Blog
The Social Network. Reimagined.
The treatment of personal data became mainstream when the General Data Protection Act (GDPR) came into force in 2018. Written into many countries’ laws, like the Data Protection Act (2018) in the UK, organisations that process personal data need to comply with these...
Side Hustle Toolbox 3.0 Review
Software and information product bundles have been around for a while on the internet and a little while ago I was approached by a site called Infostack.io. Infostack is a discount deal site that offers various themed bundles of digital resources worth...
How I Am Using My Love of Business and Tech to Build My First No Code Product
Okay, so full disclosure - it’s an information product, not a product product. But I am still pretty excited and I wanted to share the news about this. I’ve previously built several information products and published these as training courses on platforms like...
Have We Run Out of Problems to Solve?
Now I don’t mean problems like poverty, hunger, and disease. I mean problems to which software is a solution. There used to be a meme which was along the lines of “there is an app for that”. Today it seems that is the case. Take a moment to sit back and think of a...
Buzzsprout Review
Another Buzzsprout review? Well, after being inspired by people like Pat Flynn, I’d been wanting to start a podcast for a while. I had been giving some serious thought as to the topic and eventually decided on a careers themed podcast. Specifically helping people...
27 Books To Help You Build Your Sales Skills
In a recent podcast interview my guest, Doug McGeachie, recommended several books that he found particularly inspiring and that helped him develop the skills that have made him so successful. As usual, I shared the key books in the podcast notes. After the interview,...
What It Takes to Succeed in Sales
Say the word "sales" and people react in one of two ways. They either love it, or the concept fills them with dread! Some people choose sales as a career path and some don't. But then others find themselves needing sales skills to grow in their current roles, or when...
The Agile Career Podcast is Live
I have been contemplating the idea of a podcast for a number of years but have been procrastinating on putting it into action. Perhaps even subconsiously thinking that podcasts might just be a flash in the pan. It seems this is not the case and the popularity of...
Developing Your Unique Selling Proposition
I've touched on the concept of developing a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) before when I wrote about how everyone is a consultant even when they think they are not. Developing your USP is part of developing your personal brand and this article will focus on defining...
startups.com Review
Entrepreneurship and startups are a huge topic of interest and inspiration for me. Hence, the amount of content that I have written on www.gunterrichter.com and other platforms. I am always on the hunt for relevant and informative content (as well as a good deal!) and...
Five Tips for Building Transferable Skills
In my last article, I wrote about the steps that you need to take to become employable for life, rather than, employed for life. One of the steps listed out the activities that you would need to perform to build or grow your skill-set. This article will provide more...
How To Become Employable For Life
It's not very often, nowadays, that careers follow a straight path. While some of this is by design, much of it occurs by default. This means that career paths are no longer predictable or plannable. Gone are the days, joining a profession and job after high school,...
Is Dropshipping a Viable Business Model?
I’ve been analysing business strategy and business models for many years. One of the business models that I’ve always found fascinating, is the dropshipping business model. On the surface, it appears ideal. A low barrier to entry, minimal start-up investment, low...
Nine Reasons Your Business Might Fail
Starting your own business is exciting. Whether it is taking what you have learned in a corporate environment and going alone, or taking a hobby or interest and turning it into a business. There are of course risks and it is often easy to overlook these when embarking...
We’ve Got Risk Management Nailed. Don’t We?
Risk is something we deal with daily. How long before your flight or train do you need to leave the house? Can you make it to work and back before filling up the car? We make conscious decisions about these things knowing that choosing incorrectly could mean a costly...
The Seven Coaching Questions
Everyone Now Knows That Managers and Leaders Need to Coach Their People In my last post I spoke about why annual performance reviews don’t work and what can be done instead. I suggested that this process be replaced instead by a coaching relationship. While coaching...
Annual Performance Reviews. There Must Be A Better Way.
The collective sigh can be heard across the office. Yes, it’s that time of the year again. Time for performance appraisals. While the prospect of a salary increase or a promotion is appealing to most, it seems this is not the case with the process that drives the...
