The UK Northern Powerhouse
The Northern Powerhouse is a concept that is slowly taking shape in the UK.
The attached video gives an indication why it is an entity worth considering – investing in the 10th largest economy in Europe if it were an independent country is worth a look.
Here’s the latest link as of 18th April 2016:
Welcome to the North!
Leverage, The CEO’s Guide to Corporate Culture: A Book Review
“Leverage The CEO’s Guide to Corporate Culture”
A short review of the book written by John Childress
On the front cover, the author sets the scene:
“Few concepts in business contain so many powerful truths, and at the same time so much crap, as corporate culture.”
The reviewer uses the Lily Pond Model to describe how culture operates at 3 levels, but put simply, it is “the way we do things round here.”
Childress gives a more detailed starting point: “the usual way we go about solving business problems, interacting with customers and treating each other.”
Read More»New Technology Investment and the Hype Cycle
Gartner’s ‘Hype Cycle’ of New Technology Investment
Caution with new technology investment is required to avoid either getting into the market too early or arriving too late and missing the significant early investment gains. Gartner have identified a 5 phase model, christened “the hype cycle”, which all new technology seems to go through.
A simple way to explain it is to look at the rise of the internet and the dotcom boom-bust. Advances since the year 2000 have been phenomenal.
In 2000, only about 350 million people were online. Now it’s more like 3.5 billion. Computers were slow, the internet was slow, Google was only a couple of years old. Facebook didn’t exist, nor did 4G, cloud computing or Gmail. Some of us still hadn’t got our first Nokia brick.
Looking back from 2016, those are some massive changes. And yet the Nasdaq – the US tech stock index – is still trading below its 2000 highs.
Read More»Bringing Organisation Transformational Change Home Successfully
The Influencing Change model identifies 4 aspects that need to be incorporated into any transformational change programme to significantly increase the chances of a successful outcome. 3 elements relate directly to people and dealing with them and the fourth relates to how people are organised.
The article written by Basford and Schaninger gives a succinct summary and references related work, recently shared in the Mckinsey Quarterly publication available free on line . The paper endeavours to outline the factors required to improve the chances of aligning mindsets and behaviour. So, what happens when we experience something that requires us to re-think how we view things?
Earthrise, taken from the Moon, courtesy NASA
Read More»Wielder of Vision or Fear of Change?
Are You a Visionary Welcoming Change– or a Sceptic, Worried by the Unknown?
“Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.”
— Jonathan Swift
Swans Reflecting Elephants by Salvador Dali
There is plenty to become concerned about in the world today. Political uncertainty over the EU; global economic fragility; a very weak international banking situation (still); war; disease; insurrection – I could go on.
Having said this, there seems to be a growing air of anticipation when looking at a number of technological innovations and breakthroughs. People seem to be showing enthusiasm for backing breakthrough companies via quoted exchanges, placings, crowd funding and so on.
Why?
Read More»Disruptive Innovation: Global Infiltration of Nanotechnology
It is now possible to anticipate the use of nanotechnology in a range of industries and end uses which are core to our existence on the planet. This range of potential applications; from keeping our bodies healthy to extend life for decades longer, through enabling climate change and moving big data on through ultra-dense memory for example, is stunning.
picture accredited under creative commons attribution
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