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5 Questions for Building a Great Strategy

15/04/2021 / Asad Zaidi / 0 Comments

Based on an article in Harvard Business Review by Roger Martin

Strategy is sometimes made out to be much more complex than it actually is. This is usually because of too much focus on complex-sounding tools like environmental scans, SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, financial modeling etc. Another issue seems to be that strategy is thought to be about some conceptual and deep into the future stuff. Building a strategy does not have to be a complex approach. We can simplify strategy by thinking of it as a set of answers to 5 interlinked questions in a specific sequence…

building a strategy

Mind Facts – What Every Manager Needs to Know

07/03/2021 / Asad Zaidi / 0 Comments

There are a number of facts about the human brain – our mind – that are not well-known. There are also a number of myths that have been around for a long time and need to be dispelled. Here are some mind facts based on research from neuroscience that can help managers to appreciate how the brain actually works and to use this knowledge to advantage for personal and organizational development.

Mind Facts

Taking Action – The Key to Change Things

26/02/2021 / Asad Zaidi / 0 Comments

Based on a web article by Scott Young

For most of us – other than the 2% of people who are really successful at what they do – there is a big challenge we face every day. We like to dream about what we want to become or what we want to have in the future but we can’t seem to take action. We have ideas but we can’t execute. As a human species, we are essentially lazy – we seek reward without working for it. So what is the solution? How does one get better at following up by taking action?

taking action change things

The Power of Catalytic Mechanisms

16/02/2021 / Asad Zaidi / 0 Comments

In an article published in the Harvard Business Review in July/August 1999, the leadership guru and the author of the best-selling book Good to Great, Jim Collins, wrote about something he termed as catalytic mechanisms. Catalytic mechanisms are mechanisms used in organizations to create a compelling alignment between a business and its strategy to differentiate itself.

One Minute Manager – Key Lessons

13/02/2021 / Asad Zaidi / 0 Comments

The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson is one of the best-selling books of all time with 13 million copies published in 37 languages. It is written in story fashion about a young man searching for an effective manager that he can work with. He finds mostly managers who just care about the organization and its results not about the people. He also finds managers who care about the people but their organizations suffer due to lack of attention to organizational goals…

How to be Creative

08/02/2021 / Asad Zaidi / 3 Comments

An extract from a brilliant piece by Hugh McLeod. This article is funny, brilliant and insightful. It seems to be not just a revelation about creativity but a way of thinking about working and living in the real world

1. Ignore everybody.

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. You don’t know if your idea is any good the moment it’s created. Neither does anyone else. The most you can hope for is a strong gut feeling that it is.

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.

The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.

Your idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours alone. The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing. The more amazing, the more people will click with your idea. The more people click with your idea, the more this little thing of yours will snowball into a big thing…

The Ten Types of Innovation®Framework

27/08/2020 / Asad Zaidi / 0 Comments

Based on research work done by Doblin, a subsidiary of Deloitte

Many people equate innovation with the development of new products. But coming up with new products is just one way to innovate. After studying more than 2,000 business innovations throughout history, Doblin discovered that the majority of breakthroughs did not come from technical/engineering inventions or amazing discoveries. Instead, innovations resulted from within a framework of 10 dimensions and now, anyone can use this framework to develop their own innovations…

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