Together We Move the Needle
Together We Move the Needle
About your Coach
Greg is an accomplished senior executive and CEO turned entrepreneur. He studied computer science and then traveled to London to seek inspiration, where he worked for 2 years.
Returning to Australia after taking 6 months to drive across America, he won the lottery by finding work with Lend Lease, which he always tells people was his MBA. After 10 years at Lend Lease he realized he must leave that game and come to terms with what it means to "sell", because, after all, everyone should know how to convince a total stranger that they have something of value that's worth buying.
That gig was in the world of Apple Australia and it turned out to be a wild ride.
Greg was the primary reason that Apple Australia won the desktop computer tender for the newly minted second Telco in Australia; a company called Optus. In other words, he sold Optus on the business case for buying PC technology that was at least twice the price of IBM PCs.
That contract got Apple Australia back into the black and launched Greg into his long-term career consulting to startups, SMEs and corporates all over the world. Well, not quite; Greg admits he's never actually worked for a client based in Africa.
Recently he founded a Not-for-profit called SEVENmile Venture Lab, which he created to help strengthen local communities and provide pathways for entrepreneurial locals from Sydney's northern beaches.
For his work as a coach, Greg draws on 30 years in business, working with all kinds of companies all over the world. During that time he's created companies, helped startups grow, and helped people make crucial decisions about their career and business direction. Some of the artifacts in his extensive toolkit are listed below.
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Goals Playbook
“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.” — Peter Drucker
“Nothing will fill your heart with a greater sense of regret than lying on your deathbed knowing that you did not live your life and do your dreams.” — Robin Sharma
Goals Playbook© is a tool that enables structure and simplicity in developing plans. Use it in
a workshop designed to help people create their plan (personal or business) for the next year, a single strategic objective, a financial goal, the desired sporting performance, or really anything that can make an impact on your life. It works for any age group and is a great device to introduce young people to planning to achieve a goal. It also lends itself to a review process at a future date, e.g. check it quarterly to assess progress or check it in 12 months and review how well you did. In a work context, the Goals Playbook© could be used by managers to help their direct reports develop a personal Playbook that is aligned with the overall corporate objectives. The use cases are endless.
Post-COVID Problem Scenarios
Now is an ideal time to be thinking and planning for opportunities as we emerge from the shadow of COVID-19.
Emerging from that shadow will not happen universally, unfortunately. It will happen progressively and that means that the nature of problems to be solved will change gradually and new problems will emerge that we hadn't thought about.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that your future is grim or even hopeless. That is a path that leads to bad outcomes. The exercise I'm providing is valuable, even if you don't end up moving ahead to create a business of any size. The link below is to a Powerpoint version of the canvas.
Minimum Viable Canvas
Rigorously Tested
If you aren't a Founder, put yourself in the position of wanting to start a company.
You may have been reading about LEAN Startup methodology, watching the many instructional videos, and playing around with Experiment Board, Value Proposition Canvas, Business Model Canvas, and numerous other tools.
What I have become aware of is that LEAN Startup has ironically evolved to become an overly complex process that is quite overwhelming. So, I'd like to offer an alternative model more grounded in the realities of Startup life. Founders are already under enormous pressure and have a myriad of concurrent tasks and challenges. Adopting my LEAN Hacking™ canvas is the best chance to either fail-fast or succeed but the pathway has to be easily grasped and followed.
The Minimum Viable Canvas© is a simpler way to start until there is repeatable traction, i.e. the Founder can prove that the value proposition cycle is repeatable and acceptable to customers who are prepared to pay to have their job done.
