Can Akdeniz's Blog, page 84
December 7, 2013
Life lessons from Harry Potter, Part II
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A lesson from Nelson Mandela
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The art of realistic planning
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December 6, 2013
How to invest in employees
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October 10, 2013
Masterclass: Competitive Research Business, 23 January 2013
This masterclass is designed to teach you the fundamentals of sound research business practice as quickly and efficiently as possible. Here is a quick preview of what you will learn:
How Research Business Work
Learning points: How every research business operates, What are the main fundamentals of a research business? What can you do to improve your results?
How Resource Management Work
Learning points: What are most essential resources (funding, people,talents, time, networks etc.) for a sound research business? How to manage your resources to improve your results?
How Systems Work
Learning points: How systems (politics, culture etc.) influence your research business? How to analyze existing systems and improve them?
Who should participate?
This masterclass is relevant for research professionals from all disciplines (Researchers, Funding officers, Programme Coordinators, Managers and Executives of research organisations).
Agenda
(10:00-16:00 with coffee and lunch breaks)
How Research Business Work
How Resource Management Work
How Systems Work
Presenter
The programme will be presented by Can Akdeniz.
Can is author of four business books, lecturer, consultant, and founder of CBE.
As a lecturer and author with 12 years of practical consulting experience, Can brings insightful advice to crowds ranging from entrepreneurs to market leaders, who value his fresh ideas and sensible approach in tackling the most important issues affecting today’s fast-paced world of research business. He has also worked with over 50 major organizations to create cultures within the workplace that value efficiency and the synergies of individual ideas and contributions.
Can Akdeniz holds degrees with King’s College in London, as well as the University of Bonn.
Certification
Once you complete this masterclass you will be awarded a certification of participation. This certification proves to employers and colleagues that you have not only learned the skills taught in our programme, but that you understand how to apply them to real world situations.
Location / Accomodation
GSI Hotel, Bonn, Germany. The GSI in Bonn is more than only a conference place; it’s a modern centre for training and discussion, as well as a feel-good meeting-place. It is situated in a very convenient location with a number of advantages. GSI welcomes visitors from all over the world – around 2,000 meetings and over 50,000 overnight stays per year. Click here for map & directions.
Rooms are available at the workshop place: Click here to book a hotel room at the convention centre.
Pricing / Places are limited
290 € (early-bird rate including training material, training and coffee breaks). Payment via paypal / credit card. Please contact us at mail@cbebusiness.com for payment via bank transfer.
Register now
Questions?Please feel free to contact CBE team at mail@cbebusiness.com for any question.
October 9, 2013
How to avoid the damaging effects of a traditional approach to business
If I asked you what the bottom line in any business should be – what represents the cornerstone and standard measure of success in traditional business theory – I’m sure that you would quickly and assuredly answer: “Profit!”
Traditional business models take profit to be the ultimate goal of any business plan. The standard methods purported to be most effective in generating profit are reducing costs, increasing prices, and maximizing productivity. Unfortunately, this model can be extremely damaging to businesses in the modern corporate landscape.
In my book, Cool Boss, I extrapolate from the demonstrable success of companies whose leaders have embraced a different perspective on what’s important and developed a new approach to running their companies, to put together a list of qualities that are essential if you intend to become an influential leader of great renown. You can learn how to be a truly inspirational and charismatic leader, using innovative management techniques to win loyalty, inspire creativity and bind everyone within your company together in the pursuit of a shared vision. Success and prestige go hand in hand with this new style of leadership.
The old style of ‘doing business’ not only prevents companies from moving forward and realizing their potential, but it damages reputation, leads to the loss of employees and customers, and ultimately drives businesses into the ground. Even a well-established company that continues to exemplify ideals set forth by old school of business theorists will not last long in the modern corporate landscape; here unavoidable transparency and instant sharing of information means that leaders can be held accountable for every action of a company. Consumers are demanding more and more from businesses in terms of ethical social and environmental policies, treatment of staff, customer service, innovative marketing and revolutionary products. By sticking rigidly to a traditional business model and focusing solely on the generation of profit, these other factors that can make or ruin a company are ignored. It is time for a new approach: for a new generation of Cool Bosses to take the helm and sail into a future in which success is dependent on much more than money.
