markconwayuk

The A to Z of Digital Transformation
Reading Time: 7 minutesOver the past decade, Oak Consult has published a series of A to Z guides covering the essentials of business: strategy, leadership, employability, risk, building winning teams, and customer experience. Each has combined timeless principles with practical guidance to help leaders reflect and act. Digital Transformation now joins that series. [...]

The A to Z of Digital Transformation

 in Artificial Intelligence / Business / Digital Transformation  tagged Digital Transformation / KPI / Success by
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhy even the best proposition underperforms when your teams aren’t pulling in the same direction — and how to fix it. We Know What We Do. So Why Isn’t It Landing? You’ve got a strong product or service. You’ve invested in development.The customer results are great. And yet… Sales aren’t [...]

Your Proposition Isn’t the Problem — Your Alignment Is

 in Business / Leadership / Teams  tagged Business / Communication / marketing / Sales / Team by
Reading Time: 7 minutesBusiness strategy is never static. What worked a decade ago doesn’t always cut it in 2025. The pace of change, the rise of digital, the climate agenda, and shifting customer expectations mean that leaders need a new lens. Back in 2014, Oak published the original A to Z of Business [...]

The A to Z of Business Strategy (2025 Edition)

 in Business / Business Skills / Leadership  tagged Business / Customer Centricity / Digital Transformation / Quality Management / Strategy by
Oak Consult, Customer Experience, CX
Reading Time: 5 minutesHelping teams build a culture that truly puts the customer first by wearing customer spectacles Introduction When was the last time your team truly saw the world as your customers do? Most organisations say they are customer-focused, but targets, processes, and politics often pull attention inward. The result is experiences [...]

Customer Spectacles: Seeing Through Your Customer’s Eyes

 in Business / Leadership / Teams  tagged Communication / CRM / Customer Experience / CX / Leadership by
Reading Time: 6 minutesYour guide to getting more from the world’s most talked-about AI assistant ChatGPT Introduction This A–Z guide highlights 26 top features of ChatGPT, explained in plain English. ChatGPT has quickly gone from curiosity to everyday tool — helping people write, analyse, code, and create at speed. But with so many [...]

A to Z of ChatGPT Top Features

 in Artificial Intelligence / Technology  tagged AI / Artificial Intelligence / technology by
Reading Time: 6 minutesYour Guide to AI Concepts, Capabilities, and Practical Uses Introduction Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept — it’s here, shaping how we work, live, and make decisions.But with the jargon, hype, and complexity, it can be hard to separate the essentials from the noise. This A–Z guide gives [...]

A to Z of Artificial Intelligence

 in Artificial Intelligence / Business / Technology  tagged AI / Artificial Intelligence / Business by
Reading Time: 3 minutesSometimes, the best ideas don’t arrive during office hours. They sneak up on you late at night, when the world quietens down, the emails stop pinging, and your brain finally gets the space to roam. That’s exactly where I found myself recently — staring down a problem, circling an idea, [...]

Burning the Midnight Oil with AI: A New Kind of ...

 in Artificial Intelligence / Technology  tagged AI / Artificial Intelligence / Brainstorming / Strategy by
Milestones, Inch Pebbles, Project Management
Reading Time: 5 minutesIt’s fair to say that I’ve been involved in my fair share of projects during my career. Some have been market changing product launches or operational transformations and some have been must do, dull, but important projects. Others have been misguided, bonkers and failed projects. I’ve learnt from each and [...]

Effective Projects – Inch Pebbles, Milestones and Tombstones

 in Business / Leadership / Project Management / Teams  tagged Delivery / Project Management / Projects by
Christmas Future, Business, Technology, Leadership
Reading Time: 15 minutesIn the third and last in the series of Think Oak’s Christmas blog posts – The Post of Christmas Future, let’s take a look at the next 15 years in Technology, Business and Leadership and see how they might have changed by 2030. (In case you missed Part 1 and Part [...]

The Post of Christmas Future

 in Business / Leadership / Social Media / Teams / Technology  tagged 3D Printing / Artificial Intelligence / Automated Vehicles / Crowdfunding / Robotics by
The Dark Side of Leadership - 10 Leadership traits that will destroy your organisation 1
Reading Time: 12 minutes10 Leadership traits that will destroy your organisation Having spent 20 years of my life in the corporate world and 10 of them in leadership roles, I’ve been privileged to have worked with some fantastic leaders from across 3 continents. I’ve written many posts on positive leadership for Think Oak! [...]

