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Why is it so difficult to keep New Year resolutions and what to do to succeed?

January 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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New Year is always an optimistic time for setting out fantastic resolutions to be a new person, we commit to great goals to be a fitter, smarter, better person.

Yet so many resolutions whilst easy to make are a whole lot tougher to keep.

 

If someone you know has decided to go on a diet, start a keep fit programme or other great resolution but is struggling to keep up, they may be interested in some of the latest research from the Stanford Behavioural Lab. Stanford researchers have uncovered the key factors that make the difference between succeeding at behaviour change and failing to do so. You may be surprised to learn the underlying reasons why so many people struggle at changing behaviours and the simple steps you can take to be successful.

You can read their research, watch various videos and download the powerful, yet simple to use tools, from: http://captology.stanford.edu/projects/behaviordesign.html

 

Best wishes for a very happy and prosperous 2013. Let me know if you enjoyed the Stanford material and put it to work successfully.
Filed Under: Personal Performance

Trends in Mobile Marketing

May 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

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Mobile marketing is a continuously growing method for connecting with customers. Technology innovation opportunities to track in the future are pertaining more and more to communication with customers through mobile phones. Mobile marketing trends are constantly changing, so it’s vital for successful companies to stay on top of the latest and greatest opportunities in this area of the market. To begin understanding the unique possibilities available through mobile marketing, you must first consider the capabilities of the mobile technology that many users have, such as smart phones. The sales of smart phones are expected to continue growing by about 25% in 2012.

2012 expects to see a total 8 trillion SMS messages, over the 6.9 billion that were sent in 2011. This provides a wide opening for companies to use this technology as a means of communicating with customers. Though advertisements sent in the mail are often discarded unopened, most mobile users will actually read through a text message. The technology innovation of SMS marketing allows companies to send targeted message to their customers through a voluntary subscription. These messages often include coupons and special deals, which entice customers to sign up for the service. The messages can then expand to tell customers about new products and promotions.

Social media is another important technology innovation for companies to take advance of. With Facebook and Twitter apps, mobile users have access to these social media sites any time. A presence on them can help to put your brand in front of their eyes every day. Best of all, social media gives customers the ability to share your original post, thus turning each follower into a potential advertiser in his or her own right. Catchy design, smart promotions, and interesting posts are essential to making this mobile marketing trend work for you. If your content falls flat, you’ll lose followers fast.

Finally, mobile technology innovation trends point toward users being able to accomplish more and more from their smart phones. With a mobile optimized site, you can capture the user’s location. Many shoppers are willing to provide basic information about themselves that can provide businesses with valuable data for further customizing advertising campaigns. With the rights apps, mobile technology will allow you to sell your products right through the user’s mobile phone. A mobile-optimized site lets customers browse your products, read details, and make purchases using their mobile. You can also engage users in new ways with videos, social games, and flashy sites.

Filed Under: Mobile

How Mobile Technology is Changing Business

May 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment

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The rapid pace of technology innovation developments is changing the way business is done all over the globe. There are an estimated 4.6 billion mobile phones around the world. While many people picture cell phones in the hands of individuals in more developed countries, where they’re used to play games and chat with friends, these devices are having a huge impact in developing countries as well. A mobile phone in the hands of some of the poorest people on the plant can equip them with the information they need to drastically improve the way that business is done and increase their profits.

How Mobile is transforming the Global economy

In locations where goods need to travel a long distance from the producer to the buyer, a new mobile technology innovation can drastically change the process. Fishermen in Bangladesh can maximize their profits by using mobile phones to find the highest paying buyers for each catch. Shea nut pickers in Ghana use mobile technology to check the market price for these nuts. Orders for bulk goods can be placed on mobile devices for more efficient restocking of small stores. Where shop owners once had to close up and travel a long distance to navigate a complex marketplace, they can now send out an order while manning the counter.

Mobile and Home Working

Another mobile technology innovation that is changing the landscape of the workplace is the opportunity for employees to work from home. Entire companies can be run without a single office building. This not only maximises profits by eliminating the need for pay rent and utilities on an office, it also allows the company to hire the best employees for each position from candidates around the country, or even the globe. Even businesses that do have a traditional office can maintain employees on the road. Mobile technology allows these individuals to send in reports, enter new customer information, and even make sells through a cell phone or tablet device.

Mobile Integrates The Whole World

The latest mobile technology innovation to hit the market often focuses on idle pastimes, but the paradigm for successful mobile programs is rapidly changing. This kind of technology can significantly improve the quality of life in developing countries and change the entire model for how business is done. With mobile technology, crafters in remote locations in Africa can connect with a worldwide marketplace for their goods. Farmers can find the best prices for their produce without leaving the farm. Individuals can connect with one another from almost anywhere on the planet, and with each new innovation that planet gets a little bit smaller.

