I am humbled that Tim Kastelle has quoted a paragraph from a recent blog I wrote in an article he just published on Change and why it is simple but not easy. For my students and online learners, I recommend that you also subscribe to Tim’s blog as he deals with many issues relating to… Continue reading Linking: Change: simple, but not easy by Tim Kastelle
Category: Process and Change Facilitation
Moving from generic to specific and then onto systemic
When working with development organizations in the mesolevel we often find that their programmes are very generic. The same can be said of the findings of many diagnosis. The result is that firms do not really use the services of these organizations, because the value add and the impact of the services are not really… Continue reading Moving from generic to specific and then onto systemic
Absorbed into the networks behind the systems we see
Its been a while since I have last posted here. The reason for my absence is two-fold. Firstly, I am busy with a course offered by Coursera and the University of Michigan about Social Network Analysis (SNA). My business partners and one of our associates in Mesopartner are participating in this course. The course is… Continue reading Absorbed into the networks behind the systems we see
Help – the industry I am working with is uncompetitive and many do not care
In most strategic management textbooks 4 generic factors are identified that can be used to build competitive advantage: efficiency, quality, innovation and customer responsiveness. These four factors are highly interrelated, as an improvement in customer responsiveness for instance could result in improved quality and better efficiencies. By addressing these four factors a business can reduce… Continue reading Help – the industry I am working with is uncompetitive and many do not care
My activities in the last months
So what have I been up to in the last few months? At the moment I am working with several industry organizations and development institutions in South Africa on topics that are all interrelated around the topic of upgrading of our manufacturing sector. This involves working both on the softer issues such as facilitation of… Continue reading My activities in the last months
There is more value to the value chain than adding value to products
I am supporting value chain practitioners in various programmes where I am coaching, teaching, supporting, pushing and pulling experts. This is one of the perks of my job as I get to look over the shoulders of practitioners working all around the world on commodity, agricultural, manufacturing and service value chains. While marking some assignments… Continue reading There is more value to the value chain than adding value to products
The MaFI-festo: changing the rules of the international development “game” to unleash the power of markets to end poverty
I am supporting great initiative of the Market Facilitation Initiative. Lucho submitted the online debate we’ve been having since 2008 into the annual Harvard Business Review/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation (called MIX). I am a member of the MaFI discussions. Lucho provides the following short summary “Bilateral and multilateral donors and NGOs re-write the rules… Continue reading The MaFI-festo: changing the rules of the international development “game” to unleash the power of markets to end poverty
Link: Why dont they want what we know they need by Charles Kenny
Take a look at this post by Charles Kenny at the Centre for Global Development about why people don’t absorb technologies that we know they need!
The benefits of being aware of how a system works
For those that have participated in any of the training events that I have contributed to in the last years would hopefully recall my favorite energizer called the Systems Game. In this game we simulate a complex system, with all the participants moving around trying to position themselves between two targets in the group, without… Continue reading The benefits of being aware of how a system works
My dictionary for economic development practitioners
At any point in time I am coaching several development experts and learners around the world. I have a short list of words that when I see them in any document I see red flags. However, there are also several words that when I see them I know we are on the right track. I… Continue reading My dictionary for economic development practitioners