Mr Lewis

Tag: failure

  • Strategy, the Accounting Equation and the failure of Arrium

    If I remember rightly, the very first thing you learn in Accounting in first Year Uni is the Accounting Equation.  The fundamental framework that underlies the recording of a business’s activities. Assets = Liabilities + Shareholder Funds It means that for everything a company has, there is a claim on it by either the owners…

  • success, failure and the space in-between

    I had a coffee with a friend yesterday that got shafted at work. She had been working on an exciting new agenda for some months, got signoff at every level and was ready to transition into the new leadership role that came with her plan. Unfortunately they (the evil bosses) took her plan, but replaced…

  • 4 tips for avoiding invisible failures

    Have you ever noticed how successful businesses tend to have nice biscuits in the kitchen, normally something special, wrapped in chocolate, perhaps with a little dash of marshmallow or jam. Meanwhile businesses on their last legs, normally have a couple of broken Anzacs in the biscuit barrel. Not to say I don’t like Anzac’s, its…

  • Own Goals

    Last week I was honoured to sit in a meeting of a team that was assured of success. I say this with disgust though as the group refused to clearly define what they they were trying to achieve, specifically so they couldn’t fail. Sadly its too easy to get away with this in a NFP…

  • Failing Smarter

    Last month we ran a fascinating session on failure at the Churchill Club. It was prompted by a comment of a friend of mine who had been the commander of the Australian forces in the Solomon islands a couple of years ago. He said “Of course failure is going to happen, so we give people…

  • What happens after failure….

    This is a video of a speech I did in June this year on corporate failure at AIMIA.  Rather than talk about climbing back up, or just hanging on the cliff, I decided to talk about what happens when you actually fall off and your business fails. It was probably a bit too candid.  Its…

  • Failure has bad PR

    In mid February the Churchill Club ran a programme called Innovation DNA which was about making innovation a sustainable programme in Australian SME’s.  One of the panellists, Wes Sonnenreich from Deloitte, mentioned that a good failure was one that was quick and cheap. Which got me thinking about failure again.  My assertion has been for…

  • Failing or Flailing?

    In the late 80’s when I was training to be an Army Reserve Officer, one of the major training (and leadership development) techniques that had a major impact on me was ownership of failure.  If you taught a lesson and more than a handful of people failed the quick test at the end, then you…