Strategy Archives

Ten Places Where Management Teams Misstep on Strategy

Strategy…the discussions…the decisions and of course, the execution, is hard work filled with ample opportunities to misstep. From revisiting and updating the underlying assumptions about your business, markets and competitors, to the vexing issues of deciding what to do and what not to do, it’s no surprise that many management teams avoid this work and focus more on incremental operations planning and improvement. However, for those who are courageous enough to go down this important path and do the heavy lifting, here are my top 10 pitfalls and speed bumps to avoid during your journey. 10 Places Where Management Teams Misstep on Strategy...

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:32:44-05:00November 8th, 2011|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™ Podcast #10: Geoffrey Moore on Escape Velocity

Organizations of all sizes and types, from high tech to manufacturing and not-for-profit, struggle with a common dilemma...how to escape the pull of the past as they look forward into a fast-changing and very different world. Geoffrey A. Moore, the renowned high-tech strategist and author, perhaps best known for his book, Crossing the Chasm, a guide to helping firms move from early adopters across this fateful and often fatal canyon, is back with his latest book, Escape Velocity-Free Your Company's Future from the Pull of the Past. In the book, Moore tackles this tough topic of moving beyond successes of the past towards new generations of offerings and growth.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:32:51-05:00October 19th, 2011|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|5 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—10 Situations to Throttle Back on Speed

Somewhere on the way to this world we now live and work in, “speed” became a proxy for success. Speed is undoubtedly important, but beware relying on it as the sole indicator of effectiveness. It’s a cruel tyrant, demanding fealty from followers, while discouraging critical and deep thinking and focusing solely on time-to-response as a metric of success. Here are at least 10 situations where you should resist the need for speed and call a timeout:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:33:10-05:00October 17th, 2011|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|3 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-Always Lead with Context

Context in this case is that not-so-secret ingredient that helps people understand the idea or issue and how it connects to something important in the workplace. Context provides the basis for understanding and assessing a situation or a request to do something. It has the equivalent workplace outcome of adding yeast to the process of making bread. Without it, everything is flat. Improve performance by providing critical context at the organizational, strategic and personal levels.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:33:28-05:00September 12th, 2011|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|7 Comments

Why It’s Time to Ditch Your Plans for the Summer Strategy Off-Site

From the symbolism of the annual off-site strategy event to the cost to the fact that strategic thinking time is reduced to a once or twice a year event, this approach is anachronistic in a world with markets and conditions changing daily. In twenty years of these things with some great people and great businesses, I’ve yet to see anything come out of these meetings that changed our businesses. I will offer that they did allow for another layer of vetting and idea absorption. Nonetheless, the heavy lifting took place with others outside of the cozy confines of a resort or hotel meeting room. It's time to ditch the annual strategy off-site.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:34:27-05:00June 8th, 2011|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments

Frontline Leaders Help Our Firms Go and Grow

Great frontline leaders create great experiences for their employees. This flows immediately and directly to customers. And then it flows to the top and bottom lines.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:34:40-05:00May 11th, 2011|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|7 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™: Motivate with Context

We waste fortunes inside our organizations on misguided programs and oddball incentives, seeking ways to motivate and inspire people to work hard, innovate, create, care and to live up to their potential, when the real solution is literally on the tip of our tongues. Here are 5 ideas for curing Context Deficit Disorder:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:34:47-05:00April 25th, 2011|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|13 Comments

Management Week in Review for February 11, 2011

Every Friday, I share three thought-provoking management posts for the week. Fair warning: I take a broad view of management, so my selections will range from leadership to innovation to finance and personal development and beyond. This week's selections feature content on corporate struggles in a changing world, ideas on creating organizations that drive remarkable commitment from their employees and customers, and a buffet of great leadership reading options at the February Leadership Development Carnival. Enjoy!

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:35:50-05:00February 11th, 2011|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|3 Comments

Want to Change the World? Don’t Forget to Build Your Business Model

Over the past few weeks, I’ve connected with some brilliant individuals in multiple entrepreneurial organizations. In every instance, I heard some form of “We want to change the world” as these high-energy individuals described their ideas and their motivation. I love “change the world ideas” put forth by people passionate about doing something new, doing something better and helping others along the way. There’s no way I can avoid cheering for these teams. However, I can worry for them. Here's why...

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:36:06-05:00January 12th, 2011|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|4 Comments

Management Week in Review-January 7, 2011

One of my professional goals this year is to do a better job sharing insights and perspectives from a broad range of great leadership and management writers and thinkers. Every Friday, I will share my three favorites for the week. This week, I'm including content on transforming yourself, testing your strategy and turning some of the disasters of 2010 into great lessons for 2011. Enjoy!

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:36:09-05:00January 7th, 2011|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|4 Comments