Hello,
I'm Alan Mackenzie, the co-ordinating blogger on this discussion forum. My posts are drawn from my tried and tested published content as well as from research-driven points of view. However, I do give way to my passions and push the boundaries of logical opinion in an attempt to "break-free" and find solutions in the untried and untested arena.
My focus is to explore strategies for working environments and in finding a better way to live within them. Certainly, I will challenge convention and what is regarded as sound advice in an attempt to find a better way. You are encouraged to have your say. The success of this blog lies in your participation, and I hope to earn your trust and loyalty so that, together, we can find the solutions that you seek.
aka; The Out-The-Box Strategist
I have worked in variety of entities including: an international firm of accountants, at two universities, in a few start-ups, in one of the biggest conglomerates in the country, in a large national NGO and in the public sector. One of my observations has been to experience the power of divergent groups tasked with innovation. As the CEO of a large national NGO, I was fortunate to have had the duty of facilitating board meetings where the board members were the CEO's of large blue chip companies. As peers the around the table, the power to innovate solutions lay in the divergent opinions of people from every industry in the economy. As the MD of a group company in a large conglomerate, I participated in think tanks and discussions with the CEO's of companies drawn from the far corners of the economy. In this environment, I also witnessed the innovative power divergent opinion. The lesson learned is that to be an "Out-The-Box" Strategist you need to "cast a net" for opinion from as wide a field as you can. Once done, you need to facilitate the inevitable discussions that will take the conversations to the out-the-box destinations that may yield a solution from the most unlikely of places.
aka; #unstoppableteam: Inspire, Innovate and Celebrate
The #unstoppableteam is the solution to problems that small and work from home businesses face. As sole owner enterprises, working from home in an industry set to explode in size, the problems most likely to filter to the top relate to finding a way to achieve turnover growth and to combat loneliness. Who will these sole owners seek inspiration from? Who will brainstorm with them to innovate solutions to the wide range of problems that they will face? In addition, who will pat them on the back and celebrate with them their successes? It is the goal of the #unstoppable team to be the answer to these questions.
aka; The Unstoppable Strategist
Stepping into the public domain as a blogger I chose to use the title of the "Unstoppable Strategist." It is an alias I earned by proclaiming my strategies to have a broad-based following of believers who would, no matter what, ensure that implementation would continue and that the vision would be delivered. In short, I went on a number of road shows and proclaimed that the steadfast unity of purpose that was driving implementation made the attempts to derail the strategy pointless. I explained that, the strategies to stem corruption by organized crime, were unstoppable
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It was a privilege to be requested to formulate and lead a massive national turnaround strategy that international consultancies had turned down. At the time I was the CEO of a national NGO tasked to assist Government, at the highest level, by providing advanced business skills in the fight against crime. As the strategies took hold I found myself in a locked down secret meeting with the captains of both the public and private sectors. The country's investigative elite had uncovered an organized crime plot to derail the anti-corruption strategy that I was leading. Rather than deter me, it gave me the strength to proclaim the meaning and purpose of the strategies that were in place. I began to view the intermittent plots to derail our intent as love letters declaring the success that was to be. Surely the plots were the result of the success of the strategies being implemented by the unstoppable team of thousands of committed people. Against this background I caught a plane to go to a meeting in Parliament where I was to address a select committee on my progress with prosecuting alleged offenders as a result of the largest forensic audit in the history of the country. Arriving at my destination I was attacked by two armed gunmen, and I was shot, in the presence of a group of people, five times at point blank range. Each bullet narrowly missed my heart but fortunately I was in the company of expert medical people and within 15 minutes I was being operated upon in a nearby hospital by a world-renowned surgeon who saved my life. What I recall was that it was all painless. I'm sure that a pinprick causes more pain and most certainly I can assure you that you need more resolve to face the disappointment of diluted hospital jelly! The moral of the story is that the strategies proved to be unstoppable and to the thousands that adopted them and made them their own to ensure that the vision was delivered, I say thank you. It is they that are the heroes of this story as it is they that showed themselves to be unstoppable.These days, the playing fields that earned me the alias of the unstoppable strategist are a fading memory. The framework for success, however, is as crisp for me as the day that they were formulated, and it is they that are the subject of this blog.
Create a performance driven measurable vision, support it with dynamic strategic tactics that are well communicated to people that give it meaning and purpose because they believe that together it can be done, and you will have the core of a framework for success that is owned by all and which is thus unstoppable.
The power to "earn big" is truth and not "hype" but you need to believe in the vision of goal attainment and you need to take action, daily to make it happen.
QED
