Being a good leader - and learning from mistakes

I’m in the middle of Allan Leighton’s book on Leadership, which is refreshingly honest and down to earth. It gives some fascinating insights from some of the captains of industry on the qualities of a good leader, illustrated through their own stories, drawn from their own experiences. Sir Philip Green, Surinder Arora, Stuart Rose, Jacqueline Gold, Richard Baker, Justin King, James Dyson….the list goes on.

Read more…

posted by Alison Esse |Add comment
filed under Stories, Organisations

And on the very next page…Simplicity: Not As Easy As It Looks

And then John Maeda has something to say in his book ‘The Laws Of Simplicity’….

To make anything simple, you need to apply ‘thoughtful reduction’; that’s why the iPod has fewer features than rival media players. Where you can’t reduce- and too much reduction destroys the value of your product - you have to hide complexity; which is why Google has almost nothing on its home page. But for your simplified product to succeed, it has also to appear more valuable than more complex products, something you achieve with classy materials and clever marketing; which is why Bang & Olufsen’s remote controls are heavier than you’d expect.

Right team….let’s look at our paper stock…..

posted by Alison Esse |Comments (2)
filed under Misc

How To Survive Complexity

I wish I had been a fly on the wall at the recent Management Today lunch discussion between some of the UK’s top corporate leaders (Adam Crozier, Royal Mail, Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP, David Brennan, AstraZeneca, Val Gooding, Bupa, Lord Crisp, ex-NHS, Paul Coby, BA, Jane McKenzie, Henley College, Miranda Kennett, First Class Coach and Ian Powell, PwC).
Read more…

posted by Alison Esse |Add comment
filed under Organisations