Execution | The Portfolio Partnership

Execution Requires a Contrarian Mindset

by Ian Smith | May 30, 2013 | Execution Tips

Successful execution requires a contrarian mindset, otherwise we would all be great at it! What do I mean? To successfully complete difficult tasks requires a different approach, a unique perspective, a contrarian mindset: Talent development – Container Store...

CEOs – Do You Really Have An ExecutionTeam?

by Ian Smith | Feb 24, 2013 | Execution Tips, Leadership, Losing & Winning, Management, Operational Tips

If you only employ people that do what you tell them they will fail to execute. As CEO you need to see a little piece of yourself in them. They need to solve problems on the ground, to get stuff done. The solutions that will be needed will require curiosity, grit,...

Positioning – Can we learn from Barnes & Noble?

by Ian Smith | Sep 2, 2011 | Positioning drives growth

In March this year Time published a smart article called – E-Books: Why Barnes & Noble Avoided Borders’ Fate by Josh Sanburn. With the announcement of Barnes & Nobles’ (B&N) latest results for Q1 ending July showing the Nook business soaring 140%...

Creating Agility By Redefining Roles

by Ian Smith | Aug 5, 2011 | Talent Management

Warning this is a tough love post. The Backstory The United States should be a landscape of small agile, innovative, smartly organized enterprises, fit for worldwide competition.Well the numbers certainly back up that landscape – 99.6% of the 27.3m US...

The Surprising Value of Being the Best in the World

by Ian Smith | Apr 15, 2011 | Being the Best, Compelling Stories, Exiting your business, Management Help, Repositioning

“Our culture celebrates superstars. We reward the product or the song or the organization or the employee that is number one. The rewards are heavily skewed , so much so that it’s typical for #1 to get ten times the benefit of #10, and a hundred times the...