BQF Innovation

So the greatest ever match between English clubs was settled by a penalty shoot out.  John Terry missed the chance to win the European Champions league for Chelsea and Manchester United went on to grab the trophy.   MU seize the title and the glory while Chelsea fans curse their luck.  Football fans everywhere enjoyed a fantastic contest but the question remains - is a penalty shoot-out the best way to resolve this kind of match?  Do we need some innovative thinking here?  If the teams are level after 120 minutes of football then what should we do?  If we brainstormed the issue then there are plenty of options we could come up with:

• The two teams could share the trophy - 6 months each
• A replay
• ???????? ????? ????????The team with fewer red and yellow cards could win
• The team with more shots on goal
• We could play on without the goalkeepers (and no offside rule) and see who scores first
• The team with more English players!

The penalty shoot-out is exciting but ultimately it is a lottery.  Someone has to miss or else we would be there all night.  I just wonder whether such an important prize should be decided in such a cruel and haphazard way? 

Paul Sloane

The BQF is hosting a leadership conference on June 11th 2008 with a terrific line-up of speakers including Nigel Risner, Tim Cross, Susan Scott-Parker and Tim Peach.  It will be held at the Latimer Conference Centre in Chesham.  There are more details here:

http://www.bqf.org.uk/sbp_studytours.htm

Paul Sloane

We know that innovation involves taking risks.  Yet it often seems that the safe option is to turn down the risk.  However, turning down a risk is also a risk - the risk of losing an opportunity.  Just to remind us of how big that risk is we have here a list of some of the worst decisions in business history.

They include Decca Records turning down the Beatles, Western Union rejecting the telephone, Mars confectionery missing out on ET, Henry Ford refusing to change the Model T and Digital Research missing the opportunity to provide the operating system for the IBM PC.  It is very easy for us with hindsight to scoff at the business leaders who made these decisions but  I am sure that the choices seemed rational at the time. 

Of course most bands are not the Beatles and many have to be rejected.  But it is easy to become too critical too soon.  How many of the ideas and proposals that we have rejected were missed opportunities?  When we look at the costs of a risky venture we need to factor in the cost of missing the opportunity too. 

Paul Sloane