Maintaining Passion
What’s going to be special about 2016? You’ll be taking yourself with you, so it’ll be much the same as last year unless you make it different.
Jan 11, 2016•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
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.
Oct 08, 2015•4 min
Product innovation: Finding new ideas
We tend to think of innovation is somehow new and revolutionary. Yet most successful firms grow at and evolutionary pace. How can you keep at the leading edge of innovation?
Sep 24, 2015•5 min
How to grow any business
Firms regularly look beyond their industry to grow their business. Yet the best growth prospects are often sitting on their own doorstep.
Sep 17, 2015•4 min
The Wisdom of the Loud
The wisdom of the crowd is worth tapping, but groupthink is another thing altogether. How to get the best out of one and avoid the other.
Sep 10, 2015•4 min
Picking Winners
A good idea is most successful when people other than you also think it's a good idea. What can we do to improve our chances of picking a winner?
Sep 04, 2015•5 min
Why satisfaction isn't enough
Good levels of customer satisfaction set a benchmark for business survival. But if you want to break out of the pack, you'll need to do better than just making sure they're satisfied.
Aug 28, 2015•4 min
What type of leader can you be?
Google 'leadership' and you'll get a million tips on how to get "it". The problem is, there isn't just one "it". There's lots of them. What's yours?
Aug 21, 2015•4 min
Your top customer is not always your best customer
Sometimes, we put so much effort into our top relationships that we don't give any others the chance to become our best customers.
Aug 14, 2015•4 min
Simple ways to help your team perform
We know the rules of customer service. What about "colleague service"?
Aug 06, 2015•4 min
Should you start a business?
Starting a business is exciting, but it can also turn out to be harder work than you expected. Before you write up your business plan, make sure it is something you really want to do.
Jul 30, 2015•4 min
Breaking out of a rut
All of us can sometimes struggle with inertia. Here are some simple ideas that can help you, your team or your business start leading from the front.
Jul 23, 2015•4 min
The sins of synergy
Acquisition is a common strategy for growing a business. Does it work? The evidence suggests its often more efficient to build your existing business than buy another one.
Jul 16, 2015•5 min
Simple ways to review your business
A business review doesn't have to be a complicated process. Often the simplest review can yield the best ideas. Here's some easy guidelines for taking a second look at what you are doing.
Jul 09, 2015•4 min
Three rules to stress test your great idea
Got a great idea? It's likely someone else is already doing something similar. Don't be put off. Use their experience to improve your chances of success.
Jul 02, 2015•4 min
Stimulating new business ideas
We often think we are driving change when all we achieve is a small cosmetic shift. How can you stimulate change that can make a difference to the way you do business? Alan talks about the need for a shift in attitude and gives simple examples of things you can do to bring it about.
Jun 25, 2015•5 min
A perspective on luck
We often think it is an aberration when things go wrong. We tend to think the downside is unusual. Yet, In business and investment, getting it overly right can be just as extraordinary. Are successful people right, or just lucky?
Jun 18, 2015•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 11, 2015•4 min
Beer Mat Strategy
Ever heard of "death by one thousand initiatives"? Often fewer ideas lead to better strategies. Even Apple's revival can be sheeted back to a change in tactics of not doing everything. Alan explains simple ways to look at your own business from different perspectives.
Jun 04, 2015•4 min
The problems with planning
Business plans are a necessary ingredient in creating or maintaining a successful business, but they come with serious health warnings. Expect forecasts to be wrong; build in flexibility that helps you reverse bad decisions; and keep your focus on the planning process, not on the outcome.
May 28, 2015•4 min
Making the most of sponsorship
Sponsorship can be a effective business strategy which helps both the sponsor and the sponsored, but too often it is an ad hoc decision. What are the key elements in getting it right?
May 21, 2015•4 min
Taking action in uncertain times
Business faces a high level of uncertainty, particularly in current times. The challenge for management is to find ways of maintaining momentum without risking everything. Inertia, however, is the enemy. Sometimes you just have to make a decision.
May 15, 2015•4 min
Profitable survival
Slashing prices may not get you through the hard times. Focus your product range on what you can sell at a reasonable margin rather than what you can sell at the lowest price. Customers want solutions. Look to add value that they will pay for.
May 07, 2015•4 min
Value statements vs building values
Value statements and corporate governance may be the cliches du jour, but do they have any relevance in the workplace. Real values are outcomes, not starting points. They come from how you behave rather from lofty statements in annual reports.
Apr 30, 2015•4 min
Networking vs having a network
You don't need massive numbers of relationships to have an effective network. It's about quality, not quantity. For an effective network, keep it small, keep it diverse and put in as much as you take out.
Apr 23, 2015•4 min
Shareholder value & the stockmarket don't make a good couple
Creating shareholder value has very little to do with the stock market. Management is responsible for the former, but they have no control over the latter. The manager's job is to grow value regardless of the state of the stock market.
Apr 17, 2015•5 min
Green initiatives: making them work for you
There is much to be said for introducing green initiatives into your business — but only if they can be integrated into your business model. Successful sustainability means making your business sustainable as well.
Apr 09, 2015•4 min
Three things managers don't need
To boost airline safety, flight crews are trained to avoid ideology, cynicism and arrogance. The same strategy works for managers.
Apr 06, 2015•4 min
Silent Solutions: how keeping quiet can help
Ever tried to manage a problem by not offering a solution? A lot of us automatically give advice.
Mar 26, 2015•3 min
The key thing about key messages
Sticking to the simplicity of your key message will help you cut through complexity and manage rapid change.
Mar 19, 2015•4 min
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