Innovation, sustainability and the future of cities
Prices fall We have all noticed, or should have noticed, that manufactured products tend to get cheaper with time. The extreme case is computing. The first personal computer I used professionally in 1978 was the Commodore PET. This beast had
It may be old-age or being locked down by Covid-19, but I’m feeling rather grumpy. As soon as I had finished my previous blog on the dangers of so-called ‘best practice’, I heard myself saying “and another thing!”. So here
I don’t know about you, but I react badly to the label “best practice”. What gets touted as best practice is often terrible practice. Or at least the wrong practice in the wrong place at the wrong time. It starts
In an earlier blog, I warned about thoughtlessly following the practices of successful companies, hoping the magic would rub off on you. Buying in to the latest management fad. What I called “cargo cult management”. But human nature is human
We have all heard variations of the joke “A consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time, and then keeps the watch”. They get a lot of flak; some of it richly deserved. Their methods and
In the current coronavirus epidemic, one recommendation from health authorities is for people to work from home. There are lots of jobs where this is impossible. It is hard to be a taxi driver, or a nurse, or a professional
We have all heard the famous Peter Drucker phrase from his 1954 book the Practice of Management – “what gets measured, gets managed”. It is a cliché of management practice, and like all clichés it contains a truth. If you
We know that business needs to innovate. Whether a startup, established SME or major industry player, new customer offers are critical for survival. We also know that most innovations fail in the market; despite our enthusiasm, creativity and persistence. We
In 1955 C. Northcote Parkinson wrote an article in The Economist that introduced the world to Parkinson’s Law – “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. An observation so universal in application that it is instantly recognisable
When you are only working on one innovation project at a time, you can give it all the care and attention it needs. There are no competing resource demands; at least for creating new products and services. Life gets more
A while ago I wrote about why innovations fail, and I wondered about start-ups. Do they have the same problems, or are they completely different? How often start-ups fail is a matter of debate. A commonly quoted figure is that
Getting the right people doing the right jobs is one of the major challenges in a small, growing business. We each have our particular strengths and our favoured working styles. Teams need to evolve as the business develops, and getting
Cargo Cults During World War II, Melanesian islanders were astonished when the Japanese and American militaries arrived with vast quantities of supplies of all sorts, delivered by plane and parachute drop. These supplies found their way into the local economy