Filed Under: New Media, Productivity

How can Technology Innovation rescue a father in distress?

November 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

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This weekend my daughter Florence had to get to her audition for the National Youth Orchestra. It’s her absolute highlight of her year participating in the NYO orchestra training and big events like performing in the summer Proms season in the Royal Albert Hall. Competition is intense so you need to be relaxed to perform at your very best.

London roads in gridlock preparing for the Olympics

Public transport isn’t running properly over the weekends as the underground network is being upgraded for next year’s Olympics, so we’d left an extra hour to travel the 15 minute car journey across London to Hampstead. Unfortunately the whole of London also appears to be in their cars too on Sundays faced with the same problem and the roads just can’t cope so central London is in gridlock. So an hour had passed and we were jammed in traffic when a fantastic piece of Technology came to the rescue.

Google Maps to the rescue

I was using Google maps on my mobile phone to get to the venue and then suddenly realised to switch on the real time traffic overlay. It tells you the speed of the traffic on all the main roads, so I was able to work out a tortuous route through back streets and alternative main roads to get past all the logjams (showing up with a deep red warning on the Google maps traffic overlay) in the road network.

Technology Innovation in the public sector

On my research today, I discovered that the Highways Agency has made available the road traffic data on England’s roads to Google. It’s a fantastic example of Technology Innovation being applied in the public sector. So three cheers to the Highways Agency and their boffins who made this all possible.

A happy ending?

And yes we did make it to the audition with 10 minutes to spare, we await the results later this week so fingers crossed.
What’s your best traffic jam anecdote? Let me know.
Filed Under: CIO, IT, Productivity Tagged With:

Entrepreneur – What does it take to start up and run a great business?

August 14, 2011 by 1 Comment

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This expert interview is designed for you if you want to be a successful entrepreneur who wants to create a great and valuable business.

Luke Johnson

Luke Johnson

John Corr interviews Luke Johnson,  a leading UK entrepreneur, and author of the book ‘Start it Up. Why Running Your Own Business is Easier Than You Think.’
Luke’s background includes:
- Chairman of the Royal Society of Arts and former Chairman of Channel 4
- Weekly column in the Financial Times
- One of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs having grown famous businesses such as Pizza Express
- Chairman of Risk Capital Partners with investments in some great businesses such as Giraffe Restaurants, Patisserie Valerie and Gails Artisan Bakery

Why this interview will be invaluable to you

In this interview  you’ll learn:

- What’s the biggest mistake a hopeful entrepreneur can make and how can you avoid it?
- What’s the one thing you should do first when it comes to evaluating a business idea?
- What you should do differently from other investors that can result in tremendous success?
- 5 quick tips for an entrepreneur on growing their business
- What’s the easiest thing you can do right now to see results to build profitable growth?

To download the interview (in MP3 format) CLICK HERE. I can guarantee that your investment of 25 minutes of your time will enable you to lean and apply invaluable lessons to starting up and growing a great business.

You can also download a transcript (in PDF format) by CLICKING HERE for report format download.

John Corr

John Corr

John Corr is the Managing Director of Close Quarter, a firm specialising in helping ambitious leaders transform the value of their businesses by helping them accelerate delivery of what matters most to their customers, profits and growth.

John is the current global President of BPGroup.org, a leading global community of professionals interested in sharing best practice in performance improvement, turnarounds and process management.

You can listen to the interview podcast now by clicking on the link below

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: CEO Agenda, CFO, Customer Service, Marketing, Operations, Revenue generation, Strategy, Value Proposition Tagged With:

Technology Innovation – how can you use it to create competitive advantage?

August 14, 2011 by 1 Comment

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This expert interview is designed for CIOs and those leaders and managers responsible for Technology Innovation to create competitive advantage for your organisation.

iPadIn this interview with one of the world’s leading Technology experts, Bill McGrath (Global CIO for AOL Inc), by John Corr you’ll learn:

  • What’s the biggest mistake  CIOs make in regard to Technology Innovation and how can we avoid it?
  • What’s the one thing we should do first when it comes to Technology Innovation?
  • What can you do differently to improve the impact of Technology Innovation?
  • 5 quick tips on what you can do to significantly increase the impact of your Technology Innovation
  • What’s the easiest thing you can do right now to accelerate Technology Innovation in your business?

CLICK HERE to download the interview (in MP3 format). I can guarantee that your investment of 15 minutes of your time will enable you to learn and apply invaluable lessons to ensure the success of your own Technology Innovation programmes. You can also download a transcript (in PDF format) CLICKING HERE. 

Technology Innovation

Technology Innovation

Why is Technology Innovation so powerful when applied successfully?