The Dark Side of Leadership

 in Business Skills / Leadership / People / Personal Development  tagged Communication / Organisational Change / People Management / Performance Management by
Moments of Truth, Customer Journey, Manage, CRM, Customer, Insight, Need and Desires 9
Reading Time: 19 minutesCustomer Experience = How customers or prospects perceive their interactions with your organisation Click To Tweet Customer experience encompasses every aspect of an organisation’s offering – the quality of customer care, of course, but also advertising, packaging, product and service features, ease of use, and reliability. How can you drive [...]

A to Z of Customer Experience

 in Business Skills / Leadership / Management / People  tagged Advocate / Amazon / Apple / Customer Experience / Customer Satisfaction / Disney / Innocent Drinks / Net Promoter / Promoter / Prospect / Ritz Carlton / Zappos by
Strategy, Objectives, Goals, Marketing, Sales, People, Finance
Reading Time: 19 minutesStrategy creates context for operating decisions. It establishes the playing field and provides guidance for decision-making, the experience and skills needed by employees, positioning of marketing and advertising, the priority of initiatives, how to structure the company, and a many other issues. A plan is necessary to guide decision-making, channel resources, [...]

A to Z of Business Strategy

 in Business Skills / Leadership  tagged Business Planning / Goals / marketing / Objectives / Sales / Scorecard / Strategy / Vision by
Mushroom Culture 18
Reading Time: 5 minutesI’m sure many of you have heard people say: They treat us like mushrooms! They keep us in the dark and feed us manure or nothing at all! Click To Tweet Nothing stifles an organisation’s possibilities more than poor communication. Actually that’s not strictly true. Three things do – telling [...]

Avoid the Mushroom Culture – The Seven Deadly Sins

 in Business Skills / Leadership / Management / People / Teams  tagged Communication / Seven Deadly Sins / Simon Sinek by
007, Change Management, Organisational Change, Oak Consult, Mark Conway, Management Consultancy 13
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe original version of this post was a partial celebration of the 50th Think Oak! post together with the 50th Anniversary of the James Bond Movies. What better way to celebrate than to talk about very special agents, Change Agents! Firstly what is a Change Agent? A Change Agent is a [...]

007 ~ An Agent For Change

 in Business Skills / Employability / Leadership / Management / People / Teams  tagged 007 / BPM / Change Agent / Change Catalyst / Change Management / James Bond by
A to Z, Leadership Qualities, Oak Consult, Mark Conway 5
Reading Time: 9 minutesGreat leaders come in all shapes and sizes, genders and cultures, but they all possess many of the qualities I’ve highlighted below in the Think Oak A to Z of Leadership Qualities: A – Agile In today’s economic climate, it is more important than ever for leaders to be agile. Agile [...]

A to Z of Leadership Qualities

 in Business Skills / Leadership  tagged A to Z / Inspirational / Leader / leadership qualities / Leadership Style by
Teams, Success, Customers, Oak Consult, Knowledge, Energy, Focus 6
Reading Time: 9 minutesBeing part of a winning team is a great feeling! Building a winning team is hard work, but can be great fun with some amazing results! Below I’ve detailed Think Oak’s A-Z of Building a Winning Team: A – Audit Abilities The very first thing to do when you take [...]

A to Z of Building a Winning Team

 in Business Skills / Leadership / Management / Personal Development / Teams  tagged Can Do / Energy / Focus / KPI / SMART / Teamwork / Vision by
business, iso 22301, iso 27001, iso 31001, iso 9001, risk assessment, risk management, threat management
Reading Time: 26 minutesAll organisations, whatever their size or market, face a range of risks affecting the achievement of their objectives. While “risk” is commonly regarded as negative, risk management is as much about exploiting potential opportunities as preventing potential problems. Risk management comprises a framework and process that enable organisations to manage [...]

A to Z of Risk Management

 in Business Continuity / Business Skills / Information Security / Leadership / Management  tagged Horizon Scanning / Risk Assessment / Risk Management / Risk Treatment / Threats / Vulnerabilities by
ISO27001, Information Security Management
Reading Time: 19 minutesThe purpose of information security is to protect an organisation’s valuable assets, such as information, Intellectual property, hardware, and software. Through the selection and application of appropriate safeguards or controls, information security helps an organisation to meet its business objectives by protecting its physical and financial resources, reputation, legal position, [...]

