Monthly Archives: July 2008

Personal

Twitter Updates for 2008-07-04

  • Goodmorning, Whats the plan for the weekend? I am rafting on sunday here http://www.porterinlifeboat.iofm.net/ #
  • @OwenC he he #
  • @jophillips Batch processing Pro blogger has a nice article on it, All in one go. #
  • @mashable Good idea. #
  • Very interesting relationship post this, http://relationshipartist.wordpress.com/ #
  • Stating the obvious about e-newsletters.. #
  • @guykawasaki Ridiculous 🙂 #
  • New post: A Challenge to Make Money Online (http://workconnexions.com/node/712) #

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Personal

Twitter Updates for 2008-07-03

  • Good morning all, time to get rid of that sticky post. #
  • New post: Future Memories – Best Times Remebered. (http://workconnexions.com/node/706) #
  • New post: Managing SQL Server Sprawl with HP Polyserve (http://workconnexions.com/node/707) #
  • New post: Lord Darzi : offensively inoffensive (http://workconnexions.com/node/708) #
  • Time for google reader #
  • “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” ~Winston Churchill #
  • Training youngsters up in the ways of the force Aka (work experience) #
  • It’s hot, I need a plan. #
  • Got a cold in the summer – bah #

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Personal

Twitter Updates for 2008-07-02

  • I Just love this expression from Joanne Trollope, Men love woman, woman love children, children love pets. #
  • Talk about unhelpful people, I am sure there is a methode somewhere to deal with them. #
  • @steveaircav good points steve, it is bit try of try and learn. #
  • Competition is closed to day. Find out who is the winner at the end of the week. #
  • Off for an interview…. #
  • lots to do……wonder if I can do a competition for the winner of the competition, nah it does not work. #

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Personal

Twitter Updates for 2008-07-01

  • A bit tired this morning, Onwards. #
  • Off for lunch with a friend 🙂 #
  • busy busy busy #
  • lots of new posts but no time to write them. #
  • It amazing what you can get online these days, I can get all my company papers for under a ÂŁ5. #
  • who is toonjamie ……? I have not seen you about 🙂 #
  • Only few hours left for 2oo dollar contest. All the people that have left comments are not counted as entries. It has to be a blog. #
  • New post: Why Do Small Companies Avoid Strategy? (http://workconnexions.com/node/704) #
  • @sighmon somebody had to say that #
  • Printing invoices for last month #

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Marketing, work connexions

Future Memories – Best Times Remebered.

Over the weekend I joined two clubs on face book. Both were the schools that I went to in my childhood. Now there is nothing amazing in that. There are lots of website where you can find a lost friends on the internet. But that is not the point of this post.

Some of my younger friends who are at university have over 3oo hundred plus friends in their face book profile. As the saying goes “school is the best time of your life”. I know that I had a particular good time when I was prep school. With out doubt I would relive it all again. My point is that people who are in education having the time of there life’s will now be able to stay in touch much easier, due to social networking groups. (Facebook, My space, etc) What will be the effect of this?

I remember when I had to change school. Of Course at school we all swore that we would stay in touch. Letter writing starts of well but after a year becomes less and less. I do think these social networking sites are going to make individual people very powerful indeed in the relationships they form and maintain. Giving people the exact choice of people to stay in touch with unparallel ease and comfort. It does have a downside too possible. People you may rather forgot will be able to find you easily. but with so many top friends will anyone notice. Enjoy enjoy I say.

Consultancy

Why Do Small Companies Avoid Strategy?

Companies without a strategic plan have one foot in the grave, whether they know it or not. Yet, very few small and mid-size companies (SMBs) emphasize strategic planning. Why are so many of these companies strategically challenged, strategically averse? 1. Fear of the past. Company leaders may have had nightmarish experiences with strategic planning. Maybe they remember consultants that were brought in and nearly ruined the firm. Maybe they spent weeks in meetings without accomplishing a single thing. Maybe they launched grandiose programs only to have them fizzle out within months. Understandably, they don’t want to repeat a disaster.1. Fear of the past. Company leaders may have had nightmarish experiences with strategic planning. Maybe they remember consultants that were brought in and nearly ruined the firm. Maybe they spent weeks in meetings without accomplishing a single thing. Maybe they launched grandiose programs only to have them fizzle out within months. Understandably, they don’t want to repeat a disaster.

2. Fear of the present. Many SMBs are understaffed and overtaxed. Leadership is simply too busy putting out fires and managing day-to-day activities to focus on long-term thinking. Deep down, they fear that if they divert time to planning, the business will fall apart in the meantime.

3. Fear of the Ivory Tower. SMBs have a practical outlook. Most of the employees are close to the customer, close to the action. This is healthy, but it can make leaders distrustful of theories, systems, generalizations and formulas. Leaders may feel that decisions cannot be trusted unless they are tied directly to personal customer contact. This type of leadership is locked in permanent reactive mode.

4. Fear of the facilitation. Effective strategic planning meetings require great skill to facilitate. Leaders may fear that their meetings, no matter how well intended, will end up as bitch sessions or hours of aimless wandering.

5. Fear of commitment. The problem with strategic planning is that it leads to decisive action. And yes, that can be a problem if leadership likes to hedge its bets, keep lots of balls in the air and keep all options open. It has been my experience that only a handful of companies belong to the “Ready, Aim, Fire!” school. Many more belong to the “Ready, Fire, Aim!” school. But for the vast majority, the mantra is “Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim…”

6. Fear of the future. Part of why SMBs fear commitment is because the cost of failure is high. Managers of Fortune 500 companies play with house money. For entrepreneurs, one’s livelihood is at stake. A winning strategic plan might help the family build a dream house, but a losing plan might result in no house at all.

All of these fears are legitimate to one extent or another. But it’s important to keep in mind that just about every successful company has a strategic mindset. Next time–how companies can overcome the difficulties and become strategic.

Visit Author Brad Shorr at http://in-sidemarketing.blogspot.com/