‘The basic failure of strategy work is a failure to define the challenge that you’re trying to meet.’ Richard Rumelt is one of the world’s leading authorities on strategy. He’s also a keen rock-climber, and it was climbing that gave him the inspiration for his new book: The Crux. In…
“Because I Can… is about: ‘How do I find a way to make something work?’ ‘How do I be a part of the solution?’” Do you make a difference? Or do you make excuses? Tim Bradshaw has done many remarkable things in his life, from military training to endurance events,…
“We all want to grow our business. And we often do that by spending quite a lot of money… But the reality is in front of us, we have all the new clients we need.” Graham Eisner perfected his technique for asking clients for referrals without embarrassment on either side…
‘You cannot go into PR without building relationships.’ Louise Third has embraced this principle in the planning and writing of her book PR on a Beermat, first by partnering with the originators of the beermat idea to develop it for PR, by writing collaboratively with partners, and by involving journalists…
‘I think it’s kind of a miracle. How can a human mind… all by itself, come up with an idea it never had before? You know, in a dialogue, I can understand how I can get a new idea from you, but how can I get a new idea from…
‘Accountability is… probably the most empowering concept you have to live the life you want to live, when you understand it.’ When we speak about accountability in business, very often the context is negative. It’s about consequences and blame. But if we see accountability as ownership, it’s a radically different,…
Put an author in front of schoolchildren and you can guarantee that before too long, one of them will ask: ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ It’s a good question, and one that’s just as important for business book writers. In this week’s ‘best bits’ episode we look back over…
‘[Writing] is a craft. It’s no different to knitting or painting by numbers or whatever, you just have to learn the craft. It might take practice and it might take learning a few rules, but, you know, they’re not that scary.’ For Robert Kelsey, writing is an essential business skill…
‘I delighted in writing it. That doesn’t mean I found it easy.’ Time management has been seen as an issue for individuals for too long: Helen Beedham argues that the real issue is systemic. The way that organisations manage and value time, she says, is broken. And it’s not just…
‘Expressing an idea and getting it out there is a very skilful process… the principle is to get the other people as interested in the idea you are.’ Creative work is to a large extent invisible – which makes it tricky for managers to manage. It also means that we’re…