A to Z of Information Security

 in Business Continuity / Business Skills / Information Security / Leadership / Management  tagged Cyber-security / Data / Information / ISO22301 / ISO27001 by
Reading Time: 9 minutesWhether you’re a small business with a solitary Twitter account, a mid-sized agency using the latest social monitoring tools, or a huge enterprise with a multi-million pound cross-platform presence, at some point, we all will make mistakes with social media.   It’s OK to be honest and admit that you get [...]

#Fail – 11 Social Media No-No’s

 in Business Skills / Social Media  tagged Brand / Customer Service / Facebook / Google / LinkedIn / marketing / social-media / Twitter by
Oak Consult Persona 1
Reading Time: 7 minutesPart 2 In Part 1 in this series of 3 posts on understanding your customers, I covered the basics. In this part I’d like to cover some of the main ‘Do’s’ when it comes to improved customer understanding. If you missed part 1 – click here! The Do’s! Above all [...]

Wake Up and Understand Your Customers

 in Business Skills / People / Teams  tagged Customer / Customer Journey / Customer Knowledge Management / Listening / Persona / Research by
Rocket Fuel for the Soul 11
Reading Time: 10 minutes  What does ‘Rocket Fuel For The Soul’ mean to you?  Getting a rocket to take off, break the earth’s atmosphere and beyond our solar system to the stars takes a huge amount of planning, energy, determination and investment. So it is for us as individuals if we want to [...]

Rocket Fuel For The Soul – Take Aim and Shoot ...

 in People / Personal Development  tagged Attitude / Exercise / Goals / Meditation / Relationships / Self-help / Self-Limiting Beliefs by
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Reading Time: 14 minutesWelcome to the final part of this A to Z of Inspirational People. If you missed Part 1 including; Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Charles Darwin, David Attenborough and Guy Kawasaki,  please click here. If you missed Part 2 including; Hilary Clinton, J.K. Rowling, Kelly Holmes, Jeff Bezos and Larry Page, please [...]

A to Z of Inspirational People – Part 4

 in People by
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Reading Time: 16 minutesWelcome to Part 3 of this A to Z of Inspirational People. If you missed Part 1 including; Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Charles Darwin, David Attenborough and Guy Kawasaki,  please click here. If you missed Part 2 including; Hilary Clinton, J.K. Rowling, Kelly Holmes, Jeff Bezos and Larry Page, please click [...]

A to Z of Inspirational People – Part 3

 in People  tagged Mahatma Gandhi / Mohammed Ali / Mother Teresa / Nelson Mandela / Richard Branson / Robert Baden-Powell by
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Reading Time: 16 minutesWelcome to Part 2 of this A to Z of Inspirational People. People inspire me in so many different ways; whether that be through significant breakthroughs in technology, advancement in science, progression of thought or overcoming adversity to succeed. Hopefully this A to Z series will make you think about [...]

A to Z of Inspirational People – Part 2

 in People  tagged Guy Kawasaki / Henry Ford / Hilary Clinton / Isaac Newton / Isambard Kingdom Brunel / J.K. Rowling / Jeff Bezos / JFK / Kelly Holmes / ken blanchard / Larry Page by
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Reading Time: 15 minutesI recently read Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography – Total Recall, and it’s a great read from a truly driven, focussed, and like him or not, hugely successful athlete, actor, politician and business person. I got to thinking about other inspirational people and what we can all learn from them, so I’ve pulled together [...]

A to Z of Inspirational People – Part 1

 in People  tagged Albert Einstein / Anita Roddick / Ben Saunders / Bill Gates / Bob Geldof / Charles Darwin / David Beckham / Eve Ensler / Florence Nightingale / Freddie Mercury / Schwarzenegger by
Coal to Diamonds
Reading Time: 6 minutesRebuilding an underperforming team or department is a huge challenge. The issues you will face from the team could include low morale, rapid staff turnover and high absenteeism levels. The managers involved could also have poor leadership skills, which is likely to hinder not help the situation. If employees are uncertain [...]

