Commitment versus Cutting Your Losses

Commitment versus Cutting Your Losses

When is the best time to handle loss? Beforehand? Investors put a stop-loss in place. Policy makers put ceiling and floor limits on future activity. Engineers design pressure values. People choose an engagement period and sign pre-nuptial agreements, before they get married. Insurance companies design cover contracts & premiums, after first assessing probability of claimContinue Reading Commitment versus Cutting Your Losses

Organisational Resiliency

Organisational Resiliency

Organisational Resiliency – 7 questions If the future is highly uncertain, how important is resiliency and what can you do to improve it? Being resilient arguably matters the most when the future is uncertain (in the UK, think of Covid & Brexit combined) – in biology, species survive change thanks in part to their genetic diversity. Continue Reading Organisational Resiliency

Options versus Actions

Options versus Actions

The World is obsessed with actions. Stakeholders want them. Accountants value them. Politicians couldn’t survive without them. In Physics, potential energy matters as much as kinetic energy. Employers hire potential, recognising that strength comes not just from proven action, but from having versatility under uncertain conditions. Astute buyers bypass one deal, knowing others will follow.Continue Reading Options versus Actions

Plan and Options Flexibility

Plan and Options Flexibility

Firstly, private sector organisations could usefully reframe their missions from maximizing returns to equity holders, to instead be the reform of something – housing reform, education reform, health reform, transportation reform, transaction reform, distribution reform, FMCG reform, risk reform, entertainment reform etc. A few examples are as follows: The mission for a construction company, buildingContinue Reading Plan and Options Flexibility

Flexibility and Brands

Flexibility and Brands

Having Flexibility on the outside and the (business) brand at the core makes sense for organisations wanting their clients to experience their own unique version of the brand. Caterers, publishers, movie makers & evangelical religious leaders take this approach. Their clients might say, ‘I don’t know what I want, but I’ll pay good money (andContinue Reading Flexibility and Brands

Business Capability and Business Flexibility – how are they related?

Business Capability and Business Flexibility – how are they related?

One method of project and business valuations involves calculating the net present value of a stream of future cash flow estimates. This generates a project or business valuation. Providing this value is higher than the realisable value of the net assets in today’s money, the business is likely to be a going concern. The businessContinue Reading Business Capability and Business Flexibility – how are they related?

The Power of One

The Power of One

Think-tank charities typically advocate for reform, to influence decision making at government level. Some nations (the US, France and the UK) appreciate the role independent think-tank charities have to play, both domestically and to help them evolve their foreign policies. Others including Japan, China and Germany seem to encourage such charities efforts where they’re alreadyContinue Reading The Power of One

Photographers of Life

Photographers of Life

Is photography a recipe and metaphor for living? Should we make similar decisions about shutter speed, depth of field, subject composition and photo vantage point in our life, as we do taking pictures? As photographers, we know that together, those four things add power and impact to the picture. We juggle them and toggle betweenContinue Reading Photographers of Life