A company without a culture is like a team with members who are strange to one another. You want to achieve the same goal, but you don’t know the skills and competence of your colleagues. The end result is playing hard and not passing the ball. Corporate culture is shaped by these things; Values Consistent practice of the values And behaviours of people As a leader, your role is to define the values that act as a bond among teams. What are those 3-5 desired qualities (values) that guide your way of life in running the business? Your chosen values…
How to speak to influence and win deals
At 9:00am sharp, I was signaled by a smartly dressed lady in a blue dress, in her mid-30s to enter. I later learnt she is the Strategy& Innovations Manager at my prospective client, a Tier II financial institution. It was my turn to make a presentation of our strategic planning approach to the bank’s top management team. Standing in front of a full 15-seater boardroom can be worrying sometimes. With experience, I have now improvised to always take three deep breaths silently; and hope for the best and look people in the eyes. Jane, the smartly dressed leady that had…
Why do some Ugandan businesses fail?
Many people start businesses because of the attractiveness of self-employment. However, sustaining the business is the most difficult part. One of the reasons why businesses are failing is lack of good people with passion and the zeal it requires to drive business growth. Some employees have a mindset of poverty and negative mentality. They think by working they are making the business owner to succeed. They forget that they need to put in their best foot forward so that the business succeeds which is good for their careers. Most staff have a mindset of public service, even when they have…
The Bible lessons for your success
“Our systems are very strong. We cannot have been hacked. You are just alarmists. On your bullet number five: that you were able to capture all our passwords, including of the super administrator? That is not possible.” Such is the typical conversation in Uganda during the end of cyber security testing exit meeting with the client. It does not matter that we usually demonstrate the weaknesses found to the IT team. During the exit meeting presentation, IT staff will always deny even the smoking gun or plain view evidence. Many a time, we pull out the laptop and re-demonstrate the…
What is your strategy?
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…
Strategy perspective: What informs your business model?
Great leaders focus on having a great strategy and clear execution plan. To formulate a great strategy you need: Perspective through Exposure: who are you competing against in your business? Context: What do you need to change internally to become the best? Capabilities and systems: what resources do you need to succeed? The best way to get exposure is through travel or sightseeing and networking. When I go abroad, I make it a point to study the process flow and how value is created for customers, at the different businesses I come across. In Japan for example, street restaurants create…