by Machiel | Sep 9, 2020 | All, English, Theory
This long-form article sets out what running any business is all about in terms of 8 key domains, and the connections between them. Thereby you’ll have insight in the core of all the business administration programs in the world. And in what you, as a manager, may get...
by Machiel | Aug 4, 2020 | All, Nederlands, Theory
MBTI MBTI is de “Myers-Briggs Type Indicator”, een persoonlijkheidstypologie van (dochter) Myers en (haar moeder) Briggs, voortbouwend op de psycholoog Jung. Veel mensen oordelen dat hun MBTI zo raak is, dat de persoonlijkheidsbeschrijvingen bijna...
by Machiel | Jul 28, 2020 | All, English, Theory
You want to invest (to start up, expand, replace, etc), but you don’t know yet where the money should come from. Make use of these nine sources. 1. Free up your own money. Take money from your bank, break open your piggy bank, sell your car or something else (you can...
by Machiel | Jul 28, 2020 | All, Nederlands, Theory
Je hebt een investeringsbehoefte (om op te starten, uit te breiden, zaken te vervangen, etc), maar weet nog niet goed waar het geld vandaan moet komen. Benut deze negen bronnen. 1. Eigen geld vrijmaken. Haal geld van je bank, breek je spaarpot open, verkoop je auto of...
by Machiel | Jul 22, 2020 | All, English, Theory
So you want to be a leader. How to become one? First, you need to know what leadership skills you need. As for a first step, a classic model of Katz states that you must be competent in three areas: Technical: professional knowledge, thorough knowledge of products and...
by Machiel | Jul 20, 2020 | All, Nederlands, Theory
Je wilt een leider zijn. Hoe word je dat? Als eerste moet je weten welke vaardigheden je voor goed leiderschap moet hebben. Een eerste aanzet, een klassiek model van Katz, stelt dat je dan op deze gebieden sterk moet zijn: Technisch: vakkennis, gedegen kennis van...
by Machiel | May 10, 2017 | All, English, Practice
A supply chain is a sequence of companies that each deliver a contribution in a product’s transformation stages from “nothing” to “delivered product”. You can depict it like this: All of these companies operate independently, and all of...
by Machiel | Apr 26, 2017 | All, English, Practice
Why do we hear so regularly that some firm has messed with their bookkeeping and financial statements? Simple: there are many good reasons for financial fraud! For instance: If your bonus depends on a certain profit level, you can feel tempted to “produce”...
by Machiel | Apr 19, 2017 | All, English, Practice
Relationship management is about working on relationships that are [1] mutually beneficial, [2] durable, [3] pleasant. Yes, this requires investments, at the very least in terms of time. So if it isn’t intuitive to you, you may wonder: why do it? It is...
by Machiel | Apr 12, 2017 | All, English, Theory
Leadership kind of people are the busy type. A million things to mind. Yet these can be quite easily clustered – Quinn offers a handy framework that revolves around two axes: [1] you have to attend to things inside and outside the organization, and [2] some things...
by Machiel | Apr 5, 2017 | All, English, Practice
In business, working on “quality” and working on “improvement” are more or less synonyms. Oddly enough, this is not always as essential as it seems. There are advantages to doing it, but these may not interest you enough. There are three basic...
by Machiel | Mar 29, 2017 | All, English, Theory
A work place, be it a garage, your computer, desk, or kitchen, can get quite messy. Within the extensive domain of Lean Production, there is a logical set of simple principles to keep it all in order: 5S. Originally, the S’s in 5S are Japanese names. But...
by Machiel | Mar 22, 2017 | All, English, Summaries
Good chances that you’ve heard of De Bono and his Six Thinking Hats. Smaller chances that you recall what they were, and more relevant, what you can actually do with this color festival. Edward De Bono categorized six “typical” ways of thinking, and...
by Machiel | Mar 15, 2017 | All, English, Summaries
As everybody knows by now, trying to obtain individual and peer-to-peer engagement works infinitely better than traditional advertising in this age. The holy grail of such engagement is to “go viral”, when your piece of content gets spread like crazy over...
by Machiel | Mar 8, 2017 | All, English, Practice
SCRUM is a modern approach to project management. What is different then compared to a more conventional approach? Were there reasons to change? And how does Scrum work? Let’s get to the three nut shells of the WHAT, WHY and HOW of Scrum! WHAT Like in...
by Machiel | Feb 22, 2017 | All, English, Practice
You are in business. Suppose that clients don’t come flying in. So you’re trying to be seen by the market. You are developing some marketing activities. The very first thing to do is immediately one of the tougher things: make the audience AWARE of your...
by Machiel | Feb 15, 2017 | All, English, Theory
Everybody in business tries to be attractive to the market. That means that people need to see a certain VALUE in your proposition. A famous model by Treacy & Wiersema highlights the three default “types” of value (value propositions) that you can...
