SME’s account for at least 99% of the businesses in every main industry, yet 55% will fail to make their fifth birthday. These are depressing statistics, but imagine what the future would look like if the business leadership team could always learn from its mistakes.
You know those times when you say something and the response you get is not what you expect? Well, this happened late last year. Let me explain.
Learning is central to everything we do here at Advocate; from our values embedded into how we think, act and behave, through to the ‘Lessons Learned’ tools and techniques in my SCALE Model. A business will tell you everything that’s going on, but only if you ask the right questions.
“It’s a great book. I’m implementing now. I’ve just finished #kpimethod it was party to a stand out lesson of growth or SCALE”
– Rick Jesse
“Brilliant! Quick great read.”
– Stuart A Barrow
The importance of measurement is everywhere, and remains one of the most common conversations I have with entrepreneurs and corporates in every sector I come across (over 50 now). Setting up your own systems and measures means you can see if there is an issue well before it becomes a problem. It might just be a blip or a bad day that you can choose to ignore or monitor for a while, but if you ‘don’t know’ then you are running blind.
“Great book – really insightful, lots you can apply to your business”
– Hayley Grigor
In 1930, British aero engineer and aircraft builder Richard Fairey paid the Vicar of Harmondsworth £15,000 for a 150-acre plot to build a private airport to assemble and test aircraft. A single grass runway and a handful of hastily erected buildings later, and Fairey’s Great West Aerodrome was born.
Today, you’ll recognise this as one of the world’s busiest airports – Heathrow – where each day 1,400 flights take off and land – that’s a plane every 45 seconds, and nearly half a million per year. And guess how many runways it now has?
Last weekend, we embarked on our first ever family camping trip. Okay, it was for only one night at a camp site just 30 minutes from home, but we wanted to have a bit of a trial run.
For our four-year-old twins to enjoy their first ever experience of sleeping under the stars, we needed to put our tent up. We were feeling confident because our new tent came with its own set of instructions. Or so we thought.
It was a great read. I read it all in one sitting (almost). It had an easy, natural flow; love your narrative style. As for the content- it was thoroughly engaging and personal. I liked that very much. I felt totally included in your ‘story’ and certainly empathised with lots of your personal accounts. I also loved the 80’s music references. It’s a 10 from me!”
– Cerys Bevan