How to Be a Successful Company - ride out the " credit crunch "

With the current economic climate ( almost daily warnings from the banking sector ) it is even more important to think about how to be successful and how to judge success. Short term may be about Cash flow, costs, and efficiency though any decisions taken here must be balanced against longer term impact on Customers and Employees
According to the annual “Sunday Times 100 Best companies to work for “survey the companies they are voted best by their employees are also those that outperform others in the FTSE100. In the past five years the companies listed in this survey have performed TWICE as well as their FTSE100 rivals. “Looking after your staff means you are looking after your shareholders too “
Back in 1998 Collins and Porras studied 18 “Visionary “ American companies to discover what made them “ Built to Last “, what fundamental principles endure. One of their earliest conclusion was that “profitability is a necessary condition for existence but is not the end in itself ... it is not the point of life but without it there is no life “
In 2006 Ken Blanchard published “ Leading at a Higher Level “ concluding that successful High Performing Organisations focussed on what he calls the “ triple bottom line “ of becoming provider of choice, employer of choice and investment of choice.
The Sunday Times survey highlights 8 factors that employees vote on to become “ Best Company to Work For “
- Leadership of head of the company and senior managers
- Wellbeing including work life balance
- My managers day to day activities
- My team and colleagues
- Fair Deal with pay and benefits
- Giving Something Back to the community
- My Company
- Personal Growth
( Details are available at timesonline.co.uk/best100companies )

So as you make the necessary decisions to ride-out the economic conditions, take a deep breath , a step back and assess both your short term and long term needs !

Is this the best book on LEADERSHIP ever ??

Is this the best book on Leadership EVER ??!!

Hi Folks

I have just finished reading “ Leading at a higher level “ by Ken Blanchard and published by FT Prentice Hall and it has jumped straight to the top of my list of books on Leadership.

If you’ve read it – what did you think?
If you haven’t read it – what is top of your list?

After 25 years of working with and advising businesses and leaders ( remember the one minute manager? ) Ken argues that high performing companies

- Set their sights on the right target and vision
- Treat their customers right
- Treat their people right
- Develop the right kind of leadership
Easy then you say – except of course what is right!!????

Ken shares his experience of working with High Performing Companies across 300 pages and 13 chapters with the majority of the book concerned with treating your people right ( covering for example empowerment is the key , self leadership , partnering for performance )

Full of simple models and concepts, littered with illustrations, it provides an excellent framework for thinking about your companies triple bottom line “ provider of choice, employer of choice ,investment of choice “

Whether you agree with the ideas or not! this will give you plenty to mull over AND should stimulate some action.

What do you think ?

Paul Maisey
www.advancebp.co.uk