by Machiel | Feb 2, 2017 | All, English, Theory
Everybody has heard of the 20-80 rule. Also known as the Pareto principle (which is a statistical cumulative distribution, but don’t let that bother you). What were the basics again, and what is interesting to know about it? Say you have 10 products (x-axis), yielding...
by Machiel | Jan 20, 2017 | All, English, Summaries
Are you, full of plans, accomplishing less than you’d like to? Is the day over before you know it, feeling slightly disappointed about what you’ve managed to get done? And do you still hang around a lot on Facebook or Netflix? This has to do with each...
by Machiel | Jan 13, 2017 | All, English, Theory
You have seen various leadership styles around you. The four prototypical styles are: 1. Directive, 2. Coaching, 3. Supportive, 4. Delegating. Many people will see themselves as “being” one of the four. They identify with one of the styles, as in “I...
by Machiel | Jan 6, 2017 | All, English, Theory
Business entails a lot to attend to. How does all of that relate? How to keep track of everything? My MBA framework for the training course SpeedMBA sets out a complete “business blueprint”. For those who like a bit more words to a graph, I’ll...
by Machiel | Dec 30, 2016 | All, English, Practice
Your clients have certain needs. Sure. Fine. Covered (right?) … But what about you? What do you want from them? In fact, what CAN you want? Well, quite a lot. Let’s have a look at a list of 10. Don’t forget to read the last bit below the list. As...
by Machiel | Dec 23, 2016 | All, English, Summaries
Carol Dweck wrote an interesting book about people having a “fixed” versus a “growth” mindset. “Fixed” hinges on the idea that things in life (people, capabilities, possibilities) are more or less fixed; “growth” on the idea that everything can...
by Machiel | Dec 9, 2016 | All, English, Practice
Strategic marketing is choosing to offer particular products for particular markets. Tactical marketing is the extremely broad field of making you and your offerings attractive to (possible) clients. How to summarize such a rich domain, in a way that gives you a kind...
by Machiel | Nov 25, 2016 | All, English, Theory
Leadership … do you have it in you? Leadership. We tend to be intrigued by it, whatever the form of power behind it is. But what is a leader? It is not a formal position or role in an organization (like ‘product manager’). It can basically be anyone, who steps...
by Machiel | Nov 18, 2016 | All, English, Summaries
Work is not always fun. There, I said it. For many people, up to more than half of all their time at work is not fun (or worse). In a whole career, that adds up to at least two decades of full-time not fun! Not a pretty sight, such neglect of such a potential to enjoy...
by Machiel | Nov 11, 2016 | All, English, Summaries
Hey, who needs an intro? The following infographic about Covey’s legendary work speaks for itself. Treat yourself to complete business understanding! . Enhance your business grip. See the bigger picture for ANY business. Get many ideas for improvement. Go for...
by Machiel | Nov 4, 2016 | All, English, Theory
KAIZEN is not some weird branch of Kung Fu, but the Japanese “philosophy” and practice of incremental improvement. Before explaining the conditions and the strengths of Kaizen, and before giving you a practical, fun and rewarding challenge, let’s lay...
by Machiel | Oct 27, 2016 | All, English, Theory
Know your enemy is a famous piece of Sun Tzu’s advice in The Art of War. In business, competition is usually seen as the enemy. And especially in business there are four extremely good reasons to know your competitors in some depth. Why? Because working on these...
by Machiel | Oct 12, 2016 | All, English, Summaries
Driven: what we all do, in 4 words Most of us know Maslov’s pyramid of needs (physical needs, safety, affection, recognition, and fulfilment). Still a pretty strong model, but I found a more recent model of what drives us to be even more compelling (by Lawrence...
by Machiel | Oct 4, 2016 | All, English, Theory
Power: which of the 5 types? Do you have power? How so? And what power do you have to deal with? Power has always been a powerful theme in human interest: intriguing, disgusting, and appealing to the various many. French & Raven have pinpointed the grounds of...
by Machiel | Sep 27, 2016 | All, English, Practice
Become Elon Musk: 5 ingredients Elon Musk – the man behind PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX and more, is admired by millions. How can one person penetrate relatively closed industries such as banking, automotive, and spacecraft, and even make these industries look at him instead...
by Machiel | Sep 20, 2016 | All, English, Theory
MBTI: pinpoint your personality in just 4 questions MBTI is the “Myers-Briggs Type Indicator“, a personality typology by (daughter) Myers and (her mother) Briggs, building forth on psychologist Jung. Many people judge that MBTI is so spot-on, that the personality...
by Machiel | Sep 15, 2016 | All, English, Practice
Semco: democracy is in the house! 15 September is the International Day of Democracy. Business guru Ricardo Semler has been serious about making his business fully democratic. With the absence of organization charts, function titles and formal rules (there is a...
by Machiel | Aug 4, 2016 | All, English, Practice
Funding your thing … mix 8 ways! So you’re ready to blow anyone away with your start-up. Or to conquer the rest of the world with your expansion. There’s just this small hurdle: you need the cash to do it. Many will now think of seducing investors,...
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