New Year, New You?
A famous line from Alice in Wonderland is “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there” and here at Optimize we think it’s pretty…
Good Luck!
The element of luck is often cited in business and careers and here at Optimize we subscribe to the fact that success in a career or in business comes from three…
The Data Dilemma
The strategic impact on companies of the exponential technological rate of change is both extensive and fundamental. How can you plan properly in an environment…
Vive Le Tour
As the Tour de France grinds its way through the mountains in the second week we were considering it as a metaphor for life, for business life and for our careers.…
A Little Toe Much
A pub in Derbyshire has hosted the latest “World Toe Wrestling Championship” which has now been going on for more than 40 years. Open to male and female…
I think we're alone now
‘I think we’re alone now’ was the title of the song by Tiffany that reached number 1 in many countries back in 1987. It was originally written for, and released…
The Sound of Second Place
Failure is a topic most of us would rather avoid. But ignoring the obvious, and sometimes subtle, warning signs of impending business concern is a surefire way to…
Divided We Fall
Celebrating diversity is key to a healthy organization and we don’t just mean in terms of ethnicity, gender etc. We mean celebrating the fact that others have…
Decisions, Decisions....
Few corporate strategists making important decisions consciously take into account the cognitive biases that exists i.e. the systematic tendencies to deviate from…
What's the Difference
Customer segmentation remains a key concern for many organizations as the proliferating distribution channels and media vehicles are helping companies target the…
The Secret to Success
We think that the principal problem with some business books is the fact that they generally purport that by following a number of key steps the reader will deliver…
Knowing Your Place
When considering strategy a great number of businesses misread the environment and overestimate their skill and control of what is going on around them. Sometimes…
I Think Therefore I Am
The greatest managerial failure rate comes at the first step into leadership where generally new leaders are ill-equipped to even understand the fundamentals of…
The Past has Passed
...having given this ongoing debate some thought, we got to thinking about how much time is spent looking to the past in business and wondering if our allocation…
The Adjustment Bureau
"... if you have done a thorough and rigorous job determining your strategy and have been diligent in developing an execution plan for that strategy then the art…
The Future Starts Here…
Charles F. Kettering once said, “We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there”. As we head into the…