Professor Clay Christensen described the phenomenon of ‘disruptive innovation’ (see him describe his concept in brief here in video) whereby a new innovative technology disrupts an established industry and most of the existing market leaders go bust.

Why does Technology Innovation matter?

To begin with a technology innovation, such as Google, is not seen as a market threat. However eventually the business models of existing players Yellow Pages, newspapers, magazines and other media businesses are faced with extinction. Technology Innovation is particularly powerful where the new technology is combined with a new business model concept. While Google was a somewhat better search engine than leading competitors such as AltVista, when it was combined with the new business model of ‘paid search’ it became an unstoppable force.

Can you learn from other leading global experts?

If you’ve enjoyed this interview with Bill McGrath on Technology Innovation, then CLICK HERE to learn more from some of the other interviews with some of the worlds leading CEOs, entrepreneurs and thought leaders on improving business performance and helping your customers be successful. You may also enjoy additional articles related to successful technology innovation on the eWallet and the revolution in mobile banking services and on exploiting social media for business benefit and additional interviews with global thought leaders on delivering innovation.

Would you benefit from expert advice on your specific situation?

John Corr

John Corr is the Managing Director of Close Quarter, a firm specialising in helping ambitious leaders transform the value of their businesses through Technology Innovation. John is the current global President of BPGroup.org, a leading global community of professionals interested in sharing best practice in performance improvement, turnarounds and process management.

 

If you fell you need to discuss your specific situation, issues and challenges in depth and benefit from expert confidential advice then you should consider calling John on +44 (0) 20 7748 2225.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: CEO Agenda, CFO, CIO, IT, New Media, Productivity Tagged With:

Solvency II – How can you avoid the biggest risks to your programme?

February 23, 2011 by

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Solvency II is a fundamental review of the business models of European insurers, most directly impacting capital adequacy and risk management. This expert interview is designed for the business leaders responsible for Solvency II programmes with practical advice on the most significant risks you face at this stage, how to avoid them and how you can succeed.

Please click the start button to watch the video.


As they say “so what’s the worst thing that can happen to your Solvency II programme?” Put simply a programme that is off the rails can end up saddling you with additional operating costs while still leaving you with significant compliance issues with the FSA.

In this interview with Solvency II expert, Iain Pickard, by John Corr you’ll learn:

Iain Pickard

Iain Pickard

  • What are the biggest risks that leaders of Solvency II programmes face at this time and how can you avoid them?
  • What’s the one thing you should be doing now (that perhaps you’re not)?
  • What should you do differently to many Insurers that are putting their Solvency II programme at risk?
  • 5 quick tips on what you can do to significantly reduce the risk to the success of your Solvency II programme?
  • What’s the easiest thing you can do right now to improve your situation?

You can download the recording and transcript of the Solvency II interview from this section

Solvency II

Solvency II

CLICK HERE to download the interview (in MP3 format). I can guarantee that your investment of 15 minutes of your time will enable you to lean and apply invaluable lessons to ensure the success of your own Solvency II programme.

Can I recommend that you take advantage of downloading a FULL transcript that you can read ‘offline’ by CLICKING HERE to download a written PDF format copy.

While downloading, you can listen to the interview right now from the ‘PODCAST’ link at the bottom of this page. Additional valuable resources are available from the section below.

How else can we help you with your Solvency II programme right now?

Complex programmes like Solvency II, frequently encounter decision making roadblocks that hold up progress on critical issues. A powerful tool that we recommend to you is the RACI technique that helps you accelerate decision making in difficult and complicated situations. CLICK HERE to download a detailed ‘how to’ on using the RACI technique with practical examples and case studies of its application in large-scale programmes.

You can also GO HERE for additional resources from the European Commission and  for those in the UK CLICK HERE for FSA resources on Solvency II.

Is your Solvency II programme in trouble?

If a particular aspect of your overall Solvency II programme is in trouble, we can help you get it back on track. Are you facing some of the following issues?

  • Is the data from your core systems too inconsistent and unreliable for live running and the proposed IT solution to address this issue too difficult and complex to implement?
  • Are you concerned that you’ll fail your USE TEST as the processes that you’ve submitted to  the FSA are too complex to work in practice?
  • Do you suspect that some of your processes been over-engineered undermining your profitability post implementation?
  • Are some of your key projects at risk putting your overall programme under pressure?
  • Do you need an independent expert assessment on the probability that you’ll pass your ‘USE TEST’ with the FSA?

If you’re fed up of the ‘big 4′ applying huge teams attempting to ‘boil the ocean’ rather than fixing your issues right now then you may wish to take a look at the services we offer to get your Solvency II programme back on track rapidly.

Do you need advice on your specific issues and challenges with Solvency II?

