a few weeks ago I was hiking in the Austrian Alps – don’t ask me why, but I’m happy I joined. It was a great experience, being offline for a week, walking above the clouds, facing some of your…
Tag mindset
How to prevent the “cobra effect” by setting proper KPI’s
I’m a very strong believer in KPI’s, how it can drive a business forward, how it supports your strategy and mostly how it drives accountability and transparency with commercial teams. I’ve written earlier on how to do it well and…
The paradox of Standard Work and Continuous Improvement
hint: it’s all about leadership, empowerment and accountability In Lean manufacturing, there’s a lot of focus on standardisation. This is born out of the idea to control quality and to minimise waste in the process. Having well documented processes, proper…
Zooming in and out on your business
Bad news happens fast, good news happens slow Morgan Housel on an interview with Diary of a CEO Morgan Housel, the author of a.o. the Psychology of Money, makes this quote in the context of how compounding on the long…
What is the key to Sales and Marketing alignment?
While writing this post I’m trying to process another fine example of how difficult it is (or seems to be) for many companies to get their sales and marketing teams properly aligned. I always used to joke in a cynical…
3 reasons why the execution of your strategy is failing
It’s september, by now you should have a good idea on what the key breakthroughs for next year are going to be. You’ve spent good time om the what and where, while your CFO and team are calculating the how…
Going with the flow – or where East meets West
As I’m camping in Sweden with my family right now, there are always those early morning, looking over a lake with only the sound of awakening birds, that I get even more philosophical as I already am by nature. Recently…
Sales is not an art – but then what is it?
No matter what they say, sales or the act of selling is not an art. (for the record: neither is marketing). Succesfully selling a product, service or solution is either luck (you’d be amazed how often people get lucky) or…
Red is the new green
Only last week did a customer for the first time talk about my logo, and he had it figured out. He recognised what it meant. In proper lean cultures, where KPI’s are set properly, you have a safe environment for…
Lean is about waste, not about growth
Let me try a more provocative title this week. Many people have heard about lean, about manufacturing processes being optimised. When it comes to implementations beyond the shop floor in more transactional or commercial areas, people tend to have a…