How To Create A Pitch Deck
A pitch deck - when do you need to create one? I have spoken a lot about creating a business plan but is this always the best option? The short answer - yes. You should always have a plan for your business. However, this can take a number of forms. The most common...
How To Create a Business Plan
Creating a business plan. This is a topic of much controversy. Traditional business theory enforces the importance of a business plan. In contrast, the world of agile startup business says don't waste your time. Make it up as you go along because you can pivot when...
Living In The Cloud – Part Two
So it's been a few months since the purchase of my Google Chromebook and I wanted to share a few thoughts on how its been going. Starting with the unboxing, the experience is obviously not as slick as most Apple products, but what is immediately noticeable is the...
Living In The Cloud
Do you know anyone with a Chromebook? It has been a while since I’ve purchased a new laptop, the last was in 2009 which was a MacBook Pro. You won’t be surprised that it is still running. It’s a little slower, the battery life isn’t that great anymore, and it can’t...
How To Quit Your Job
It feels great thinking you're an entrepreneur. Let's be honest though - how close are your side-hustle earnings to those of your full-time corporate career? Does this mean you're a wantrepreneur? (Voluntarily) leaving a well-paid corporate career is difficult, yet it...
Why Do Transformation Efforts Fail? Because Culture (B)eats Strategy
How does an organisation attempt a large transformation project and fail three times? Why does a new hire who has joined a department to lead a change in the way of working end up resisting the new paradigm after only a couple of months in the position? A...
Bootstrap Tools For Your Business
With these bootstrap tools, starting a business has never been easier. Many tools that are required to run a business used to be prohibitively expensive, making the barrier to entry very high. Whether it was office space, ERP software, or IT infrastructure - these...
Strategy in a Minute – Vision vs. Mission
Many people ask, "What is the difference between vision and mission?" Don't worry if you are confused by the two, many people confuse the two - including corporate organisations. In this short video, I clear things up. [embedyt]...
Strategy in a Minute – What is Strategy?
The term 'strategy' is often shrouded in mystery. In this short video, I provide a simple answer to the general question of what strategy is. [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ddbXWuw5Uk[/embedyt]
Recommended Reading – My Top 3 Books for 2016
Heading into the holidays and the coming new year is always a good time to reflect on the past year and our plans for 2017. It's also a good time to put our feet up with a few good books. So I thought I'd share my top 3 reads from 2016. It's a bit of a mixed bag and...
Live on Udemy! How to Build a Business Plan.
How to Build a Business Plan I'm very pleased to announce that after months of planning and hard work, my first video based training course on building a business plan is available on Udemy! The training course is aimed at entrepreneurs and business owners. The...
Creating a Business Plan in 12 Steps
Coming Soon on Udemy - Building a Business Plan. Hello! I'll be launching my first video based training course soon. The course is Building Your Business Plan in 12 Steps. It is made up of 19 lectures and provides almost 3 hours of video tuition. I'll be giving away...
Are Large Corporates Beyond Help?
Corporate Mis-governance It’s impossible to scan the news today without coming across some corporate failure, transgression, or scandal. We’ve had large banks being bailed out by government at the taxpayers’ expense. These banks would have ordinarily gone out of...
Product Review – Building a Personal Brand by Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuck Gary Vaynerchuk is an entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and internet personality. He rose to fame when he transformed his fathers liquor store business into a specialist retail wine store named Wine Library. Much of this transformation was due to...
This Is a Dead Parrot! What Happened to Customer Service?
I've come to notice - both as a consumer and as a keen observer of customer management disciplines - that customers are often difficult to please. There is nothing wrong with expecting good customer service. Customers that are forking out hard earned cash (or...
FFS, It’s Only Toothpaste! Less Product Choice Please!
Having too much product choice is often a problem. I've written about this before but no one sums this up better than Barry Schwartz in his TED Talk, "The Paradox of Choice". Putting this into an everyday context, I've been thinking about toothpaste. A lot. Call it a...
Wearable Tech Meets Kaplan and Norton
There are many greats that have shaped our business thinking today. Mintzberg, Drucker, Porter, Prahalad, and of course the great Kaplan and Norton. The classic management theorists you might call them. So what does this have to do with wearable tech? Being a business...
