A company in the furniture business lost a good repeat customer a few months back. They were devastated because they were already selling considerably less than previous years. Their customer wanted to a pay a price for their product that, according to traditional cost accounting, was not a price that allowed them to make any […]
Why Your Functional Hierarchy Is Stifling Your Results
We’re in week two of the course we were invited by the University of Venice to design and deliver for businesses so they can manage complexity. To survive and thrive in our new reality dominated by complexity, companies need to adopt a systemic perspective and a systemic way of operating. So it was satisfying to […]
Transforming Fear and Disaster with Brilliant Business
As a new year begins, reasons for fear and uncertainty are multiplying: the devastating effects of the climate crisis, threats of military action, accelerating polarization and blatant incompetence in prominent leaders in various countries. These are all symptoms of a world that is struggling to adapt to increasing complexity and interdependence. Far from being an […]
Changing How We Think Business for the Digital Age
We were recently asked an important question following an article of ours about the dangers of linear thinking: “I can see how organizations could get stuck in one way of thinking as it often happens. How can organizations avoid being linear while forming their strategic plan?” At Intelligent Management we take a systemic view of […]
How to Take the SWOT Analysis to a Whole New Level
This week, a client of ours drew up a SWOT analysis and it turned out to be a very productive event. The SWOT analysis tool has been around for a very long time. The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats categories are comfortably familiar to many as a way of brainstorming and analyzing the current reality of […]
Why Projects Complete “Sooner or Later”…
What is a project? It’s a word that everyone is familiar with but it can mean very different things to different people. This can lead not just to misunderstandings but to intrinsic unreliability in delivery. In other words, far too many projects in the world get delivered “sooner or later” with all the knock-on negative […]
A Systemic Skill to Create Economic Sustainability that Businesses Must Learn
Every business today shares a legitimate desire: to achieve not just economic success but economic sustainability. But we are living with unprecedented uncertainty. The world is changing at such a pace that it seems almost impossible to stay abreast of the shifts. While there are young companies that seem to grow exponentially, we can […]
Every Project is a System – Don’t Ignore these Systemic Principles for Effective Project Management
This week we delivered an over-subscribed webinar for the Project Management Institute (PMI) global platform. It is always a privilege to address people in many different countries on such a vital subject matter. Project Management affects every single one of us, as citizens and consumers. Today’s post introduces some critical concepts when it comes to effective […]
The One Principle You Cannot Ignore for 21st Century Business Success
There is one universally valid principle that no business can ignore to achieve success and sustainable growth, highlighted in the following extract from the business novel ‘The Human Constraint’, www.thehumanconstraint.ca bought in 40 countries so far. May looked at her notes again. She had to get things right for the article about the new way that […]
Management Techniques and Tips? Try Knowledge Instead
The internet abounds with techniques and tips, giving the illusion that in a short amount of time it’s possible to master the answers to our problems. That may be true for, say, getting the most from a laptop. However, if we rely on ‘management techniques’ and ‘management by tips’ for running a business or launching a startup, […]