John Corr

John Corr

If you are grappling with complex issues and it’s not obvious what you should do and you feel you would benefit from expert independent advice, then please do ring John Corr (on 020 7748 2225) to explore your situation in more depth.

All conversations are confidential and without further obligation.

Alternatively, simply drop me a question or request using our CONTACT page to email me. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: CEO Agenda, CFO, CIO, Operations, Process, Solvency II Tagged With:

Business transformation – learn why most programmes fail and how you can succeed

February 21, 2011 by 4 Comments

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Business Transformation - Please click the start button to watch the video.

What makes the difference between success and the majority of programmes that fail?

Business Transformation

Business Transformation

This expert interview is designed for the leaders of businesses who have an urgent necessity to address serious profitability and cash flow issues in their business. The interview covers how successful business transformation programmes can deliver a significant turnaround in your business performance.

A transformation programme is a high risk endeavour with a failure rate estimated to be in the range of 65-85%  according to the Working Council of CFOs. Clearly if your business is under severe stress then the odds are stacked against you and you may feel you have limited room for manoeuvre and constrained by your cash and other resources in the alternatives that you can pursue.

 

In this interview with John Corr sharing his personal experiences and those from his role as the global President of the BpGroup.org) by Charles Bennett you’ll learn:

  • What’s the biggest risk that leaders of businesses under severe stress face and how can you avoid it?
  • What’s the one thing you should be doing now (that perhaps you’re not)?
  • What should you do differently to many businesses that fail to deliver business transformation programmes?
  • 5 quick tips on what you can do to turnaround your business situation
  • What’s the easiest thing you can do right now to improve your situation?

To download the interview (in MP3 format), just CLICK HERE. Invest 15 minutes of your time to learn invaluable lessons from some remarkable business turnarounds. You can download a written transcript by CLICKING HERE.

How can you shape your business transformation programme to turnaround business performance?

You can learn additional lessons, insights and advice on how to turnaround your business performance by viewing this interview of John Corr in his role as global President of the BP Group.org community. CLICK HERE to learn how to turnaround performance through business transformation

What can you learn from how other business leaders have succeeded in their business transformation?

John Corr

John Corr

To learn more about how we have helped other businesses turnaround their performance significantly please then CLICK HERE to listen to personal interviews with leading international CEOs and our CASE STUDIES.

If your situation is more urgent and you feel you would benefit from expert independent advice, then please do ring John Corr (on +44 20 7748 2225) to explore your specific situation in more depth.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: CEO Agenda, CFO, Process Management, Productivity, Strategy, Value Proposition Tagged With:

Does the 21st century really belong to China?

January 22, 2011 by 1 Comment

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The 19th century belonged to England, the 20th century belonged to the U.S., and the 21st century belongs to China. Invest accordingly.

– Warren Buffett

How could someone so smart be so wrong?

China is a great country that is thriving and re-establishing its place at the top table of the largest economies. However the USA still has an unbounded ability to innovate and create the products and services of the the future.

It’s no accident that the iPhone, Google and Facebook all originate from the USA. Americans have an incredible ability to renew themselves every day with passion, energy and enthusiasm. Combine this with the ‘rule of law’, liberty, democracy and unbounded optimism. It’s forever morning in America.

For all these great reasons of both heart and mind, the 21st century will be America’s century.

Filed Under: Strategy Tagged With:

Is CEO pay too high?

August 31, 2010 by Leave a Comment

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Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison

Is CEO pay too high?]

The Wall Street Journal reported that Larry Ellison is the world’s highest paid CEO having earned over $1.8 billion in the previous decade.  This example and of other high paid CEOs has led to a barrage of criticism and comparisons between what a CEO earns and that of an average employee. These comparisons however miss the point.

The key question is ‘is the high pay of a CEO worth it?’

I would argue that the answer is YES. The CEO is accountable for the 3 most important value creating activities within an organisation, namely:

  • Setting the strategy and focus for the organisation
  • Selecting and managing the ‘Top Team’
  • Focusing the Top Team and organisation on the execution of the strategy


What’s the impact of a successful CEO?

Getting these three activities right is at the heart of the difference between successful and unsuccessful organisations and ultimately driving customer and shareholder value creation in the best companies. To take the example of Larry Ellison, under his stewardship company the company nearly has tripled in value (from $36 billion to $98 billion in the 10 years to 31 May 2009 (with  realised gains on options accounted for 97% of Mr. Ellison’s total compensation).

Is every CEO worth the money?

Clearly there are examples of CEOs who have taken large rewards personally and disappointed their shareholders with losses. However according to Prof. Stephen Kaplan  at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, in general, “the guys who got the big payoffs deliver”

So to paraphase L’Oreal’s famous slogan, the simple reason why CEOs are paid so well is ‘because you are worth it’

Filed Under: CEO Agenda, Strategy
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