Taking the work out of work-life balance
Better balance doesn't mean less work. It's about enjoying the entire spectrum of your being, including what you do at the office.
Jul 28, 2014•4 min
Recharge on Air with Alan Hargreaves
Take 5 minutes with Alan Hargreaves to step outside your business model, your career or your startup idea and check that you've got all bases covered. Are you optimising what you've got? Growth, in both business and life, is about momentum. This podcast will help you maintain it.
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Episodes
So you want to buy a franchise
The most important thing about buying a franchise is knowing that you'll be able to sell it.
Jul 24, 2014•5 min
Less Strategy, More Action
Strategy is useless unless it leads to actionable tactics. Don't just think up great ideas; focus on how you can implement them.
Jul 17, 2014•3 min
Mindfulness: how doing nothing can help
Now backed by swathes of neuroscientific research, mindfulness is the latest business fad. What is it and why are they doing it.
Jul 14, 2014•4 min
Budget forecasts are always wrong
Budget forecasts are always wrong. They are not meant to be right. The budgeting process can never forecast the unexpected. That's especially so in a startup or a new project, when there are too many unknowns. Their value lies in identifying the key elements that will make or break the idea.
Jul 10, 2014•4 min
The Manager as Fullback
There is a lot going on in any business. Position yourself so you can see the whole environment. And don't worry about being distracted by it. You need to be alert to the critical things that are happening when they happen, not later.
Jul 03, 2014•4 min
Planet of the Apps
Mobile technology presents a challenge for many businesses, yet underlying commercial principles haven't changed. It's still about margins and volume. Alan applies simple business concepts to technological complexity.
Jun 30, 2014•5 min
How to kick-start your motivation
The massive power of the smallest step.
Jun 26, 2014•4 min
The art of delegation
What happens if you don't delegate?
Jun 19, 2014•3 min
The Upside of Your Limitations
Focus in more important than quantity. Doing a few things extremely well yields better results than doing it all.
Jun 16, 2014•4 min
What I learned at the Olympics
In business, just as in sport, peak performance depends on your ability to focus only on the things you can control. The key to optimising results is work on the things you can actually do something about.
Jun 13, 2014•4 min
Making decisions under stress
It's hard making good decisions when times are tough. Behavioural economics tells us there are good reasons for that. We need to find ways of seeing the situation from outside our own head.
Jun 12, 2014•5 min
Dealing with speed
App upgrades are a metaphor for the speed of product innovation. There are a lot of them and they are a feature of any business where change is a constant. What can you do to keep 'Up'?
Jun 05, 2014•5 min
Googling Good Fortune
Often the luck of the draw seems to determine the outcome. But good fortune can also be encouraged. Research suggests your attitude and your actions can increase your exposure to good luck.
Jun 02, 2014•5 min
How to look at the bigger picture
It's easy in business to get stuck in the small stuff. Looking at the bigger picture can be both calming and inspiring. Try stepping back and observing you environment rather than being overwhelmed by it.
May 29, 2014•4 min
The best idea anyone ever gave me
Do you have trouble keeping track of all your best thoughts, or all those things you are supposed to remember? Someone gave me a great solution. It's been working like a charm for seventeen years.
May 22, 2014•6 min
Warning: Management cliches ahead
Management commentary is full of cute slogans. But do they make any sense? Often their opposite meaning is the way to go. Find out more at http://alanhargreaves.com
May 19, 2014•4 min
The Problem with Strategy
Strategic planning is a creative process; slavishly following the plan is not. For your strategy to work, its needs to be flexible and open to change.
May 15, 2014•5 min
Fast Strategy: Simple Ways to Boost Value
The main mission for any business it to create value. Alan walks you through a simple process to start focussing on building value. Fully supported by free downloads and apps, this process leads to fast actions that get immediate traction.
May 08, 2014•5 min
Learning from you worst decisions
There are several common element to the worst decisions I've made. A central one is not asking for help when I don't really know what I'm doing. You can avoid a lot of disasters just by accepting that some people do some things better than you. The art of management and the art of delegation are closely related.
May 01, 2014•4 min
Why you need to get out more
It's easy to get stuck in the office, yet that's often the last place where good ideas turn up. To stay at the leading edge, the best managers make a point of getting out more, catching up with customers, suppliers, even competitors.
Apr 24, 2014•4 min
Strategy Vs Tactics
Strategy is the big picture we are trying to achieve, but it's tactics that keep us in the now and make it happen.
Apr 21, 2014•5 min
Good innovators conspire against capitalism
Perfect competition is great in theory but it never actually exists. That's because a business can't thrive in perfect conditions. A successful strategy is often based on creating inefficient markets.
Apr 17, 2014•4 min
Starting Up and the Art of Surfing
Anyone starting a new business could learn a lot from surfing. It's not just about how you perform on the wave, it's also about how you get on the wave in the first place. Alan recalls his teenage years.
Apr 10, 2014•4 min
Blowing you inheritance
You can't change your DNA but you can change which parts of it you use or don't use. Instead of doing what you've always done, try looking outside the square.
Apr 07, 2014•5 min
Letting go of those scary leadership issues
It's is often exhilarating to get promoted. Being handed a challenge is uplifting and motivating. But it can also be scary. Alan talks about the common fears that managers face and what you can do about them.
Apr 03, 2014•4 min
Do incentives and bonuses actually work?
Incentive payments often boost the quantity of output but they don't necessarily do much for its quality. In fact research indicates incentives are counterproductive in a lot of situations. What sort of incentives actually work?
Mar 27, 2014•5 min
Simply Leading
Masses of books are written about leadership. What core principles are common to the best of them?
Mar 24, 2014•4 min
Charisma: Can you manage without it?
There is a lot of talk about "charisma" and it's role in management. But too often we confuse charisma with celebrity. Truly charismatic leaders base their power on their character rather than their personality.
Mar 20, 2014•4 min
Social Investment
It is getting harder and harder to get money from the government for any project, even really sensible ones. To get a hearing, you need to be able to offer some help with public finances. Alan looks at an innovative financing project in which disadvantaged families save the government money by improving their own lives.
Mar 13, 2014•5 min
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