If you want to be a good business advisor, you must continuously exercise your brain including doing lots of reading, crossword puzzles, and of course playing chess and any other game you love. You must be curious and stay ready.  My experience shows that generalists consultants are more engaging and empower the client more. Many companies already have experts and specialist professionals in their ranks. All they need is a facilitator who challenges them to think deeper about their context, current challenges and how to solve them. Working with many clients allows you to learn about many things. And the…

Battle-hardened, decorated Army Generals always advise their upcoming colleagues that “the best commander makes sure his soldiers know the target and the strategy to win.” Wars are won and lost on the frontline. The foot soldiers are the folks who must remember and make the right calls amidst gunfire and fighting for survival. When you sit down with a battle-hardened soldier you appreciate the importance of teamwork and swift communication across the board. The messages must be short, clear, and crisp. People at the frontline do not have the advantage of reading long memos or instructions. They need something specific…

Great ideas are about customer value creation at the lowest cost possible. It is not easy to be innovative without contextual understanding. And that is where many motivational advisors on Twitter, etc get it wrong. To earn big, you need skills, discipline, and consistency. The Internet is full of ideas. Amazon is full of books with great success stories. Facebook, Google, Apple, etc are great stories in the motivators toolkit. Without context, however, it is sleep dreaming. A winning idea in the US, or Europe, for example, is sure to scale or attract outstanding investors because of the supporting infrastructure…

Are you fighting for space or do you focus on empty spaces? What is your competitive focus? I used to play No. 9 during my Primary school times. One day, the new school football coach came to our class, which was Primary Five. He said; “if you know  football, raise your hand.” All the boys in the classroom raised their hands. He added, “If you know football and how to play it, stand up.” Half of the boys in the class stood up, including me. Unknown to us, the new coach had already talked to pupils in Primary Four and…

He is arguably one of the oldest serving governors. A day off at the office is noticed by all and sundry. That is how Bank of Uganda governor, Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile (“ETM” or “Mutebile”) has established himself at the central bank. However, recent happenings point to his possible exit. The issue at hand now is the timing? Will he be let go before the elections or after? The governor’s contract will be expiring in January 2016. There are two options: it is renewed before the end of 2015 or the process of finding a replacement is commenced as soon as…

Blah blah blah… that is how the Chairperson opens most meetings where they talk and talk and talk, without significant impact on solving the most pressing issues that caused the meeting in the first place. Meetings take a long time because everyone wants to say something and in the process, lots of noise and less value.  Some leaders want to call people for a meeting to just give them instructions. In these kinds of meetings, people are likely to sleep off. For real, I have attended meetings where the brain evaluated the options available – sleep or continue listening and…