Author Archives: Stuart Cross

Stuart’s Five Minute Friday Focus – 27 April 2012

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Stuart Cross

This week’s focus: Nothing fails like success – and pride is often at the heart of such failure. A few years ago, for example, I met some middle managers at Nokia’s UK head office. The first generation of Apple’s iPhone … Continue reading →

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Stepping Stones vs. Giant Leaps

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Stuart Cross

  I have found that once my clients have developed a compelling new growth strategy for their business, they are keen to achieve it as quickly as possible. Like Superman, they want to achieve their objectives in a single bound! … Continue reading →

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What Kind Of Business Driver Are You?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Stuart Cross

Broadly speaking there are two types of drivers. The first are what you could call ‘safe drivers’. They are focused on their dashboard and mirrors and stay well within the limits all the time. They deal with issues on the … Continue reading →

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Stuart’s Five Minute Friday Focus – 13 April 2012

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Stuart Cross

This week’s focus: Most of my clients are pretty good at developing strategy. They’re also pretty good at managing projects. So why do they find it so hard to deliver their strategies? The best and quickest way to build a … Continue reading →

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Are You “Stupidly Easy” To Buy From?

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Stuart Cross

In last week’s Friday Focus I highlighted the need to make things as easy as possible for your customers to access your products and services. I said that you should make this “stupidly easy”. Ten years ago I ran a … Continue reading →

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Stuart’s Five Minute Friday Focus – 6 April 2012

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Stuart Cross

This week’s focus: After last week’s Friday Focus Graham wrote to me and told me that he loved these mini-articles and wanted to forward them to his network. “But,” he went on, “I can’t be bothered (slight editing by me … Continue reading →

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Virgin’s Express Lane To Nowhere

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Stuart Cross

Last Friday I flew back to London from JFK on a Virgin Atlantic flight. The security line at JFK was so long it extended beyond the miles of the formal, snaking queuing system. I dutifully joined the end of the … Continue reading →

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Stuart’s Five Minute Friday Focus – 30 March 2012

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Stuart Cross

This week’s focus: Xavi, the Barcelona midfield player, averages 120 passes every game and has a completion rate of 93%. This means that he completes over 20 more passes per game than any other European player, and probably completes more … Continue reading →

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Interview with Bob Garlick of Business Book Talk

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Stuart Cross

Click here to listen to a recent interview I had with Bob Garlick, who runs the blog Business Book Talk. Here’s what Bob had to say about the book: The book has a lot to teach senior management about setting … Continue reading →

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10 Questions To Shape Your Company’s Strategy

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Stuart Cross

What are the key competitive strengths and weaknesses of your business today? What are the top 2-3 performance goals driving the strategy currently? Of these, which should be your focus over the next 2-3 years? What changes to the scope … Continue reading →

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