Take Responsibility. Understand that we, and nobody else, are ultimately responsible for our actions, thoughts and attitudes. How our lives turn out is up to us and no-one else.

Set Goals. Goals provide us with a direction in life. They help us to focus our energy on what is important to us. We need to make decisions about what we want from life and to set clear goals that reflect this.

Be Positive. Having a positive optimistic outlook makes life more enjoyable for us and for those around us. It also gives us energy and drive, making us far more likely to be successful.

Persevere Intelligently. Getting the most from life requires determination and perseverance. It also requires a flexible and intelligent approach to life. If a course of action doesn’t work we must be able to find effective alternatives.

Connect with People. None of us live in isolation. To be successful we need to have effective relationships with other people in all areas of our professional and personal lives.

for more details see here

Thoughtcrew has developed three business biomimetic offers for leadership, change management and innovation. The following summary provides an overview of the offers and shows how these could work for your business.

Business biomimetics and introduction

This is a range of education and introduction to business biomimetics talks and workshops. Lasting from a one hour talk to a three day workshop the audience is introduced to the subject of biomimetics, the application to business issues and a number of the business biomimetic models and tools. In the workshops there is an opportunity to apply the models against a defined business issues and to compare this with the audiences current experiences.

Biologize your Business

The ‘Biologize your Business’ offer takes the application of business biomimetics further by applying it to a business issue that is pertinent to the current organisation’s challenges. A bespoke project is defined which then uses the business biomimetic models and the Infinity Context Free Process (ICFP) to innovate around the issue and then to evaluate the ideas generated against agreed KPI’s and alternative approaches. At this stage there is an optional implementation offer which covers the design and implementation of the generated ideas. This option uses the Thoughtcrew Transformation Architecture approach.

Embedding business biomimetics

Here the ICFP process is embedded into the existing companies processes. This is augmented with an appropriate set of business biomimetic tools and techniques. The embedding includes all the training and support to allow the organisation to carry out the process and to develop and evaluate its own idea generation against a defined problem or issue. Once implemented ongoing support includes the provision of biology expertise, new business biomimetic models, ad-hoc consulting and the production of biological data flash cards.

The support could also include specific research around emerging issues or in the hybridisation of other techniques to create an integrated approach. This would be then implemented across a blended learning platform.

www.thoughtcrew.net

Also announced at the launch were the five companies that have successfully completed the PAS11000 certification on partnering. Soon to become the new British Standard further information on this exciting development in collaboration and the importance for the future can be found at www.pslcbi.com where you can obtian copies of The Partner. For further information on the use of biology in innovation contact Thoughtcrew on www.thoughtcrew.net

“Very passionate about biology. Emphasis on biology mostly lost the impact on change/change leadership culture. Pace could have been quicker through the theory to practical examples. Practical example right at end was quite good looking with journey to growth (crab example). Fascinating”

“Very interesting. Would have preferred more time to work through the business problems at the end”

“Great session”

“Really creative and interesting presentation. Food for thought. Very thought provoking”

“Most enjoyable session so far. Well presented and an articulate presenter”

“Very interesting and innovative”

“Excellent, very interesting content and great presentation”

“Very clever and entertaining and relevant”

“Thought provoking, different”

What if we applied this thinking to customers? Have we considered a local bs spread customer base? I meet many ex-corporate types that have moved to the South West and want local clients. Can the way communities work in nature help us decide this aspect of customer strategy?

Here’s a head start. To be local everything needs to be a close copy. It needs to access plentiful resources and when preditprs strick to be of sufficient numbers to cope with a few losses. All are equal so theres no need for CRM.

Is this what you want?

Exploring the application of the new models and theories developed by Phil on his PhD at the University of Bath the invited audience were enthusiastic about the application of this approach in the current economic situation. An executive summary is available.

What is the key issue for a senior manager involved in a merger?

• What is our integration strategy: where are we trying to get to and how will we get there? What level of integration are we after?

• Review customers, process, IT: Understand the differences between companies and enable planning and resourcing of integration, What will we do and when?

• What is our retention strategy: Whom will we need to keep?

• Develop employee communications: What will we tell people when and how?

• Review relationships: What are the important contacts?

• Plan resources: Where will we need additional knowledge or resource? Consider that the drain of resources resulting from the integration may happen earlier than you’ve planned for!

• M&A integration experience and knowledge: What experience, understanding, capability do we have around integration? Have we ever done one like this before? Do we need a sounding board for ideas? Do we need a checklist?

How can M&A experience be used to help departments who are merging?

The key to a successful integration project is planning. This applies for the integration of

departments, functions, groups, units, businesses or companies (M&A). There are many important questions to discuss around people management, culture, HR, IT, customers, productivity, speed, synergies, linking with other departments and generally bringing people together.

Remember: the later in the process you start to think about, plan and act upon these issues,

the longer your people will be concerned about their careers, their future, their

livelihood, their life. During this period of uncertainty company productivity,

levels and ultimately profit can and will “dip”. The key is to ensure you come out of that

“dip”. Some companies don’t…

What would be the top three skills an M&A project manger must posses?

• Integration knowledge and experience. There are activities and reactions that occur each and every time given a certain course of events, people that have not been through M&A will not see these in time.

• Business knowledge – cant just use an IT project manager.

• Project management skills – planning, team selection, business case writing, evaluation and delivery, project tracking

What are the key measures you would recommend to show a merger was on track?

• Traffic light reports, with progress, issues, blockers

o There are numerous projects needed to put 2 or more departments together. These all interlink and are focused upon delivery. Each should be individually tracked and then the overall project manger will have a summary showing all projects, how they are progressing against plans, together with problems that have arisen. The aim of this document is to ensure smooth delivery and enable blocks to be removed.

• Cost and benefit plans together with delivery

o There is a cost involved in integrating departments, this should be tracked

• KPI’s on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and department or company profit

What are the key trends in the finance sector from an M&A point of view following the ‘credit crunch’?

• M&A continues across all sectors, at a lower rate than when driven by the private equity in recent times.

• Credit crunch means many companies are holding off on M&A or don’t have the cash to do it…however there are now cheaper companies to buy so many are gearing up for a spending spree

• Corporate profits are down, leading to internal cost pressure and more and more internal restructure (change, efficiency programmes), leading to the integration (or putting together) of departments.

What are the main concerns for the integration manager?

• Will I hit my numbers
• Will sales improve
• Can I cut those costs and not damage the business
• Will people leave
• How can I remove the right people
• How fast should I go, I want to go fast but not too fast
• What process should I use to deliver
• I have so much to do and not enough resource
• How far should I integrate

Danny Davis would be happy to discuss with you how best to take advantage of the opportunities facing your business today.

Danny Davis is Owner of DDConsulting and trustee on the board of the Chartered
Management Institute. He can be contacted at danny.davis@ddavisconsulting.com