Author: Richard Ferguson
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Wisdom for your 21 Year Old Self
I was lucky enough to be working with a hugely talented and inspirational group of young farmers last week as part of the Tesco Future Farmer Foundation. This is an amazing initiative by Tesco to give something back to the farming community, investing in the future of farming, and to an extent, the future of…
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Shameless Hornblowing
I was very lucky to attend a wonderful concert at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester last night, the premier music venue in the Northwest no less. The event was a celebration of the 500 year anniversary of Bolton Boy’s school, 100 years of the Girl’s school and a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the…
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Slide out and onto the slope
Very fortunately I have just returned from a week’s skiing in Switzerland, with my eldest daughter Alice, my nephew and my brother-in-law. I say fortunately for two reasons :-) 1. We all returned without injury and 2. We were very lucky to be able to have the time, health and finances to go. Now, I am no…
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The way we do things around here when no one is looking
Over the last few months I have been working with several clients helping them re-define their Operating Model at an organisational or functional level. Now this is not short term, quick fix stuff and requires a level of commitment and patience to ensure that the activity delivers against the strategic rationale or drivers. One of…
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The Days are Long but the Years are Short
I was indulging in a little social media surfing and came across this simple little video that really resonated with me, so I thought I would share it; this was put together by a lady called Gretchen Rubin, a best-selling author and exponent of mastering living more effectively http://www.gretchenrubin.com/. As usual it got me thinking…
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Plan to Perform
My daughter came in to the bedroom earlier this morning excitedly waving her notepad at me and declaring “I have planned out my morning”! As you can see from her to-do list – she had indeed planned her morning. She duly followed through with her plan and had a successful day! Now this fits smack…
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Two Ears versus One Mouth
“We have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may hear more and speak less.” ― Diogenes Laërtius My colleague and friend Malcolm Follos has been using this expression in meetings and workshop for years as a way of setting a precedent around ground rules; I have followed suit and can hear…
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Are you playing digital catch up?
Last week I attended an interesting IOD Northwest breakfast event all about Digital Strategy hosted and supported by some guys from O2. My thanks to Paul Lawton and Martyn Wallace (@mw_o2uk) for a great session. It was a really interesting event and sparked some great insights and discussions; not least of which was the fact…
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Look where you want to go, not where you are going
I have recently embarked on a new adventure, well, when I say adventure I guess I mean challenge! Ever since an experience a couple of years ago on the back of a ‘motor taxi’ around the ‘peripherique’ in Paris I have wanted to learn to ride a motorbike. So, having taken my basic test last…
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Destination or Journey?
I was recently stimulated by an interesting and insightful article by a blogger called James Clear, it was entitled ‘If You Completely Ignored Your Goals and Focused on This One Thing Would You Get Better Results?’ It is worth a read and it got me thinking. I have always been a big advocate that there…