Max McKeown
Max McKeown
Max McKeownis an English writer, consultant, and researcher specialising in innovation strategy, leadership and culture. He has written six influential books and conducts research with Warwick Business School. He is a fellow of the RSA. He served on the Advisory Board for the Rollins Center for eBusiness. He earned his Masters in Business Administration and PhD from the Warwick Business School under the supervision of Professor David Wilson and Professor Sotirios Paroutis, who was in turn supervised by Andrew Pettigrew...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
thinking take-time time-to-think
Strategists who don’t take time to think are just planners.
dream thinking ideas
How much time have you invested in thinking about strategy? How many options have you considered before the plan was written? How have you ensured that the thinking behind the plan is challenged? How much time do you spend exploring trends, possibilities and cool stuff? How much time is spent playing with ideas, hopes and dreams?
fun believe thinking
Strategy is about out-thinking your competition. Mark Zuckerberg, while at Harvard, built a website called Facemash ‘for fun’. Even today, Facebook believe that ‘done is better than perfect’.
senior thinking ideas
Give serious thought to why your company should care about your strategy. Specifically, find problems that the board wants to be solved. What are senior managers scared of? Part of becoming a credible strategic thinker is learning effective approaches to selling ideas for your situation. You’ll know that you’re getting better at selling (or pitching) strategy when managers start coming to you when there is strategic thinking to be done.
believe future
Entrepreneurs don't believe the future is predictable - but they do believe that they can create the future themselves.
although
Entrepreneurs are like cats, because they are independent and do their own thing. Although organisations say they like cats, what they really want is sheep that they can herd.
gold means people spot
You have to learn to see the gold in dirt, which means that you try to spot people with potential as well as ideas that have potential.
among businesses immense large people
There are immense numbers of potential entrepreneurs who can start their own businesses among the people who are working in large organisations.
business high hire likely people skill skilled
Who's more likely to succeed - someone with high skill and no ambition, or no skill and high ambition? If you're an entrepreneur, you can hire as many skilled people for your business as you want.
amazon bookstore continues early grow keeps online puts rivals thrived trying
Amazon thrived because it implemented the online bookstore idea better than any of its early rivals did, not because it was the only company to have the idea or the first company to have the idea. It continues to grow only because it keeps trying to improve on the details of the idea and the way it puts it into practise.
solo sports strategy
Strategy is not really a solo sport - even If you're the CEO.
approaches further innovator point room
At the point that an idea approaches perfection, fashion and expectations surge ahead, leaving the innovator with considerable room to find further improvements.
people doe want
What are you doing at the moment? How does that compare to your competitors? What do you want to achieve? How can you create something people want?
smart organization differences
The smart strategist allows strategy to be shaped by events. Good reactions can make great strategy. Strategy involves competition of goals, and the risk is the difference between those goals and the ability of the organization to achieve them. So part of the risk is created by the strategy.