The UK is officially in a recession, yet many businesses will thrive, found out how to be sure that you will be one of them.
How to thrive in a recession.
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Strategy
The Challenge for the Bank of England
An independent Bank of England with a strategy of keeping inflation low and a government set on increasing borrowing aren’t working in harmony. What’s the likely result?
Strategic Pace
The master’s of business know that the better strategy is to use strategic pace. That needs a good plan, a steady series of well designed efforts that mean at the point you need the stamina and strength, it is all ready.
Context Matters.
If you want to be seen as the master of what you do, get clarity of the contexts in which you do it. Gather an understanding of them, and be ready to explain them to others seeking the value your mastery brings.
When you speak up, and provide the context that others need, then they will see the true value of your words and feel the gravitas with which you say them.
It’s only an armful
Mastery is as much about knowing how to communicate what you know and teaching the skills that you have, and that’s teamwork too. When your teams are focussed on the one thing they do, and learn to do it well together, they really do stand out.
Storm Eunice.
Eunice’s blows were both powerful and anticipated, yet specific consequences cannot be predicted. Which trees will stand and which fall can never be known accurately in advance.
The same can be said for running a business.
The Star.
It was a chance encounter. I had been walking with a friend and we had decided to have a pub lunch together.
What we found was a fabulous establishment with a menu that promised an extraordinary lunch.
Take the next turn…
On the road, the signposts stop when you reach your destination, but in business I’m not sure anyone ever stops travelling. We always have to communicate about what we are delivering, about what we could deliver, and continue to build the relationships that are needed for business to thrive.
Are You Getting Your Message Across
If our products and services are to stand the chance, we need to give just the right information at the best moment. It is for this reason that I consider ‘signposting’ one of the key strategies of any business.
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt & Jeff Cox
The Goal is a different style of business book, it is written as a story. A story of a man called Alex Rogo and his challenges in an engineering factory.
Whoops, Apocalypse
We don’t plan to fail and we like to think that we are in control of our own destiny in a way that allows us to bring things back when they slip. Hoping that things will work out is the optimists’ curse, fearing that they won’t is the pessimists’ curse.
It’s Just a Checklist
I don’t mention anything about technology, software, hardware, process design and so on. All of these things can help to support how a process is implemented, but none of them can design the process, nor its purpose.
A Buzz in the Building by Kate Mercer
This is a book for anyone thinking about, or in the midst of, building a business, a business team or working with others.
A Focus on Forever
Exceptional performance today differentiates businesses, it gives them an edge over their competitors and they thrive, for now. Yet what they do that makes them successful is copied, improved, enhanced and before you you know it, it is just an everyday expectation.
Who are you Building Better Business for anyway?
Identify things that need to change in your business, then change them with an intention to make them more reliable, consistent, and repeatable.
The Journey to Mastery and its power for you.
Mastery brings with it many responsibilities and rewards. Don’t play small, instead reach for what you can become.
Rework By Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.
Rework is a different sort of book. It takes the challenges of running a business and breaks them down into bite-sized chunks.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
The book references, elements of the things that we think about every day, what’s important and what isn’t. What do we care about and what do we not.
How You Can Take The Journey to Business Mastery
If you want to be a professional you need to dedicate the time it takes, to explore, to be a novice and to become a practitioner of your ‘art’.
Book review – The GoGiver by Bob Burg and John David Mann
Many books tell stories and many business books that tell us how to do certain things that are important for business. Few do both well. This book weaves a story, and it's lessons into a compelling narrative that draws in the reader and encourages them to turn the...