Archive for the ‘leadership’ Category

How To Move Past Existing Business Models To Find New Success

August 28th, 2013 |1 comment

Knowing when to move on from existing business models is a sign of leadership.

Google has retired over 70 products in the last 3 years. That’s a lot of failure for one of the world’s most successful companies. There is an important reason why Google embraces failure.

This is what we can learn from it.

In the post about company culture we examined difficult decisions. Retiring a product is a difficult decision. Google seems to have no issue making difficult decisions when it comes to doing what’s best for the company in the long-term.

In another post we looked at failure and how leaders need to know when to change course when a business model is not working. Again, Google understands how to learn from products that don’t work.

In the article about failures there was a statistic that was quite interesting. The stat was the fact that Google has closed 70 products in just the last few years.

The Power of Failure and How You Can Launch With It

August 21st, 2013 |1 comment

Accepting failure and moving on to greater prospects is a sign of leadership.

In a previous post about company culture it was noted that leaders often have to make difficult decisions.

One of the most difficult decisions leaders need to make is stopping a bad investment.

The examples given included some hyped Google products – Wave and Buzz. If you haven’t heard of these products, don’t worry: Google pulled them from the web almost as quickly as they launched.

It’s a hallmark of strong leadership when a company is able to pull products and services when they see that things aren’t going to work out. The tendency is to try and persevere to make the product work, but those efforts usually result in a lot of lost money and energy.

Forget The Fluff: This is What Company Culture is About

July 31st, 2013 |1 comment

Previously on the blog we’ve written about Tony Hsieh of Zappos.

Tony has a high belief in the power of company culture. He believes in it so much that he recently said:

“I fire those who don’t fit our company culture.” (tweet this)

That’s a bold statement, but it should indicate to you’re the importance high-powered CEOs place on company culture today.

There are a lot of articles, presentations and other bits of information about company culture throughout the business world and most of it is simple fluff.

If you really want to implement a company culture that drives your business you’re going to have to go beyond the fluff and make every decision based on your culture and core values.

Tribal Instinct: Why We Have Meetings and Why We Won’t Stop Them

April 10th, 2013 |1 comment

When was the last time you attended a meeting where decisions were made, business was accomplished and it wrapped up early with everyone smiling? Chances are it’s been a while.

Most people seem to know that meetings can waste a lot of time and effort for everyone involved. Most of us would like to have fewer, shorter meetings — but nonetheless, meeting after meeting seems to just keep happening! Why is that? There is a good reason why we have meetings. It comes down to the way that we are wired. We are social creatures. We like to get together and have social events, and that’s what a meeting is. A meeting is a social function that (should) enable us to achieve a particular outcome.

How to Influence Like Billion Dollar CEO

January 28th, 2013 |1 comment

Zappos is the largest online footwear retailer in the United States. The company was founded during the tech boom in the US in the late 1990s and continued to grow even after the boom subsided.

Zappos made a change during its initial years to focus on getting the right people on board. The focus was built around ten core values. This focus became so intense that people are hired and fired based on the core values alone. It doesn’t matter if the person does an adequate job.

This might seem harsh to some, but it’s part of what makes Zappos successful.

A Lesson in Leadership from James Cameron

January 23rd, 2013 |2 comments

James Cameron has written, directed and produced some of the most successful films of all time.

The most recent was Avatar. The film had an incredible budget and required the work of a team all organised toward achieving the vision of the leader.

When budgets get high in the film industry the pressure builds. It’s not that people want to see the movie fail, but there is more pressure to deliver results. The final product can be the defining moment – good or bad – for the leader.

The same can happen in business. Outsiders will look for failure while the leader and the team tries to make something happen when not many believe.

0422 670 659

Make an Enquiry

Please contact me to discus how you can help our team