“Hope is not a strategy.” Vince Lombardi A story is told of the man who was fond of going early morning to Church to pray for wealth. He made praying to God like an occupation. The first one in the Church, and the last to leave. He would go to Church, from Monday to Sunday. Prayer is not enough without action. And action is useless in the wrong direction. And the action in the right direction is not enough without hope, which comes from prayer. Study carefully the figures below: Which of the two players is likely to win at…

“Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.” Michael Porter Many leaders want to keep their options open. Because they want to avoid accountability. Keeping one’s options open is not prudent leadership, it is an indication of a lack of confidence in the decision-making processes. Keeping your options open means more resource commitment, trial and error, and limited focus. It is not easy to win when you do so many things at the same time. However, do not confuse choice with identifying a specific sector or business and going a mile deep into the business…

  Samuel Ssettumba (SS) sat down with Mustapha Bernabas Mugisa (MBM), aka Mr Strategy, the Team Leader at Summit Consulting Ltd to discuss how Small and Medium Enterprises can win through digitalization. To watch the video, click here: Below are the excerpts: SS: What does digitalization entail for an SME? MBM: To digitize entails using electronic business and electronic commerce and online tools to run the business. Digitization transforms your business to become more agile, nimble, and efficient. The starting point is to adopt digital records management and reduce time wasted in tracing up documents and invoices. The next phase…

  Does your board of directors add value or derail it? How do you measure the impact of your board on your business? In part 1, I listed the four practices that must be fostered among board members – open dissent, individual board member accountability, a climate of trust and candor, and four, timely board evaluations to assess the board and individual board members’ impact. In part 4, I explore the importance of board evaluation. Feedback is a powerful tool for performance improvement. Without timely feedback, expectations are diverse, and people (board members) may feel that their input is less…

  How do you measure the impact of your board?  As explained in part 1, I have found four practices that must be fostered among board members – open dissent, individual board member accountability, a climate of trust and candour, and above all, timely board evaluations to assess the board and individual board member impact. Let’s explore individual board member accountability. Effective boards set to define how their term shall be measured to say it was effective by setting specific targets for the board over the term. Thereafter, members set clear targets for each board member and hold each one…