How do you set goals in your organization today? Surely by now we all define our goals according to the guidelines of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely), so everythings great right? What if I told you that SMART goals are self-limiting? What if I told you that if you insist on defining SMART goals that […]
Author Archive: Tim Empringham, MBA
Modifying Drucker’s Five Most Important Questions
In his book The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization, Peter Drucker offers a tool for self-assessment and transformation in his “Five Most Important Questions You Can Ask”. The questions are designed to drive action and create focus on doing the right things to drive exceptional performance within your organization, only […]
Commit to making Errors of Commission
According to Rosabeth Moss Kanter, when it comes to innovation the big mistakes are “generally not errors of commission”. Put another way a former boss used to say “if you’re not failing you’re not trying”. Ultimately they both mean that it’s actually the lack of innovation that is the most risky approach to doing business. […]
The Slipping Point
At some point in the evolution of even the most successful companies, an interesting thing happens – growth stalls. Even the brightest and most experienced Entrepreneurs and managers are perplexed as the things they did to create the initial growth in the company no longer drive new revenues. In fact if they stick with old […]
Design Thinking and The Parable of the Fly Fisherman
Sunday night I got started reading my first book in a while (it is hard to get as much reading done when you’re not riding the train for two hours a day). Luckily it is one that I’ve been looking forward to – Change by Design by Tim Brown (CEO of IDEO). I have heard great things about the book […]
Out Of The Box Opportunities
There is a great article in this week’s BusinessWeek magazine entitled ‘Fertile Ground for Startups’ that illustrates the opportunities that are at hand for truly innovative ideas in today’s economy. The article outlines that investment by angel investors and venture capitalists is up significantly over the first half of this year, and that as many as 50,000 […]
Appropriate Management Controls for Small Business
For those that read this blog regularly or who have spoken with me at one of the various networking events that I regularly participate in you know that my passion is in creating growth through value innovation, but I have had a couple of conversations in the past week with colleagues in other businesses about […]
Tips to be a more effective Networker
As small business owners, one of the key sources of new business will be your network. That means that the more effective you are at the art of networking, the more likely you are to generate quality leads and increase your business and professional footprint. For those seeking new employment, the principles are the same […]
Interesting Small Business Statistics
While these statistics aren’t particularly new (they come from a 2005 Industry Canada report) I came across them this week while working on a white paper and I think they bear some brief discussion here. In Canada, 94.6% of businesses by number are ‘small’ meaning that they have less than 50 employees. The actual number startled me […]
The 80/20 Rule and Your Market
We all know the 80/20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle. We’ve heard it over and over and seen the power of the rule in our own businesses. 80% of our business comes from 20% of our customers. 80% of our problems are solved by 20% of our efforts. The richest 20% of the […]