Suspension bridges provide an excellent graphical representation of six characteristics common to successful organizations whether they are for-profit businesses, charitable entities or membership organizations. For centuries, people have built suspension bridges to cross otherwise un-navigable terrain. In the U.S. two of the most famous bridges, the Golden Gate Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge, were instrumental in [...]
IT HAPPENED AGAIN TODAY! It is like fingers on a chalkboard to me. As a business strategy consultant, I get frustrated and annoyed at the overuse of the word ‘strategy’ in the business world. Sometimes I don’t think the person speaking actually understands what the word means! Strategy is an outcome, not an action-oriented task [...]
A big part of business strategy consulting is teaching the executive leadership about the planning process. The three keystones to planning are creating a strategy, building a plan, and identifying and implementing accountability. Many business leaders believe that the business strategy and the business plan are the same thing. This is a misconception that gets [...]
Recently I was contacted by a local company to discuss a proposal for business process improvement. In a very limited discovery stage, I determined the CEO of the company did not have a vision of what he wanted. He was focused on the business process improvement project but had not taken the time to identify [...]
Several years ago I was asked to facilitate a strategy session for a large HMO that wanted to change business models. The executives realized they needed to do an overhaul on their business model to remain competitive in the marketplace. Medicare fees were being reduced again, and they no longer could survive with inefficient methodologies. [...]
