AI is on everyone’s mind at the moment. How many jobs will it replace and how many people? Will you or I be among them? AI can be very effective but not with everything. Here are five effective skills AI can’t replace. Enthusiasm Enthusiasm can be infectious. Enthusiastic people make…
At some point we all find ourselves trying to spin too many plates at the same time. Resource allocation is a critical requirement of effectiveness. The difference between effective people and others is that effective people choose which plates to smash. When we find ourselves in a position where we…
I’ve just finished running our Winning Margin Manufacturing Awareness course with a group of people involved largely in sustainability and net zero. During the course we introduce the option to invest for sustainability and to enable the business to move toward a net zero goal. At the end of the…
How many times have you heard the phrase “time is money”? The problem is that anyone saying that does not understand the concept of time. Time is not money – it’s far more important. Time is the only thing that cannot ever, under any circumstances be replaced. Once it’s gone,…
Take any area you care to name and it’s a crowded one – or is it? There are over 750 types of UK cheese but most people would struggle to name more than about 10, there are in excess of 110 million active YouTube channels and yet people still start…
One of the advantages of being of “more mature” years is that you have already seen many things. Desktop computers, personal computers, spreadsheets, the internet and all manner of things have made their appearances during my lifetime. Long before my time during the Industrial Revolution we had the steam engine,…
We’ve all been there. The “new broom” wants to “sweep clean” and reorganise. Next thing you know we are into a reorganisation. How often do you here people say this is the [Insert Number In The Gap] reorganisation this year and nothing has improved? Politicians love reorganisations and, be afraid,…
Everywhere you look there are articles, courses and seminars on the subject sustainability. Almost every business now has to have the word sustainability added to it. Sustainable manufacturing, sustainable agriculture, sustainable power and the list goes on. There are more sustainability consultants than you can shake a stick at but…
All businesses need to make profits to survive. Most businesses look to increase profits over time. Poorly managed businesses think that constantly planning to increase turnover will increase profits. We need to look at how to effectively increase profits. Put simplistically, PROFIT = SALES – COSTS. In a purely mathematical…
In organisations there can be case for managers and even executives but that case is rare and usually poor. What are required by most organisations are leaders and “doers”. It would great if everyone was a leader, but whilst anyone can be a leader, not everyone wants to be a…