by Can Akdeniz
October 6, 2013
How to increase passion at workplace through enabling and energizing your employees
When you look around your company, what impression do you get? Is the work floor filled with passionate employees actively engrossed in working on their various tasks and projects? Does the atmosphere crackle with electric buzz of an energized workforce exchanging ideas and collaborating to find solutions? Is there a tangible sense of positive energy? All too often, the picture that you will actually see is one of downtrodden or stressed-out employees, running fingers through their hair, chewing fingernails and staring blankly at their computer screens – waiting for inspiration and motivation to come from… somewhere. Their minds are anywhere but on their work. This workplace is defined by lethargy, boredom and mild desperation; it lacks passion and positivity. So, what’s going wrong?
The latter situation described above is one in which employees are motivated only by a stable job and monthly paycheck. Their roles are defined and the hours that they must spend at work are specified. They don’t have to think about what they do, they just come in and do it. Each one spends a significant portion of the day watching the second hand slowly ticking away, bringing them closer to the end of their shift: the time they can get on with real life: with whatever they consider important. This all comes back to the notorious work / life separation. When employees are at work, they are restricted from resolving any outstanding issues in the world outside. With typical shift patterns tending to occupy a large chunk of the day between 8am and 8pm, many employees are unable to deal with these issues until they have a day off. This means, they bring their problems to work, to act as distractions; productivity, passion and energy suffer.
Many business leaders have tried to use incentives to encourage workers to spend longer hours at their desks, in a bid to increase productivity. By creating targets and offering perks or prizes, employers hope to increase the passion and commitment of their employees. But cool bosses know that longer hours and bigger rewards are not the best way to increase productivity. Passion and energy are key. Employees will only feel passionate and energized if they are free to fully focus on their work and able to make a difference. There are two incredibly effective ways in which a good leader can enable their employees: giving them control over their schedules and allowing them to define their own roles, at least to some extent. Implementing policies to this effect will revitalize the workforce and help keep employees minds and hearts on their jobs.
In my book, Cool Boss, you can discover how one influential leader has raised productivity rates sky high by giving employees freedom to choose their working hours and limiting their work hours to 35 hours per week! Gain insight into methods you can employee to ensure that when you look around your office, all you see is engaged, dynamic and driven employees. A workforce who love what they do and do it well.
by Can Akdeniz
October 3, 2013
How to let go of control and enable your employees
Imagine the scene: you look down from an office window set high in the wall, watching the workers you employ busily completing the tasks you have set them on the floor below. Everyone is working. Everyone knows their own role. You watch as they mindlessly perform the tasks required of them: Steady whirring cogs in a well-oiled machine. There is a manager stationed on the corner of every section. Every so often they patrol through the rows of workers, making sure that everyone is doing as they should be. Anyone seen slacking or failing to meet targets is dealt with efficiently. You have spent years building this company, defining the roles of each department, putting in place a clear chain of command through which your orders can be efficiently passed down to the parts of the machine. And for years, it has worked. You’ve achieved a level of success and maintained it well – profits rising enough, year on year, to keep the stakeholders happy. You have built the company in line with the autocratic principles enshrined in the lexicons of business theory that you studied. It’s a perfect profit generating machine. You control it all.
So why does it feel like you are an aging captain, standing at the helm of a sinking ship?
The world has moved on. The autocratic style of management, one man controlling the fate of a company, is no longer an effective business model. It used to work, when the business world was a more stable environment and change spread slowly through society. But that is no longer the world we live in. Employees can no longer be seen as cogs or parts – their every action to be controlled in line with a specified function, working to keep the company machine trundling steadily forward on a defined path. The modern business world is a river in flux. Innovation is everywhere and change happens almost on a minute by minute basis. As a modern business leader you need to be able to adapt and respond to this dynamic new environment. You need a constant flow of new ideas. You need an adaptive and evolving workforce with ideas of their own that will help spur the company to success.
