Topic

quirky

ideas and experiences with a selling angle that come from left-field

Selling Into A Zero-Based Budgeting Environment

Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a system that requires managers to justify all expenses afresh with each new year. I first encountered this in the mid-Noughties with a client suddenly swamped with execs from their Dutch parent. It wasn’t so much that the discipline was a complete mystery to the

Are We Going To Defend Moscow?

The desire to have better meetings is currently all the rage. How do you start a key meeting? One where a decision must be made. Here’s a terrific paragraph from a recent book review. (A Tale of Two Tyrants, subscription req’d [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/

Adapting For The Next Year

From a grey Autumn day in Britain’s second-city, Birmingham. A ‘parklet’. A hospitality venue, in this case hotel bar, is allowed to make a covid-compliant outside seating area where once parking bays lay and maximise patron numbers. This sector maybe more than most starkly split between those innovating and

Still Believe That Diseases Are More Easily Transmitted On Board Of Aircraft?

> “This is not true.” So say KLM in the above 2min safety promo clip. Who knew about HEPA filters? Not that any of us can take advantage of such glorious tech as I blog this right now. All flights grounded. Pretty much every place. Even where leaders govern by the

Negotiation Tracking ✓ X O

dailymail table graphic -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another emergence from the Brexit deal. The planet’s largest current talks securing a £660bn arrangement. With post-match spin quick to surface. The British leaked documents preferring to suggest their ‘win ratio’ was higher; 28 to 11 with 26 drawn. The European Union strangely opting to

10 Stark Numbers

Amidst the peak shedding season for retrospectives, I came across one of many coronavirus Top Tens. (Subscription req’d [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/12/26/10-stark-numbers-tell-story-covid/] via London’s Telegraph.) Here’s their headline-summarised economics editor 10 stark numbers that tell the story of Covid; > 1. $11.

Greek Marbles Glisten Through 2021 Light

Got any reasons to be optimistic for 2021? A recent collage in London broadsheet The Telegraph (subscription req’d [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/reasons-optimistic-2021/] though) surely the template for many a salesteam, or even company-wide, slot at a kick-off conference as this new year begins. The idea

Roaring Back

From the Yale Professor that brought you the finding that “moods spread like ripples through friends”, comes a coronavirus pronouncement. Recovery will come. Phew. Yet Winter sure is long, hey. The message comes from clickbait pr of ‘social epidemiologist’ Nicholas Christakis’ latest book, Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring

Last Minute Data Glitch

> The deal is done. pic.twitter.com/zzhvxOSeWz [https://t.co/zzhvxOSeWz] — Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 24, 2020 [https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1342123159181516802?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] Christmas Eve saw surely the largest ongoing negotiation in the world complete. The Brexit deal was done. Against so many odds, and

4 Ways To Make Change Happen

Nudge co-author Cass Sunstein gave a twenty-minute distillation at Nudgestock 2020 of How Change Happens. He lists a quartet of factors that when in your favour, enable change to take hold. Without going into the full behavioural science, here I rather try and suggest how each one applies to a