Many business owners are justifiably proud of their products or services and invest great amounts of effort and time in them, often with a program of enhancements and improvements. Fewer of them consistently check that what they are providing is a good match to the customer’s requirement. “Build it and they will come” is a…
All of us start our business lives as doers. We’re hired to complete a set of tasks which, when added together, form a job. When we’re advertising for a position, we usually write a job description and a job advert listing the tasks for which the person doing that job will be responsible. That’s the…
Simplifying things is a challenge for any business. If you have a simple process, people can follow it without making mistakes. If you have a complex process, mistakes can and will be made. I find that quality management systems often appear to be over-complicated. There’s a theory that goes something like this – ‘The system…
The surprising thing from reading the news about the misbehaviour of RBS is that a structure where RBS have their own property business was not seen to be a recipe for trouble if not disaster. If you have a business, or a department or a division, they need objectives and targets. You can guess that…