Coal to Diamonds – Raising Team Performance

 in Leadership / Management / Teams  tagged Communication / Self-Aware / Success by
A to Z, Product Management, Ansoff Matrix, Market, Product Development 9
Reading Time: 16 minutesProduct management can be a complex and often misunderstood discipline in business. In reality Product Management in its broadest sense, touches every part of an organisation that sells products and services, and everyone has their part to play in the product life-cycle to ensure that customers get the best possible [...]

A to Z of Product Management

 in Business Skills / Leadership / Management / People / Teams  tagged advertising / Business / Forecasting / marketing / Product Management / technology by
Passionate, Ambitious, Reliable, Trustworthy, Straight Talking 6
Reading Time: 18 minutesThe Chartered Institute of Marketing defines Marketing as “The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” I think I prefer Seth Godin’s description: The art of telling a story to a customer that they want to hear, that lets them persuade themselves to buy something. Inherent [...]

A to Z of Marketing

 in Business Skills / Leadership  tagged advertising / Business / marketing by
Oak Consult, A to Z of Employability
Reading Time: 9 minutesI often get asked by teachers, lecturers and students what are the key skills and qualities that businesses are looking for in young people leaving full-time education for a career in business. In this A – Z I’d like to give some pointers on the very important topic of Employability. [...]

A to Z of Employability

 in Business Skills / Employability / Personal Development  tagged Attitude / Behaviour / Digital Literacy / Numeracy / Teamwork by
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Reading Time: 14 minutesA – Alerts You can sign up for Google Alerts quickly and easily. Using those keywords and phrases from your preliminary research online, you can elect to have any instance of those keywords and phrases as Google finds them sent straight to your inbox. Enter the topic you wish to [...]

A to Z of Business Social Media

 in Business Skills / Employability / Personal Development  tagged Blogging / blogging tools / Facebook / Google / internet / LinkedIn / PS4 / social-media / Xbox 720 by
Managing Poor Performance 1
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn part 1 of this two-part post I covered the potential impacts of poor performance, the causes and your responsibilities as a manager. In part 2, I’ll be guiding you through a seven-step process to help you deal with a poor performer. Tackling Poor Performance Many businesses do have policies and [...]

Stop the Rot – Managing Poor Performance ~ Part 2

 in Business Skills / Leadership / Management / People / Personal Development / Teams  tagged Feedback / Performance / Performance Management / SMART Goals by
Managing Poor Performance 3
Reading Time: 4 minutesEarlier this year the Roffey Park Institute published their excellent annual report – The Management Agenda. A staggering 46% of UK managers reported that poor performance is not tackled at all well in their organisation, rising to 60% in Public Sector managers. So what do I mean by Poor Performance? Simply put, poor performance is the failure [...]

Stop the Rot – Managing Poor Performance ~ Part 1

 in Business Skills / Leadership / Management / People / Teams  tagged Performance Management / Roffey Park Institute / The Management Agenda by
Culture AND Strategy for Success 1
Reading Time: 6 minutesHow many times have you seen stories in the business press or seen first-hand within your business examples of failures and successes that have been put down to poor strategy OR the wrong culture? One company that suffered the fallout of the strategy/culture collision is Kodak. Kodak was not ambivalent [...]

Strategy AND Culture For Success

 in Leadership / Management / People / Teams  tagged Amazon / Argos / Comet / Habitat / JJB / Kodak by
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Reading Time: 3 minutesFollowing on from my recent posts on Self-Limiting Beliefs (Part1, Part2), I’ve paid much more attention to the language people use around me to watch for self-limiting beliefs or self-restricting words that serve to embed these hindering thoughts as ‘facts’ in our subconscious – Personal barriers to success! How often [...]

Why Not or Why Not? – Removing Personal Barriers to ...

 in Personal Development  tagged Barriers to Success / Self-belief / Self-Limiting Beliefs / Success by
Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right! 11
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn part 1, we established what Self-limiting Beliefs are, what causes them and how to identify your own, because we all have them. In this post, I will be focusing on the most common self-limiting beliefs and how to start tackling them in your life. It is extremely easy to let [...]

Self-limiting Beliefs ~ Part 2

 in People / Personal Development  tagged Belief / Failure / Love / Self Esteem / Self-Limiting Beliefs / Subconcious / Success by