Think Oak! – Our Blog

A to Z, Product Management, Ansoff Matrix, Market, Product Development 9
Reading Time: 16 minutes Product management can be a complex and often misunderstood discipline in business. In reality Product Management in its broadest sense, touches every part of an organisation that sells products and services, and everyone has their part to play in the product life-cycle to ensure that customers get the best possible [...]

A to Z of Product Management

 in Business Skills / Leadership / Management / People / Teams  tagged advertising / Business / Forecasting / marketing / Product Management / technology by
Passionate, Ambitious, Reliable, Trustworthy, Straight Talking 6
Reading Time: 18 minutes The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines Marketing as “The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” I think I prefer Seth Godin’s description: The art of telling a story to a customer that they want to hear, that lets them persuade themselves to buy something. Inherent [...]

A to Z of Marketing

 in Business Skills / Leadership  tagged advertising / Business / marketing by
man and woman near table 3
Reading Time: 13 minutes Selling is at the heart of business, even if you’re not in ‘Direct Sales’. Think about the following scenarios:        You’re trying to convince your manager to develop a new product, but can’t get him or her to take things further        You’d like to introduce [...]

A to Z of Direct Sales

 in Business Skills / Personal Development  tagged Customer / Forecasting / Pipeline / Relationships / Sales / Selling / Teamwork by
Oak Consult, A to Z of Employability
Reading Time: 9 minutes I often get asked by teachers, lecturers and students what are the key skills and qualities that businesses are looking for in young people leaving full-time education for a career in business. In this A – Z I’d like to give some pointers on the very important topic of Employability. [...]

A to Z of Employability

 in Business Skills / Employability / Personal Development  tagged Attitude / Behaviour / Digital Literacy / Numeracy / Teamwork by
12
Reading Time: 14 minutes A – Alerts You can sign up for Google Alerts quickly and easily. Using those keywords and phrases from your preliminary research online, you can elect to have any instance of those keywords and phrases as Google finds them sent straight to your inbox. Enter the topic you wish to [...]

A to Z of Business Social Media

 in Business Skills / Employability / Personal Development  tagged Blogging / blogging tools / Facebook / Google / internet / LinkedIn / PS4 / social-media / Xbox 720 by
Managing Poor Performance 1
Reading Time: 5 minutes In part 1 of this two-part post I covered the potential impacts of poor performance, the causes and your responsibilities as a manager. In part 2, I’ll be guiding you through a seven-step process to help you deal with a poor performer. Tackling Poor Performance Many businesses do have policies and [...]

Stop the Rot – Managing Poor Performance ~ Part 2

 in Business Skills / Leadership / Management / People / Personal Development / Teams  tagged Feedback / Performance / Performance Management / SMART Goals by
Managing Poor Performance 3
Reading Time: 4 minutes Earlier this year the Roffey Park Institute published their excellent annual report – The Management Agenda. A staggering 46% of UK managers reported that poor performance is not tackled at all well in their organisation, rising to 60% in Public Sector managers. So what do I mean by Poor Performance? Simply put, poor performance is the failure [...]

Stop the Rot – Managing Poor Performance ~ Part 1

 in Business Skills / Leadership / Management / People / Teams  tagged Performance Management / Roffey Park Institute / The Management Agenda by
Culture AND Strategy for Success 1
Reading Time: 6 minutes How many times have you seen stories in the business press or seen first-hand within your business examples of failures and successes that have been put down to poor strategy OR the wrong culture? One company that suffered the fallout of the strategy/culture collision is Kodak. Kodak was not ambivalent [...]

Strategy AND Culture For Success

 in Leadership / Management / People / Teams  tagged Amazon / Argos / Comet / Habitat / JJB / Kodak by