It is Discernable®

By Matt WongNews News Commentary

It is Discernable® episodes

August 07, 2020#7 Businesses are Born During Recessions
Recessions, depressions and downturns are probably the most fertile ground to plant a new business. This is why, and this is how to get started! It's all based around research by the Harvard Business Review, Joseph Schumpeter, Peter Drucker and Bain&Company.
In this podcast we explore:
The demise of Australian companies.

Global C-Suite retirements.

Employees re-evaluating their careers.

Great companies that were born during recessions.

The Bain study that proves recessions breed successful companies.

How companies outsmarted the GFC.

Opportunities come in only 2 ways: Discovery and Creation.

Drucker's 7 Sources of Opportunity (Discovery)

Schumpeter's Creation of Opportunity

The Blue Ocean Strategy

Early action, not different action brings profit.

The Race Track Analogy for crisis management.

The ABC prescription for businesses in crisis.

For the CFO: Muscle vs Fat.

Talent is cheap right now.
38 min
July 03, 2020#6 Find Your Strength - UNCERTAINTY or RISK
Are you better at managing uncertainty or risk? They are not the same thing, and we all gravitate toward one side of the spectrum.
All leadership/management jobs are primarily about managing uncertainty or risk, and yet often we fail in careers and in business not because we are ineffective, but because they are mismatched to our strengths.
In this episode we discuss:
the difference uncertainty and risk as defined by the famous business thinker Frank Knight;

Case studies of Aldi vs Kaufland and Tesla vs General Motors/Porsche;

when to make projections (risk) and when to make predictions (uncertainty);

how uncertainties can be quantified with big data and transformed into manageable risks;

the trend toward uncertainty;

a matrix comparing risk and uncertainty contexts for business management; and

choosing careers and business opportunities that suit your risk/uncertainty strengths.
Full research, and the comparison table, is at: https://www.discernable.io/post/risk-vs-uncertainty
31 min
April 16, 2020 #5 How Great Leaders Communicate During Crisis
Competent crisis leadership isn't just about taking wise action, it's about persuading people to carry out those actions.
The CEO of Toyota used a 3-Step Crisis Model for communicating and it is far more effective than what world leaders are doing right now.
Use this to rally your people and get them through a crisis!
Download the 3-Step Crisis Model PDF at https://www.discernable.io/post/crisis-model.
27 min
March 14, 2020 #4 - Discretionary Effort can Predict the Future
Discretionary effort can predict the future when it comes to staff turnover. Use it as a leading indicator!
Read about it here: https://www.discernable.io/post/discretionary-effort-can-predict-the-future
12 min
March 14, 2020 #3 - Less is More! Cut your word count in half and watch engagement soar.
Getting people's attention with mere words is our aim in every single email but the more we write, the more we dilute any potential impact.

This is a short podcast on why you should cut anything you write in half and a tool that will help you do it.
5 min
March 13, 2020 #2 - Five Profound Questions that Define Business Strategy
What is strategy? Does your organisation even have a strategy?
These 5 profound questions will identify (or create) a business strategy, and comes thanks to the Harvard Business Review.
You can read the original article at https://www.discernable.io/post/strategy5.
10 min
March 12, 2020#1 - Urgent vs Important - choose wisely to ramp your productivity.
Is it really important? Or just URGENT masquerading as 'important'? We conflate them all the time.
It's tempting to chase urgency but that's a counterfeit of the significance we truly crave: growth activities that are important but never urgent.
Meet the Eisenhower Boxes and the Macro Priority Matrix. They help us to properly prioritise our time and teach us how to:
avoid trading boredom for urgency;

cut out interruptions through delegation;

grow profitable habits by focusing on what is not urgent.

Full downloadable (and free) templates, charts and graphs are at https://www.discernable.io/post/prioritymatrix.
31 min