Can leaders dispense with collaboration?

Today, on seeing @HarvardBiz’s tweet, “We respect leaders more when they don’t need co-pilots,” I was compelled to read the corresponding article in Harvard Business Review, “Why Command-and-Control Leadership Is Here to Stay.” The article comments on the Vroom-Yetton model of leadership, which identifies five different decision-making styles, ranging from autocratic to consultative to group-based decisions. I found the tweet and headline provocative (although the article rather less so). Continue reading

Change Management: How to overcome stakeholders’ resistance to change

Following up on some recent tweets on employee motivation and engagement, I was reacquainted with Gleicher’s Formula for Change, published by Beckhard and Harris (also known as Beckhard and Harris’s Change Equation). Although I agreed with the formula when I first saw it several years ago, I rather dismissed it as a statement of the obvious. On reflection, it is a more powerful tool in change management than I first gave it credit. Continue reading

Change Management: 7 Essential Elements of Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder engagement is a critical factor in the success of business change, especially business transformations, which may require significant cultural change. Business transformation typically involves people, process and systems changes which need to be delivered in order to produce a step change within the business. The design of effective processes and application of appropriate technology is not enough to ensure success. Insufficient acceptance and adoption of the new processes, arising from inadequate engagement of stakeholders, is a common cause of transformation failures. Continue reading

How to Implement and Enhance a Gate Process – Part 6: Summary and 7 Top Tips

This is the sixth in a series of articles on how to implement and enhance a gate process. The series offers advice in the context of consumer products. This article is a summary of the first 5 Articles together with my 7 top tips. Continue reading

How to Implement and Enhance a Gate Process – Part 5

12 Tips for fmcg and food industries

This is the fifth in a series of articles on how to implement and enhance a gate process (also known as stage gate process). The series sets out to highlight some of the issues associated with the introduction and operation of gate processes, and to offer some advice in the context of consumer products. Continue reading

Is your Procurement initiative really a cost saver? – The 8 questions to ask.

Today I ask, “How are you to know that your procurement ‘cost saving’ initiative will not deliver to the bottom line?

Regular readers of my blog will know that, recently, I wrote a series of articles on the reasons why, when many large organisations embark on centralised procurement initiatives with the promise of substantial savings, direct increases in profitability fail to materialize within the business units. Continue reading

How to Implement and Enhance a Gate Process – Part 4

Designing and operating the gates

This is the fourth in a series of articles on how to implement and enhance a gate process (also known as stage gate process). The series sets out to highlight some of the issues associated with the introduction and operation of gate processes, and to offer some advice in the context of consumer products. Continue reading