Strategy Archives

Management Excellence Book Series: Six Disciplines Execution Revolution with Gary Harpst

I started this book series to share the insights and approaches of some truly sharp people on solving vexing business problems. This particular interview with Gary Harpst, author of, Six Disciplines Execution Revolution and the earlier Six Disciplines for Excellence, taps into Gary's hard won, practical experience and his great ideas on helping small and mid-sized businesses deal with strategy execution. Enjoy the thoughtful, actionable and experience-tested guidance from Gary in our podcast interview!

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:36:24-05:00December 8th, 2010|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments

10 of My Favorite Dumb Ass Management Mistakes

In the spirit of my post, “At Least 20 Things to Stop Doing as a Leader,” which has grown well north of 50 thanks to a deluge of reader comments, I’m back with a list of some insanely stupid and all-too-common management mistakes. These focus more on the decisions, actions or inactions that contribute to creating even bigger problems. While I’ve remained on the positive side of the law here (felons, you’ve had your day!), some of these mistakes are truly criminal. Please feel free to chime in with your additions.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:36:25-05:00December 7th, 2010|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|9 Comments

Marketers: 4 Ideas to Avoid Falling Victim to The Felt Need

The article, “The Felt Need” by Dan and Chip Heath in the November, 2010 issue of Fast Company is worth the price of the annual subscription for it’s reminder value alone. The Heaths tackle a topic that just about all of us involved in selling, marketing or strategy have succumbed to at some point in our careers: the felt need versus the burning need. Here are four ideas to avoid being victimized by "The Felt Need."

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:37:17-05:00October 26th, 2010|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|2 Comments

The Importance of Strategy Fueled Leadership

I’ve written on the topic of Strategy Fueled Leadership several times, and fresh off of a great podcast interview with Gary Harpst, author of Six Disciplines Execution Revolution (stay tuned for my posting) and my recent interview with Jocelyn Davis for Strategic Speed, I am on my soapbox again. It is critical to link leadership with strategy and vice-versa and the failure to do this is one of the root causes of strategy and execution failure in organizations.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:37:32-05:00September 9th, 2010|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|3 Comments

Management Excellence Book Series Podcast: Strategic Speed

I had the good fortune to connect recently with Jocelyn Davis, one of the co-authors (along with Henry Frechette, Jr., and Edwin Boswell) of Strategic Speed, for an interview, where we discussed the high failure rate of strategies, the meaning of "strategic speed," and a number of other issues important to anyone interested in improving strategy execution. Jocelyn's insights into the book and the world of strategy and leadership were fascinating.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:37:37-05:00August 31st, 2010|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|1 Comment

Finding Time to Focus or, Speed Kills

The lot of professionals inside many organizations can easily be characterized by a series of endless status meetings, hurried hallway conversations and messages quickly dispatched on a pda while walking, ignoring the meeting in process or consuming a protein bar on the run. Nonetheless, work gets done, customers are served and growth often created. I do however, worry and wonder about the human costs and the cost to the organization in lost-ideas, missed opportunities and a much more superficial existence.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:37:39-05:00August 25th, 2010|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|13 Comments

What If? Why Not? And Other Incredible Business Adventures

While we celebrate companies that pursue and succeed in radically changing the rules of the game, let’s face it, most organizations run on inertia. For every company that redefines their little part of the world and changes our culture just a bit, there are plenty of firms that run on autopilot until the fuel runs out and the plane needs to be ditched in the ocean. The forces of globalization and digitization create storms and headwinds for some that are just too strong to overcome.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:38:48-05:00June 16th, 2010|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|4 Comments

Art to Help Kick-Off Project Leadership Forum at Harrisburg University

As a long-time, self-described zealot for the importance of project managers developing as leaders, imagine how excited I was to learn about a conference devoted to just this topic! I’ve written at length in this blog (Learning to Lead in the Project Focused World and others) and even offered up my e-book, Leadership and the Project Manager, in support of this concept. I’m even more excited to be a part of the conference as a guest keynote as Project Leadership Forum kicks-off on Thursday in Harrisburg, PA.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:39:58-05:00May 11th, 2010|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|2 Comments

Want Growth? You Might Try Slowing Down to Speed Up

Jocelyn R. Davis and Tom Atkinson offer some compelling thoughts on strategy in their article, "Need Speed? Slow Down," in the May, 2010 Harvard Business Review. They describe the concept of strategic speed as one of reducing the time it takes to create value. While “reducing time” might sound like speeding up, their research results suggest the opposite.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:40:00-05:00May 5th, 2010|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|7 Comments

7 Ideas to Stimulate Experimentation in Your Organization

In some organizations, there are so many systemic and cultural disincentives to experimentation that it’s a wonder that executives and employees are able to decide what to have for lunch today that was different from yesterday. In spite of the natural inertia towards the sure thing or the shortcut (external advice in lieu of more risky and time-consuming experimentation), I’ll offer my few cents worth on why and how you and your firm can use experimentation as a means of building value and confounding competitors.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:40:19-05:00March 17th, 2010|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|7 Comments