Ten Lessons From Consulting – What I’ve Learnt
I’ve spent my career consulting - 20 years now and still continue to learn on a daily basis. I’ve tried to condense some of these lessons into this article, so here we go. 1. Beware first impressions To be conscious of this, you need to understand what forms first...
Would You Like to be Ripped Off? Fair Pricing Practice
I’d recently been in the market for a new car. New for me anyway, as the model I wanted was no longer in production. I had to look long and hard to find a suitable pre-owned vehicle. Over the space of a couple of months, I managed to find a number of candidates. The...
Overcoming Your Fears and Managing Risk
As we grow older we become more risk averse. This is usually noticeable when we look at our kids. We watch them leap out of trees, jump off high diving boards. Or take to their skateboards; things we used to do without a second thought when we were their age. In my...
10 Things Coaching Rugby Has Taught Me About Managing Teams
The smell of bacon and fresh coffee, eggs sizzling in a pan, freshly buttered toast and reading the Sunday papers. The ideal way to end a week? Not for me. I prefer the two hours I spend outdoors on the rugby pitch teaching teams of six-year-old kids how to play...
Think Beyond the Obvious
The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.
Old School Strategy is Cool. Or is it?
Do traditional strategy planning tools have a place in today's business world? Let's take a look at one of the more widely used in more detail. Michael Porter has been prominent in both the business and academic worlds for the last 30 years. A number of his theories,...
The Difference Between Theory and Practice
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.
Setting Objectives
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat. "I don’t much care where--" said Alice. "Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.
Good Business Strategy
It's quite simple really... Good Strategy + Good Execution = Good Management
The 3 Things in Your Career That Will Get You Promoted
The last article I wrote highlighted three key attributes that will not only benefit you in any endeavour you take on but more specifically benefit your career. Let's take a look at these in more detail. Solution Orientation There is an old adage that states 'if you...
You’re a Consultant. Even When You Think You’re Not.
I recently came across an article in Harvard Business Review that was rather critical of consultants. Funnily enough, it was written by a consultant. The writer had taken a two-year sabbatical from consulting and accepted a corporate job at a large organisation. His...
Bureaucracy Killed the Video Star
I've been a consultant ever since I started my career and have asked myself a number of times why clients hire consultants rather than do the work themselves. I continue to ask this question and the most frequent answers that come up are Consultants bring knowledge...
So Who Won the Music Wars?
Another day and another retailer closes down on the high-street. It wasn't too long ago that many organisations thought a website was a nice to have, or even a necessary evil - sort of like a fax machine. Now some of these organisations are being shut down by their...
Five Reasons Why Business Intelligence Projects Fail
Reason #1: Business Intelligence solutions that are not business user requirements driven. This is often a problem when ‘generic’ BI solutions are implemented. They can be based on perceived business requirements or what has been sold to the customer. The problem with...
My YouTube Debut
Earlier this year, I was invited to join a discussion Panel to cover the topic of Big Data and what organisations were doing about Big Data. It was broadcast as a live Webinar but is now available on YouTube. It was a very interesting discussion and apart from the...
Understanding Big Data
Reality or hype? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJFnj6F4xxI
Key Thoughts From The 1st Big Data Insight Group Forum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-eyND9Ndbs&feature=youtu.be
It’s a Tough Choice
As consumers, we are faced with a daily barrage of advertising, product endorsements, and special offers. Sometimes making a choice is really tough, but fortunately, there are a number of ‘tools’ at your disposal that can help you make decisions. Things like a price...
Smashing the Rules of Project Management – Part 4
So while I have taken a break from writing this series of articles, I hope you have been out there, in the field, actively smashing the rules of project management. In an effort to help you keep this up and smash some more, I present part 4 of ‘Smashing the Rules of...
Smashing the Rules of Project Management – Part 3
Following on from part 2, the next part of our series continues in a similar vein with another three rules of project management. Here they are. Rule 7: ‘What is not on paper has not been said’. Although many of us believe the art of chivalry is still alive and well...
