Staying bootstrapped

Keeping cash flow strategies green

Want to reinvent your business? A popular strategy is to return to the startup model. It reinvigorates the enthusiasm and drive that characterize a business launch, spurring innovation and idea generation. 

We see it in notions like “skunkworks” and “idea labs”. The track record, however, is patchy. Ideas emerge, but they often lack traction in the marketplace. Plenty of great innovations are still born; they are long on vision but lack financial discipline.

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The sustainable opportunity

How saving the planet can help your business

The profit motive is not flavor of the month. It’s blamed for a lot of things, not least environmental degradation.

Business should be rightly worried about it. Public concern about the environment is growing, not receding. Business can resist the trend, but it is a market reality. What happens if we embrace it?

The word sustainability has been around for a while. It may have been hijacked by the climate change debate, but it dates to the 13^th century and derives from the French word sustenir, meaning to endure.

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Product innovation: finding better ideas

Evolution versus revolution

The trouble is, innovation is now a management buzzword. That makes us think innovation is somehow “new” and therefore potentially revolutionary.

In reality it’s more like evolution. It’s going on all the time. In business, you can spend a lot of time looking for an innovative breakthrough while your competitors are constantly evolving.

Innovation is a lot closer to outmoded terms like “product development”. Not quite as exciting, I admit, but that’s a similar process that achieves the same outcome: it makes things better and more marketable.

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Diversity: It's not just about race and gender

What about smart and dumb? 

The case for more diversity in management is well-researched. Teams that encourage minority opinions regularly make better decisions than those with a narrow view.

That should be no surprise. Anyone who has stress-tested a “great idea” knows it will be more robust if it’s intensely critiqued. While technical ability and relevant knowledge play a big part in effective management, its openness and enquiry that fine-tune successful decisions.

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Management theories: yours or theirs?

Has management advice actually made any progress?

Doesn’t seem so. Prominent business leaders, management gurus, and leading academics – all three have a history of failure.

It can happen anywhere, anytime. I worked for three years in Singapore in the 1980s. Each year someone was designated “Businessman of the Year”. All three nominees suffered ignominious reversals before I had left, including gaol time.

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