Think Oak Blogs

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

ISO22301, Business Continuity Management 2
Reading Time: 17 minutesBusiness continuity is a far-reaching topic that many business owners and managers do not think about until it’s too late. ‘It will never happen to me’ until it does and then the majority of businesses cease to exist within 2 years of a serious incident. Yes, business continuity can take [...]

A to Z of Business Continuity

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

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Reading Time: 4 minutesPart 3 In Part 2 in this series of 3 posts on understanding your customers, I covered the ‘Do’s’ of understanding. In Part 3 I’d like to cover some of the main ‘Don’ts’! Don’t Take Customer Research at face value The value of any research findings depends critically on the [...]

Wake up and understand your customers

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

Wake up Call, Wake up and Understand Your Customers, Oak Consult 4
Reading Time: 6 minutes‘Wake Up and Understand Your Customers’ should have been my first blog post and not my 78th! It’s taken me a few years in customer facing roles and running my own business to truly get it! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always known the importance of customers, having worked for [...]

Wake Up and Understand Your Customers

Meaning of Life, Oak Consult, Mark Conway, Think Oak 4
Reading Time: 23 minutesBoth Monty Python in their film with the same title and Douglas Adams’ incredible book (and subsequent TV series and Film) – The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, pondered with great humour, The Meaning of Life. I highly recommend both if you haven’t seen them! The latter piece of [...]

The Meaning of Life

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 ...

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

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Reading Time: 19 minutesThe world of work has evolved and changed significantly in the last 20 years. No longer is a job for life and you need to be in the driving seat when it comes to career progression. When did you last make time to reassess what you want from your career? [...]

A to Z of Career Progression

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

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

man and woman near table 3
Reading Time: 13 minutesSelling is at the heart of business, even if you’re not in ‘Direct Sales’. Think about the following scenarios:        You’re trying to convince your manager to develop a new product, but can’t get him or her to take things further        You’d like to introduce [...]

A to Z of Direct Sales

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

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Reading Time: 7 minutesFollowing on from my last post the A-Z of Business Social Media, I’ve had some feedback that whilst the A-Z was really useful, for people who are new to social media, particularly in a business sense, they don’t know where to start and how to get the most out of their limited [...]

The New SMS – Social Media Strategy

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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

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

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

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

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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 ...

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

self-limiting beliefs 9
Reading Time: 5 minutesIf you are one of those people who constantly has negative thoughts or feelings running around inside you, or you find yourself regularly repeating bad habits or destructive patterns, most likely you have a hidden self-limiting belief lurking in your mind, holding you back from reaching your full potential, preventing [...]

Self-limiting Beliefs – Part 1

Star Performer - Attitude or Aptitude 6
Reading Time: 4 minutesI’ve been thinking a great deal of late about what makes the difference between a good team member and a great one, or for that matter a good leader or a great one. Aptitude or Attitude? I’ve come to the conclusion that Attitude is a key defining factor. Who are [...]

Aptitude or Attitude ~ What makes a Star Performer?

James Dyson 5
Reading Time: 5 minutesFollowing on from my last post Fail to Learn, Learn to Fail, I’ve done some research into some famous business people to see how rocky their road to success was. I was surprised by a few names and fascinated by others, so I thought I’d share six of the best [...]

Six of the Best …. Failures

Failure 5
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn ‘Fail to Learn, Learn to Fail’ I’d like to cover some common failures of leaders and managers. We all make mistakes, and that’s actually a good thing, as long as you learn from them…and learn quickly. I’m going to draw from my experiences and those of people I’ve met along [...]

Fail to Learn Learn to Fail

Pace in your Organisation, Execution
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn part 3 of this 4 part series of blogs I covered the importance of PACE to improve organisational effectiveness and speed and specifically Communication: PACE = Planning + Alignment + Communication + Execution The fourth and final part of The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation [...]

The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation ...

communication and collaboration 1
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn part 2 of this four part series of blogs, I covered the importance of PACE to improve organisational effectiveness and speed and specifically Alignment: PACE = Planning + Alignment + Communication + Execution The third part of The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation will focus on Communication of your [...]

The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation ...

Alignment 4
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn part 1 of this four part series of blogs I covered the importance of PACE in your organisation to improve effectiveness and speed and specifically Planning: PACE = Planning + Alignment + Communication + Execution The second part of The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation will focus on [...]

The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation ...

Driving PACE in your organisation 3
Reading Time: 5 minutesSucceeding in today’s competitive business environment requires that your organisation be agile enough to respond quickly to internal and external change. To stay ahead, you have to explore new ways to grow your business – for example, by launching a new product or service or targeting a different marketplace. Speed [...]

