Strategy are the choices a company makes to win with its customers against the competition. It is like in a football match or a political race. How do you win the match? You must do some homework on how you will win: what is the desired result? Figure yourself being declared the winner for a presidential race and ask: what will it take to win that position? You will need to garner more than 51% of the votes cast by say 10,000,000 approved voters, located in several counties. You must know the number of voters per county and your strong…
Which skills are you developing?
There are two types of skills: process skills and technical skills. For example, when you study medicine, and pass Internship or practical training you are admitted as a medical doctor in your field of specialization say Dentistry. That is a technical skill. You cannot practice as a dentist, unless you’ve the technical skills both theory and practical, and have been certified having passed the requirements for the award. The same applies to accountants, engineers, lawyers, etc. Technical skills can get you a job, but may not help you keep it. To succeed in your career, you need more than technical…
Specialize and die
Developing economies cannot reward specialization. Majority of buyers are less exposed or traveled and do not yet understand what good looks like. They cannot easily tell the difference between exceptional service and average service. They don’t focus on value delivery. They focus on the cost since they need any service. In markets where clients want a kickback and just any output, there is no reward for specialization. Such a market is anti-experts. When you specialize, you stick to a particular field and seek to be the best by studying and applying all the principles. You spend over 90%…
Cybersecurity basics for law firms
The legal profession is built on the foundation of security (confidentiality, integrity and availability) of client secrets. You are right to say all professionals have a responsibility to keep their client’s secrets secret. How can a lawyer in Uganda with a team of paralegals and other likeminded staff each with a laptop / computer interconnected on the same network keep customers’ secrets on their computers secret? Put yourself in the shoes of a typical client of a law firm. You are a manager. You work in a department with other professionals. On 16th May 2017, you were asked to travel…
What is effective strategy formulation and execution?
Strategic planning and strategy execution are two different things. Everyone can plan, but not all plans are easy to execute. If you reviewed the manifestos of so many politicians since 1996, a lot was put on paper, but not achieved. Why? Talk is cheap. It is easier said than done. Same thing happens with companies. Great plans are laid, but all fail at execution test. Leaders have a habit of taking a specific group of people for a strategy retreat once in a year. This is a good practice, if the selected team is representative of the core staff from…
How often do you communicate?
How often do you communicate with your peers and seniors? The more you communicate frequently, the high chances of being noticed. Make sure that you get a face time with people who have potential to improve your life. The biggest challenge with many young people and even senior people who have been in the system for long is they forgot the art of climbing the corporate ladder. I can’t tell how many times I have found managers who say have never seen a copy of the organization’s strategic plan. They don’t know where in the organization the next big action…
