Leadership Archives – Page 11 of 14

12 Jul 2010

Empty Nesters

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:53:01-06:00July 12th, 2010|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

Yup, our kids just left the nest. The pressure is off but we are also sad.

It seems like just a while ago when it all started. The expecting parents were busy and ignoring all their friends. I think it is called nesting. They were building nests like crazy. Five or six that we know about. Yellows, greys and some baby blue highlights from an old tarp.

Then mom laid the eggs. She sat on them to keep them warm during snow storms and cool nights. Two eggs didn't make it. One we found smashed on the ground (all the king's horses and all the kings […]

4 Jun 2010

The Great Game of Business

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:54:26-06:00June 4th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|

As I have mentioned numerous times, I have been spending a lot of time studying what make some businesses succeed and what makes some people great. Our company builds a lot of tools that measure, forecast and analyze personal and business information to make better decisions.

So far if anyone has a magic formula for wealth, I haven't found it. Lots of great ideas for increasing your chances though.

Every once in a while it is good to go back and read some of the classics instead of just the "new" ideas found in more recent publications.

The Great Game of […]

17 May 2010

A Chameleon – An Adaptable Salary Administration Tool

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-06T12:50:43-06:00May 17th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership|

Back in 2001 we built a web-based data merging tool for human resource and pension data. There were about 7 sources of data and every time the data didn’t match for an employee, someone had to go in and make a decision as to which version (if any) was correct. This was happening across a dispersed team so a web front-end and shared database back-end made sense.

Recently we built a salary administration tool in Excel. The technology choice was made before we entered the picture and it turned out to be totally the wrong architecture. Excel is great, but not for this […]

11 May 2010

Business Optimization Process

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:05-06:00May 11th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|

I have been spending some time recently looking at how you can improve your business's performance. There are essentially two major categories:

Business optimization (or continuous improvement)
Major innovations (totally changing what you do and/or how you do it)

Major innovation is not always easy, especially for established industries and businesses. And even when you introduce a major innovation that shakes up your industry or leaps you in front of the competition (i.e. creates a blue ocean); there is usually a follow-on phase of business optimization.

One thing common across all types of business improvement, no action = no results. To manifest your vision […]

6 Apr 2010

Employee Slotting Tools

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-06T12:53:57-06:00April 6th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership|

Your company has just announced it is merging with another company. This isn’t just a small acquisition, it is big.

The problem is:

You have to merge two or more data sources,
You have to slot all the employees into the new organizational structure and pay scales,
Both companies have different performance measurement metrics,
The review means sharing data and slotting decisions across an international HR and management team,

And it has to be done in a very short time frame (yesterday usually).

Someone is likely to suggest using Excel.

But splitting data in Excel and merging it later is a big headache. But […]

4 Apr 2010

Optimizing Developer Productivity

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-06T12:52:05-06:00April 4th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership, Software Development|

In my last post I made light of the constant desire of (some) developers to want the latest and greatest in hardware; it can never be good enough. Smart managers know there is a balancing point between having the right tools to increase developer productivity and throwing money in the wind.

So exactly how do you justify and quantify the benefits of using faster tools in development?

The Business Case

Part of a manager’s role is to make the most profit for the company as possible while keeping customers happy. The other part of their role is keeping developers as productive as […]

12 Mar 2010

Is Your Business Encouraging Inefficiency?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:57:16-06:00March 12th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership|

I was recently taking the LRT (train) here in Calgary and noticed a repair crew working on the train platform.

There were three people: one with a hoe, one with a chipper shovel and one with a corn broom.

Two watched while one person worked. The guy with the hoe would pull off a loose tile, the guy with the chipper would chip out the mortar and the guy with the broom would sweep up the debris. The two not currently busy would carry on a conversation.

While it is easy to pick on these kinds of industries, it is more valuable […]

7 Mar 2010

Being Indispensable and Type A Employees

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:57:35-06:00March 7th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

I just finished reading "Linchpin – Are You Indispensable" by Seth Godin. In the book he encourages you to make a difference in what you do, treat your work as an art, connect with people, get things done, and be the best you can be. The world is changing quickly and people who merely show up (cogs), are going to be marginalized. So be indispensable.

I just started reading another book called "Who – The A Method for Hiring" by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. I tripped across this one through the magic of Amazon. The premise of […]

22 Feb 2010

Effective Business Optimization

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:58:03-06:00February 22nd, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|

Business optimization is not a one time thing.

Business optimization is not about looking at the numbers (though that is part of it) and squeezing every last penny out of your business.

It is an ongoing process; a journey with a destination far in the future.

Effective business optimization is a continuous cycle (not a rigid order):

Strategy – where you want to go,
Planning – how you plan to get there,
Communicate – involve the team in the discussion,
Goals and measurements – to determine if you got there,
Orchestration – what are your processes,
Innovation – big changes and leaps, creativity,
Improvement – incremental
Measure and Validate […]

21 Feb 2010

Business Strategy: What Do You Really Want to Optimize?

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-21T15:53:41-06:00February 21st, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|Tags: business, business growth, Business Optimization, Business Performance, business strategy, business success, Clients, Customers, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, innovation, Selling Your Business, small business, small business owner, strategy, Working on the Business|

Before you spend resources on improving your business performance, it is best to know where you want to go. This means getting clear on your business strategy.

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Improving Business Performance

There are two main ways of improving business performance:

Optimization – Making things better, best practices, incremental improvements,
Innovation – Doing different things, doing things differently, leaping past the competition.

It is easy to think there is a magic bullet for optimizing your business’s performance. […]