Category Archives: Stuart’s Five Minute Friday Focus

This Week’s Focus: To all of you who were about to forget, here’s just a gentle reminder that it’s Valentine’s Day next Tuesday, a day when we focus on what we admire most about our loved ones. Whether it’s ourselves, … Continue reading →

This Week’s Focus: When I was six I found a sparrow in our family garden that had a broken wing. My mum and I put it in a box and gave it some milk and bread. The following morning the … Continue reading →

This week’s focus: In my experience, one of the biggest time-wasters in business meetings is where a decision on whether a new project should be pursued (a WHAT decision), becomes overtaken by a discussion on the various ways it could … Continue reading →

This week’s focus: Over the last few years I have been writing and speaking about my observation that ‘nothing fails like success’, and that many companies don’t fail because they’re bad at what they do, but because they’re great at … Continue reading →

This week’s focus: A new £16 billion high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham (HS2) has been proposed by the government.  The Secretary of State argues that each £1 invested in the scheme will generate growth of £1.40, and therefore … Continue reading →

This week’s focus: The great thing about the economic turbulence is that only those businesses that deserve to succeed will do so. In these tough times you will only grow if you have clear and compelling sources of competitive advantage. … Continue reading →

This week’s focus: This morning I met with a senior executive of a national retailer who told me that trading is currently just so tough that the business can’t afford to focus on longer-term growth. Instead, he argued, he and … Continue reading →

This week’s focus: How would you run your business if you had no management information? What would you do differently to make sure that your customers were receiving a great experience, your operations were effective and your people had the … Continue reading →

This week’s focus: I took out one key management lesson from this week’s ‘autumn statement’ from George Osborne, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer. My big take-out was that the Chancellor has given himself very little room for manoeuvre in … Continue reading →

This week’s focus: When executives communicate their vision or a major initiative, they typically focus on a big set piece event. But relying on these events – and the associated mouse mats, banners and t-shirts! – to gain support and … Continue reading →