The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation ...

Politics without the Politics 4
Reading Time: 7 minutesOffice politics is a fact of company life. Wherever there are two or more people working together, there will be politics and there will be opportunity for conflict. However, destructive office politics can demoralise people in an organisation, hamper productivity, and increase turnover of good staff,. Much as you might [...]

Playing Politics without the Politics

Personal Communication 5
Reading Time: 8 minutesCommunicate or Fail is a two-part post focussing on communications at an organisational level and on a personal level. Part 2 will focus on personal communication. Click here if you missed part 1. Effective communication remains at the heart of business. It is a crucial skill that must be mastered [...]

Communicate or Fail ~ Part 2

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Reading Time: 8 minutesCommunicate or Fail may sound a little extreme. It’s not. Organisations and individuals can succeed or fail on the effectiveness of their communications. Communicate or Fail is a two-part post focussing on communications at an organisational level and on a personal level. Part 1 will focus on organisational communication. Good [...]

Communicate or Fail ~ Part 1

Destiny or Design - Choose to Succeed 5
Reading Time: 8 minutesLife is not something that just happens to you, something you are powerless to do anything about. You have choices. You can choose to succeed. It is never too late to improve your life and implement the changes that are going to lead you to your ambitions. I don’t profess to [...]

Destiny or Design ~ Choose to Succeed

Teamwork 3
Reading Time: 7 minutesTrue teamwork promotes individual and collective performance. Powerful teams value listening and communicating, sharing work responsibilities, provide support and can even make work more social and enjoyable. Team members are supportive of one another and recognise the interests and achievements of each other. I would go one step further and [...]

Creating Powerful Teams

Keep People Inspired 2
Reading Time: 4 minutesBusiness is all about measurement. Peter Drucker’s quote – “What gets measured gets managed” is never more true than in today’s tough economic climate. The use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are at the heart of most high performing businesses. However, there is often one important KPI missing,  and that is [...]

THE Key Performance Indicator – Keep People Inspired

Energy 6
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn a previous post, I talked about the importance of Focus. In this post I will be talking about the importance of energy and how you manage yours to ensure you achieve your goals. While both focus and energy are important, neither by itself is sufficient to produce the kind [...]

High Energy High Performance

Focus 3
Reading Time: 4 minutesBill Gates achieved monumental success with Microsoft, and attributes “focus” as the key to his success. He stated “maintaining focus is a key to success. You should understand your circle of competence and spend your time and energy there…I’ve learned that only through focus can you do world-class things, no [...]

Focus on Focus

Measuring Success
Reading Time: 9 minutesIn the sixth and final part in the series of The Brand New, Brand You, I will be covering the last step in the START process in Brand New, Brand You, Test. So you’ve got to grips with Brand New, Brand You. You’ve developed your Brand – Your values and [...]

The Brand New, Brand You! ~ Part 6

Reinforce - Brand New Brand You 1
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn the fifth part in the series of The Brand New, Brand You, I will be covering the fourth step in the START process in Brand New, Brand You, Reinforce. Now that you have started to establish the Brand New Brand You, it is important that you continually reinforce your [...]

The Brand New, Brand You! ~ Part 5

Online Brand 3
Reading Time: 14 minutesIn the fourth part in the series of The Brand New, Brand You, I will be covering the third step in the START process – Articulate. Brand You is who you already are, whether you are consciously aware of it or not. Brand New, Brand You is about building a [...]

The Brand New, Brand You! ~ Part 4

LinkedIn 5
Reading Time: 9 minutesIn the third part in the series of The Brand New, Brand You, I will be covering the second step in the START process in Brand New, Brand You ~ Toolkit Development. START – Toolkit Development What tools will help you deliver your brand to the outside world and what [...]

The Brand New, Brand You! ~ Part 3

Brand New, Brand You - Self-discovery 7
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn the second part of the series of The Brand New, Brand You, I will be covering the first step in the START process in Brand New, Brand You, namely Self-discovery. START – Self-discovery A personal brand is much more than a job title or how you look. This first [...]

The Brand New, Brand You! ~ Part 2

Brand You START 8
Reading Time: 3 minutesI’ve had some feedback recently that people would like some support in finding new roles, building their personal profile and generally improving their employability. Brand New, Brand You is a series of Think Oak! posts to help you improve your personal brand in the increasingly crowded and competitive job market. Brands [...]

The Brand New, Brand You ~ Part 1