Dear Reader, Joe the CEO, Leon the Product Line Director and Emily the Product Manager are hard working people, very motivated to make their company successful. But each of them is a little powerless. Why powerless, and what can we do about it? Joe is of course in a special position: as a CEO he has a series of steering instruments, like Strategy and KPI Setting, Strategic Initiatives and the Allocation of Budgets . The most relevant Steering instrument is of course that he c

This blog is about agility. The word “agility” is used a lot in the world of management, especially the world of innovation management. There is a real Quest for Agility: Agility seems the new Holy Grail and you can hardly find an article or blog post without a reference to “the fast changing circumstances” of the business. More than ever before in history, companies are at risk of missing the boat when it comes to “the continuous evolution of the internet, digitization, the

Dear reader, let me share with you a conversation I had with the Chief Engineer Digitization & Software Development of a large company that produces complex electronic devices with many software elements in and around them. He is a European guy. His name is Michael. Michael has been in the business for years and accepted his Chief role some 6 years ago. For him electronics and software development is second nature, and he is savvy about physics. I recently spoke with him to u

Dear reader, some years ago I interviewed a product manager of a big company to find out how the role of product manager was defined and how it worked in the day to day practice. His name was Fred. The company develops and produces complex instruments and equipment and is a world leader in its segment. Not too long ago I had the opportunity to go back to this company and I used the opportunity to visit the product manager again. It turned out that he had been replaced a year

Dear reader, Leon is the Product Line Director, a Category Leader of a 1 billion dollar global product line. His company has 7 product lines, smaller ones but also bigger ones from a turnover perspective. He is 45 years old, a commercial guy with a lot of knowledge about the technical aspects of the products and their variants in his portfolio, but also from manufacturing processes. He has a huge personal network in the company. I talk with him on a regular basis about his c

Dear reader, not too long ago I spoke with the CEO of a global operating company about his major business challenges. For now I call him Joe. His company develops, manufactures and sells discrete consumer products. The sales is via a huge international network of retailers, and via some direct sales. He has more than 30.000 employees, in more than 100 countries, and over 10 plants. Joe’s company is listed and he reports on a regular basis about the progress of the company to