Bookends of Service

Posted by Philip Smith on 22 March 2018
Choices and consequences     Peter Drucker describes a concept of service delivery which he calls "the bookends of service" where the first "bookend" is established at our first contact with a client.  It would follow that the second "bookend" is placed at the conclusion of the supply of products or services.  He relates an experience where a large organisation went to extreme lengths to provide amazing service and just as ...
Posted in:Value  

Say Thanks to the big guys.

Posted by Philip Smith on 8 February 2018
As we all know education is expensive and wisdom follows experience. When interacting with large organisations we are constantly provided with lessons in how not to treat customers, all we have to do is pay attention and think. It is up to us to take all the positives we can learn from such experiences and re-examine our own organisations. Alvin Toffler is often quoted as saying that the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot le...
Posted in:Lessons  

What happened to the Plan ?

Posted by Philip Smith on 14 January 2018
We no longer need a plan, we need a Strategic Strategy to define our Strategic Strategy Initiative to achieve our Strategic Objectives !!!.....yadayadayada  As can be seen in the sign below, who on earth would want a Development opportunity, when one could have a Strategic Development opportunity?     There was a time when all we needed was a plan, a clear objective and some skilled people, to successfully complete projects. Nowadays we need a Strate...
Posted in:Lessons  

Words on the wall

Posted by Philip Smith on 1 December 2017
Do we believe our own PR. For many years I have studied the words companies display on their walls. These are in the form of beautifully presented slogans, quotes or inspirational messages. Recently I visited two government offices and to my surprise one had "words on the wall" and the other released a new strategy where they list "their words" no doubt soon to appear on a wall near you. Engage and Challenge were two of the words, neither of which this d...
Posted in:Lessons  

What we believe

Posted by Philip Smith on 8 November 2017
Why do we believe what we believe and could this be dangerous?     As a starting point to this story I will defer to Mr. Tolstoy who said "The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him." Having just con...
Posted in:Management