10 Things I wish I knew at the start of my MBA

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It’s been some time since an update on MBA Nights. To keep things rolling I thought I’d point you towards a two part blog series I did for the Adelaide University’s MBA blog:

10 Things I wish I knew at the start of my MBA

Part 1) 5 Things I wish I knew..

Part 2) 5 More Things

If you just want to cut to the chase, and see the list of 10 here it is (but do read the posts above, you’ll get more out of it):

  1. Don’t hand in safe assignments, be bold
  2. Group Assignments – Allocate someone just to do the editing
  3. Worry less about definitions and more about applying them
  4. Group Assignments – Don’t be afraid to use your company
  5. Read a wide range of business books and biographies
  6. Attend events, make sure people know who you are and that you know who they are
  7. Make notes all over your books.
  8. Get an ultra-portable laptop or tablet for comprehensive notes
  9. Really, truly understand the commitment you’ve made. Make sure your loved ones understand it and support you too
  10. Start a blog or a journal to record your journey & retain your knowledge

Any thoughts or comments on this one? Hit me up on either the Adelaide University’s blog, or below.

The 14 Point Deming Management Method

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This post is a continuation of my second guest post for Adelaide Universities MBA Blog. If you haven’t read my summary of the Deming Management Method, start here first.

Deming’s Fourteen Point Management Method

Deming’s 14 Point Management Method was first published in 1982. A statistician by trade his ability with numbers enabled him to challenge many traditional management practices, resulting in his fourteen point plan:

1. Create Consistency of Purpose for the Improvement of Product and Service

Deming and others, such as (Stephen R Covey) believe that one of the difficulties facing humankind is that we are too easily focused on the problems of today, at the expense of those of tomorrow.

“It is easy to stay bound up in the tangled knots of the problems of today, becoming ever more and more efficient in them” – Deming Continue reading →

Motivational Slogans in the workplace – Deming v Zuckerberg

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One of Deming’s pet hates was motivational slogans in the workplace – things like “Do it right first time”, and “Zero defects”. Two from the IT world that come to mind are “Real Engineers Ship” (Steve Jobs), and “Stay focused and keep shipping” (Mark Zuckerberg, see article here, which has an interesting photo of his desk).

Jobs and Zuckerberg make pretty powerful examples of sloganeering. I find it interesting that Deming was so against slogans, they’re everywhere. So let’s dive a little deeper.

Deming stated that slogans should eliminated because they do nothing but “generate frustration and resentment” in the workforce.

“Implicit in such sloganeering is the supposition that employees could, if they tried do better. They are offended, not inspired by this suggestion”   – Deming Continue reading →

Startup Financing Options

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Startup Financing Options

Looking at starting a new venture and need to sort out the financing? In a recent webinar Jana Mathews from the ANZ Innovyz Start program in Adelaide went through the five main startup financing options.

Bootstrapping

The goal of bootstrapping is to generating enough money inside the company that you do not need to find other sources of funds. All expenses are minimised and pursuit of cashflow is critical. Not all companies can bootstrap – large initial CAPEX requirements can often preclude it. Continue reading →

The Reputation Economy

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The Reputation Economy

Rachel Botsman on how online reputation is becoming a currency

AMP Amplify Festival 2013

Online reputation is becoming a bigger and bigger problem (or opportunity) for organisations and individuals. Rachel is here to open our minds to where this could be going. First, a little on Rachel:

Named by Monocle as one of the top 20 speakers in the world to have at your conference, Rachel Botsman has already presented at high profile events including The Clinton Global Initiative, TED, HP, Google, and No.10 Downing Street.

She received her BFA (Honors) from the University of Oxford, and undertook her postgraduate studies at Harvard University. Her work has taken her to every continent, except Antarctica.

Rachel opens by stating that she thinks reputation will become a currency more powerful than our credit histories. To help paint the picture of what might happen, she asks – what is reputation?

Continue reading →

Gamification – Complexity and Engagement

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My third session of AMP’s Amplify Festival is Marigo Raftopoulos (@Marigo), speaking on ‘The Game has changed: How to cut through complexity and engage employees and customers through meaning’

A little on Marigo:

Marigo is a strategic business advisor specialising in innovation using gamification, systems thinking and experience design. She is also co-founder and co-chair of Games for Change Australia-New Zealand, advisor to several technology incubators and start-ups and is researching her PhD in enterprise Innovation.

 

Gamification – Complexity and Engagement

Mario starts us off by getting us all off our seats to play Rock Paper Scissors. I lost, but it was still fun. Marigo explains what occurs in the brain whilst playing games. Behaviour and attitude improve after game playing – it can be a really powerful tool.

Continue reading →

Innovating from the Boardroom

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Innovating from the Boardroom – Cultivating a future quotient

Amplify talk by Lucy Marcus

This is my second blog post from the AMP Amplify festival. The speaker for this session is Lucy Marcus. Some background:

Lucy is the founder and CEO of Marcus Venture Consulting which helps build sustainable success for funding organisations. She is also Professor of Leadership and Governance at IE Business School focusing on corporate governance, ethics and leadership. Lucy writes an opinion column and hosts a TV show, “In the Boardroom with Lucy Marcus” for Reuters on the intersection of boards and leadership.

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Emerging Shifts for Money and Wealth

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This year I was lucky to attend AMP’s Amplify Festival in Sydney. My first session is ‘Emerging Shifts for Money and Wealth’ with Dr Tim Jones. Some notes on Tim:

“Tim is Founder and Program Director of the Future Agenda – the world’s leading open foresight project… Tim is a recognised expert in innovation and future growth. He is the author of numerous articles and eight related books and is a regular speaker at corporate events and public conferences on innovation leadership, growth platforms and future trends. He has a PhD in Innovation Performance and Masters Degrees from Cambridge, Imperial College and the Royal College of Art in London.”

Dr Tim starts off his talk, focusing on the difficulty of predicting and anticipating future changes and trends:

Continue reading →

ANZ Innovyz Demo Day Live Blog

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The ANZ Innovyz Demo Day, 18th of April, 2013. The ANZ Innovyz Start is an accelerator program for innovative startups located in Adelaide, South Australia.

This blog post is my live blog of the ANZ Innovyz Demo Day.

What is demo day? See http://www.innovyzstart.com/what-is-demo-day-jana-matthews-explains

I thought all the companies did a great job! To read how it all happened, see below!

Continue reading →

Leadership Lessons From Game of Thrones

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With the start of Game of Thrones Season Three only hours away it is a good time to revisit and update one of my old blog posts 4 Leadership Lessons From Game of Thrones.

When I originally read the five available books in George R.R Martin’s ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ I found myself thinking about the leadership and life lessons that could be extracted from the series. Quotes like ‘Kill the boy’ haunted some of my more boy-like decisions, and Ygritte’s ‘You know nothing Jon Snow’ played through my head whenever I took issue with a management decision.  I would reflect on the possibility that many more factors were at play than I could see, and that I still had some distance to travel in my journey to be a more effective person (and leader).

So here is my list of seven leadership lessons from Game of Thrones, expanded from my original list of 4: Continue reading →