Future success?

How well is your business doing?

How do you know?

What do you measure?

Turnover? Profit?

Important, yes ... but they tell you nothing about the future.  They might summarise good performance now - but fail to identify future threats.

Think again about what you use to judge success.  Otherwise you re gambling on the future. 

Has the UK (and you) got it wrong?

The productivity of Germany and France (GDP per hour worked) is strong - and almost identical ... even though Germany is normally regarded as a strong economy and France as a weak one.

Perhaps the 'social models' that exist in mush of European industry have some merit - and the UK might be better to embrace such models as a part of the EU rather than rush for the exit doors.

You, too, might reflect on the power of 'social thinking', of encouraging participation and engagement from the workforce.

There is strength in 'togerherness'.

Disruption

We've all seen technology completely disrupt certain industries - photographic film, film cameras, music recording, etc.

Sometimes what emerges from this process of disruption is a changed but equally strong industry; but sometimes the disruption is so great and over such a long period that the former industry dies but the new one takes a long time to get established. How many of you have got an electric car?

Internal disruption can be quite unsettling too.  If mis-managed, new initiatives and new ideas can cause disruption to current ways of working but the new form of working takes too long to establish - and customers are disappointed.  The drop in performance might be so huge that it takes months or even years to make up.

So, when making major change - plan, plan and plan - and then make sure you have the skills to execute.