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Articles by Blake Beattie
Is the four-day work week enough to keep employees happy?
The COVID-19 pandemic undeniably reshaped the way we work. Many employees experienced remote work for the first time and discovered its benefits. As leaders, you may have noticed a significant shift in the desire for flexibility among your employees. It is crucial to understand the impact of increased flexibility on meaningful work and consider innovative approaches like the four-day work week if you want to attract and retain talent.
Seven tips to help leaders recharge when taking time off
Do you get sick on day two or three during your holidays? Have you ever had a really good month or quarter at work and then crashed? This is normally a sign that you are not recovering properly from stress or illness and that you are not managing your body’s physiology. Surge capacity is a set of mental and physical adaptive systems that give us the extra energy we need to survive short periods of high stress. Our biology has not been designed for extended periods without respite or recovery.
How leaders can harness ChatGPT to improve strategic planning
ChatGPT has taken the world by storm and, according to Swiss Bank UBS, is the fastest growing app of all time. It took TikTok nine months to reach 100 million users; ChatGPT reached that number only two months after its launch.This generative AI tool has some game-changing features, and many of us haven’t even scratched the surface of its true capabilities.
Better manage entitled employees with this six-step guide
Some reports claim that gen Z is the most challenging generation to work with, giving rise to suggestions that they are overly entitled. However, entitlement isn’t a concept that is generationally bound. Employees with high psychological entitlement morally rationalize their behavior to explain workplace outcomes in a self-serving manner and always see themselves positively.
What World Class Strategy Execution Looks Like for CFOs
Author: Blake Beattie | Quest Worldwide Posted: September 13, 2023 The Chief Financial Officer role has changed significantly over the past two decades. Focus has shifted from number crunching & financial reporting, to becoming a strategic partner to the CEO and a critical cog in the strategy execution wheel. Over the past 35 years, Quest Worldwide has had the opportunity of working with diverse leadership teams in over 70 countries.
How remote workers can accelerate your business growth
As we’ve seen over the past few months, change is inevitable. Rather than viewing change as a sign of failure or a hurdle, business leaders must recognise it for what it truly is – an opportunity. The modern workplace needs to address the societal demands for a better way of life. With a vast amount of evidence arguing the equal value of flexibility and monetary compensation, we are now on the precipice of the work-from-anywhere era.
Clear signs your business transformation is failing
There’s a popular meme circulating on social media at the moment that goes something like this: Who is driving transformation in your business? CEO CFO COVID-19 And of course, it’s funny because it’s true. Organisations around the world are good at talking about transformation.
Business turnaround vs restructuring: Crucial differences you need to know
You might have seen them – they wear a black overcoat, a black hat, dark glasses and carry an axe with them – hatchet men. But this, apart from being a false stereotype, bundles turnaround and restructuring consultants together. However, they have their differences. Defining a turnaround and restructuring Turnarounds and restructuring are fairly recent concepts that are both aimed at rescuing a business and avoiding it going into liquidation.
Gender penalty: what women have lost to COVID-19
Prior to the pandemic, women’s continuing under-representation in leadership roles and male-dominated careers was put down to the work–life narrative: 73% of men and 85% of women in a 2012 survey of Harvard alumni attributed women’s stalled progress to it. Yet the pre-pandemic research showed that the challenge of balancing work and family commitments wasn’t the issue. Both men and women experience it. The issue is that the challenge is managed differently by men and women.
The most successful businesses secure their cash flow this way
Famous US venture capitalist Fred Adler said, “Happiness is a positive cash flow”. Cash flow, as defined in the Cambridge Dictionary, is ‘the amount of money moving into and out of a business’. Think of cash flow like putting petrol in your car; you fill up the car’s tank with petrol, and it empties as you drive. The goal, however, is to have enough petrol in your tank so you never run on empty. Cash is the lifeblood of every business – big, small, public, private, sole trader, company, new or old.
How to know when it's the right time to start a business
Whenever people ask me when is the right time to start a business, there’s a statistic that immediately comes to mind: 80% of startups fail. But why is this? Is it because the founders started their business when economic conditions were unfavourable? Were they too old or too young? Did they not have enough money in the bank? In other words, did they start their business at the wrong time? Sir Francis Bacon famously said “knowledge is power”.
Proven ways to achieve work-life balance during COVID-19
The coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact on our lives and will continue to do so for some time. As government’s around the world begin to remove social isolation restrictions, businesses are scrambling to adapt their business models to cope with the ‘new normal’. With more people working from home and the influx of children being homeschooled, the concept of work–life balance takes on a whole new meaning.
Truth behind choosing strategy vs culture for business success
Spend some time hanging around IT conferences, stocking up on branded keep cups and lanyards, consuming as much free coffee and catering as possible, and you'll soon memorise Peter Drucker's famous saying: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. You'll hear it repeated in reverent tones so often, while the people sharing your table nod thoughtfully, tapping it into their tablet's note-taking app. You've been warned.
Leadership habits that kill strategy
Deciding on where to play, how to win and how to configure the business to deliver longterm, sustainable success is no easy task. A study of Fortune 500 CEOs, found that only 14% indicated their business was effective in implementing their strategy. Leaders need to make clear choices on who to involve, how to involve them and what information/insights will inform the choices that need to be made. The right strategy can deliver great value to stakeholders.
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