Your employees are your greatest asset. They represent a mine of untapped potential and inspiration. It’s time to shake off outdated modes of thinking and loosen the reins. By demonstrating a level of trust in your employees and giving them the freedom to be creative, you will enable your workforce to stop working for you and start working with you in a combined effort to drive the company forward into unprecedented realms of success. When your employees feel valued, trusted and free to express their ideas, all sorts of creative new approaches can be devised, ideas floated, and solutions found. Given the power to make changes that have a real effect, employees gain a stake in the company’s success. They will be happier in their work and want to do more; they will want to rise to the challenge and fulfil their potential.
In my book, Cool Boss, you can find out more about letting go of control and enabling your employees. Find out how this style of management has worked to deliver unimaginable success to some of today’s most prestigious business leaders in today’s most successful companies. You to can be a Cool Boss. You can enable your employees to fulfil their potential and help you drive your business forward.
(Image is from here.)
October 1, 2013
Download today free promotional copy of Cool Boss ebook
Today, (10/01/2013) we are offering free copies of Cool Boss: Master 11 Qualities of Greatest Leaders on Amazon Kindle Store.
In Cool Boss, Can Akdeniz shows how the leadership mentality has changed forever. He explains the new leadership paradigm and provides you with the tools and techniques you need to evolve your business strategy and leadership style for the modern global marketplace. The book contains in-depth explorations of real world examples and case studies from some of the coolest business figures of today that continue to change the world with their unique, industry-dominating styles of leadership.
Cool Boss will teach you:
The difference between enabling and controlling
How to lead by example and be an active participant
Increasing accessibility and communication with employees
Building unique connections between departments and projects
Treating employees as people, not assets
Staying humble and aware of the impact your leadership has on the world
Being seen as a global leader and an agent of positive change
Properly choosing when to risk and when to stay safe
Pushing forward entire industries and societies through innovation
How to inspire, motivate, and lead from the center
The reasons why the hierarchical structure of the past is broken
Improving your reputation as a cool leader
Efficient restructuring of company vision and function
How the old approach to business can still be damaging
Increasing passion through enabling and energizing your workforce
Balancing strong leadership and selfless humility
September 28, 2013
Why happy organisations are more successful
A lot of focus is put on companies that are profitable, or easily recognizable in the global market, because they inevitably have a steady influx of consumers and profit, but what many people miss about those companies is their overwhelming culture of happiness, not only within their ranks, but also within their consumers. A company that is able to spread happiness through the very act of producing, marketing, and selling a product will remain at the top their industry because of an essential facet of human nature, we like to be happy. This sounds simple enough, but if you bought a product and immediately felt worse about yourself, you would most likely choose a different place to spend your money in the future. You might even return it immediately because no one wants the tradeoff of money spent for product received to end in unhappiness.
A company that can master the art of spreading joy and happiness to their consumers has a leg up on every competitor out there. A perfect example is Coca Cola, who has built one of the most widely beloved and hugely consumed products in the world. Every single year, their products are sold to more people in more countries, representing an unrelenting and unmatched level of success that other companies dream of, but never legitimately expect to enjoy. They have made a universally desirable product that cleverly masks its most basic function. It is a beverage, meant to quench thirst, but it has grown into an entire philosophy, and an aura seems to surround the brand and the company because it focuses so closely on making its consumers happy. Even its slogans speak to this underlying need, as though the simple act of drinking a Coke will improve the quality of your life. The most amazing thing is, by creating a company culture and a brand reputation for happiness, it does feel better to purchase a Coke than almost any other competing beverage. People are swayed by brands, and powerful brand recognition is one of the most significant things that a company requires.
Creating an atmosphere of pleasure and enjoyment is an extremely valuable tool for any company, particularly when it comes from an honest interest in making the lives of your consumers better, richer, and more enjoyable. In the competitive world of modern business, being able to appeal to something deeper than cost effectiveness or functionality is priceless. By establishing that reputation in the marketplace, your company will have the freedom to experiment with more innovative ideas, explore new avenues for success within your industry, and have the flexibility and trust of your consumers so they won’t abandon you because of the promises of a competitor.
by Can Akdeniz, Author of Happy Company: How great companies find happiness, build loyalty, and achieve success
