August 12, 2017

How to become a “Trusted Advisor”

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Guiding Principles, Strategy

Does your presence incite your client to insight? Not necessarily by directly challenging your client’s thinking but by surfacing assumptions that may go unchallenged. I always start my client engagements by saying: “I’ll never know as much about your organization as you do. But what I will do is help build a detailed picture that puts […]

July 17, 2017

Retire & Consult!

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Strategy

My retirement at age 58 lasted 6 months. Then my wife strongly suggested I find something to occupy my time instead of “helping” her optimize our domestic processes. (Not smart on my part in retrospect!) I had to do something in consulting because of my background but I wasn’t sure how effective I’d be without […]

July 13, 2017

High Fidelity Strategy Formulation

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Guiding Principles, Strategy

I’ve always been something of an audiophile. My early stereo systems had limited options for shaping the sound quality—just “Bass” & “Treble” controls. Later models added more options in the form of equalizers with dozens of individual frequency sliders. The benefit of having so many potential adjustments was the ability to compensate for the unique sound […]

July 7, 2016

Is Your Strategy a Map or GPS?

Posted byNick Maus in Uncategorized

“We are lost!” says the angry wife to her flustered husband. “No we’re not, I know where I am going!” he shouts back (he has no idea where he is at).Sound like a familiar conversation? If you were born before the 90’s it is likely you have experienced this dreaded scenario. The only navigation tool […]

September 4, 2015

Proactive IT

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Uncategorized

This week yet another CIO ask me “How can I make my IT team more proactive?”

March 30, 2015

Centralize or Decentralize?

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in E-Book, Organization

Centralize or Decentralize? As shown above, Google searches on the topic of “Centralized vs. Decentralized” ramped up in earnest in 2008 during the time of the economic meltdown and have increasingly vacillated since. But it is the wrong question. It shouldn’t be centralize vs. decentralized. It has to be centralized & decentralized.

February 25, 2015

What Happened to Strategic Planning?

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in E-Book, Strategy

Once a noble pursuit, strategic planning lost its potency and the trust of management. Restoring it to its former glory will require overcoming six fatal flaws. To-date my research has surfaced six flaws in the strategic planning process. Each of these flaws will be discussed below along with their resolutions. Fixing the Flaws To restore […]

September 29, 2014

Finding Your Connective Tissue

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Organization, Strategy

As organizations become flatter and leaner they lose not only management layers, they lose the connectivity function these layers provided. Shared issues, ideas, and innovations were the topic of middle management reports and conversations. Now the details get filtered out to match the higher ratio of subordinates to managers. Without this sharing, the same issues […]

August 15, 2014