Sustainable Performance in the Turbulent Times Ahead |
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As consultants we are asked more and more “how do we achieve sustainable performance when everything we know is changing around us?” It is a much published view that 60% or more of change initiatives fail (see our previous report) despite huge sums of money and time being spent to make them work. Yet change is a necessary requirement and a critical issue for most companies.
Value Partnership’s latest research, carried out through…
Leadership stories from the trenches |
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At the end of February, John Kay, writing in his column in the Financial Times, pointed out that ‘narrative reasoning’ is the most effective means humans have developed of handling complex and ill-defined problems. Put simply, he means the best way to cope with the kind of uncertainties businesses face in setting strategy is telling stories. Stories are persuasive in a way that statistics aren’t. They can be persuasive for employees, customers or shareholders.
Don…
Overcoming the barriers to collaboration |
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Last week I worked with the global leadership team of a complex but growing business. They identified that, in order to continue to grow, their business needs more collaboration and innovation.
With numerous far flung locations and multiple languages, the leadership team knows that in order to set a culture of collaboration, they must act as role models.
Working virtually and with limited face-to-face interactions, the team agreed that co-operation was likely to decline naturally, unless they…
Organisation Critical Challenges for 2013 |
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Happy New Year. What will the new year bring? With recent history in mind perhaps nothing should surprise us. Given the uncertainty, CEOs appear to be determined to “control the controllable”.
Chief executives are increasingly focusing on internal business concerns, rather than worrying about geopolitical events, according to a survey from the US-based Conference Board. Four of the five top challenges cited in the 2013 CEO Challenge report are company-controllable factors: human capital,…
60% of change programmes fail |
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Change has become the new normal. Companies facing increasing competitive and innovative markets constantly have to change what they do and how they do it. Managers and employees have to deal with an uncertain world and yet are still required to deliver the day job, while all around them things are in a state of flux.
Our research during the past year – Leading Change in Uncertain times - carried out by personal interviews with…
Season’s Greetings from all the team at Value Partnership |
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Value Partnership would like to wish all our clients, partners, suppliers and friends a wonderful Christmas season and a prosperous New Year.
2012 has been another great year for Value Partnership, with a huge variety of challenges to reckon with across many different sectors. Organisational transformation was a thread behind much of our work as our clients seek to develop the capabilities to respond to the critical challenges their businesses face in the turbulent world…
Today’s CFO: From Controller to Entrepreneur |
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In today’s economy, companies want leaders who can provide comfort and confidence in an uncertain world. With their unique combination of analytical, technical and strategic capabilities, CFOs are very well placed to provide it. So says Ernst & Young in a recent study ‘CFO & beyond’. But are they really? There is no doubt that the Board room is a relatively easy environment for the CFO to fit into…
Take a “New Look” at your business challenges |
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“We’ve articulated the issues:
- Weak leadership
- A poor environment for people to work in
- The product offer had polarised
- The prices had got too high
- We are a fast-fashion business but with a slow supply chain “
And that’s Alistair McGeorge’s perspective – New Look’s Chairman.
New Look is the UK’s second largest seller of women’s clothing behind Marks and Spencer. The business, which is private equity backed has had two tough years, and is 18 months from completing its turnaround. It’s…
One team, one goal |
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My summer was spent as a volunteer at the Olympic and Paralympic Village in Stratford. It was probably the best summer I have ever had. But it’s odd really, why that is. After all it wasn’t a holiday – I was forfeiting that. And I wasn’t doing anything particularly ‘testing’ or new. And I most certainly didn’t stand out – in fact I looked like 70,000 other people in my purple and red uniform. …
Exceeding expectations |
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The Times ran a commentary (Sat, 8 Sept 2012) on the London Games pointing out that the expected chaos turned out to be anything but – and how that very fact made the triumph seem that much greater. For example German magazine Der Spiegel predicted a disaster in July, proclaiming: “London and the Olympic Games are clearly not made for each other. Visitors will need determination and, most of all, patience to reach the venues…