Smashing the Rules of Project Management – Part 2
Part 1 of ‘Smashing the Rules of Project Management’ introduced the idea that many tongue-in-cheek touches of sarcasm and analogies of project management might actually contain an element of truth, maybe even wisdom. Three rules in, this certainly seems to be the...
Smashing the Rules of Project Management – Part 1
Quite a while ago someone mailed me a document titled ’50 Rules of Project Management’. The ‘rules’ are all tongue-in-cheek and consist mainly of analogies and sarcasm. As the years go by, I gladly share these rules with both aspiring and experienced project managers....
Not In My Backyard!
We are all pretty quick to complain about poor customer service to our friends, family, and acquaintances, but how many of us actually give organisations a chance to make things better? How often do you say ‘no’ when asked to complete a customer satisfaction survey?...
The Case for Nationalisation – Or Not
Like many people, I need to travel into London on a daily basis – a train trip of around 45 minutes. And while I have a choice of substitute products (I could drive, catch a taxi, car pool) I catch the train because it is (usually) the quickest and most practical....
Are You Feeling Bloated?
There is a scientific theory called Boyle’s Law, which states that a gas will expand to fill the size of the container that it’s in. For many years I have felt that staff in organisations - performing their day-to-day operational activities - behave in much the same...
Where do Consultants go to die?
It’s been seen many times before. Salaried people – especially in specialist areas –make the transition to the Consulting profession. This is sometimes a planned career move or sometimes the result of an unplanned event, like a redundancy. Unplanned, by the employee,...
The Curse of the Traveller
By no means am I a hardened traveller or jet setter, but I have been doing a weekly trip up north for the last few months, and this unfortunately necessitates me being exposed to fellow travellers. Not all of them are bad of course, but there are certain behaviours...
Do Budget Airlines Mean Budget Service?
Traveling on EasyJet recently, it struck me how poor the customer service was. With the exception of the check-in counter representative, all of the staff I interacted with would certainly have benefited from a reading of Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence...
Projects as Usual
If - like many of us - you are a consultant, you'll be used to working on projects. In fact, you’ll be accustomed to working on projects all the time. You will also have seen that when working on customer projects, the client will at the same time be undertaking many...
Who’s the Pirate?
Who’s the Pirate? Traditional ways of doing business have been under threat for a while now. I suspect that certain professions - such as healthcare, Doctors specifically – are immune in the short-term, but other industries, such as publishing, really do have some...
How Much Does It Cost?
As consumers, we make for an interesting study in many areas. One of the most fascinating areas however, is that of price and how we react to it. Often we will spend hours or days deliberating over a purchase of a few Pounds, but at other times, almost instantly make...
Obfuscation?
I recently watched a lecture by Barry Schwartz, called ‘The Paradox of Choice’ (available at http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html). He spoke about the complexity that is introduced to us as consumers by providing too many...
Fit or Not?
There is a fairly well known anecdote that describes how people tend to get promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. This appears particularly true in the public sector or government. One needs only consider the likes of Gordon Brown or George Bush (pick...
Hitchcock in the Workplace
There have been a few people that I have worked with during my career that I have not been able to 'place' - by this I mean, understand what drives and motivates them, what their goals are, their lack of conscience, and more importantly, how they manage to remain so...
The View from the Ivory Basement
No doubt you've come across them, termed a 'shared service' or 'support function'. They are meant to be there as an enabler to support core and other business activities. Generally termed 'Information Technology' or IT, they are often a world unto their own. As of...
Can Retailers Afford the Ripoff?
Live for today – screw tomorrow!
Cost Cutting
Is it really the solution?
How Much is Too Much?
Getting ripped off?
Customer Centric Performance Management
Are companies too inward focused?
Where is the IP?
Is it just me, or is everybody franchising everything nowadays?
Well Done Apple iStore Clearwater
A great customer experience
The Television Advertiser’s Paradox
Do advertising agencies tell their customer’s this?
Viva the Entrepreneur!
Recently seen at Cape Town International Airport
The Fish Rots from the Head
Why is it that so many organisations just don’t get it right?
Finally!
It’s only taken a few years