It has been silent for a while on this blog page. No excuses, but there is a good reason for that. Since August I have moved to a new country (to Spain, leaving the UK behind after 21 years, but with my business still based there), we have been setting-up the Centre for Collaborative Innovation…
Just over a decade ago, my then business partner Tim Morley and I were looking at the business world and saw that there were only a few typical ‘symptoms’ of problems that we tried to address. Many of those symptoms seem very much alive today as well. We noticed that most businesses feel the need…
Many projects are started, usually, to address some form of perceived issue. The imperative seems to be that a certain way of working, a business process, an IT solution –and so on- should be changed in some form to improve what is being done to meet the business’ strategic goals. Usually there is an…
Like many others in today’s business world, I have been involved in many transformation journeys in one form or another. That could be as the responsible transformation programme manager or managing –for instance- the implementation journey associated with it. ‘Inside the fence’, so to say, as an integral part of the client’s team. But, I…
Consultants tend to be hired because of their expected content knowledge and extensive experience in tackling specific challenges, similar to the ones the client faces. Therefore, there is an inherent tension between the experience of the consultant helping the client, and the experience of the client themselves. Of course, consultants have proven models and methodologies that codify…
In the more than 20 years that I have been working with my clients I noticed that traditional management theory, much fuelled by and taught in the many global MBA courses, seemed to suggest that by applying certain pre-defined practices we can “be in control” of our organisations. Determine the outcome of the whole of what…
My name is Frank Smits. After my industry career with Exxon Chemical, I have worked for over 20 years as a business change, leadership and transformation consultant. I started in 1996 with PricewaterhouseCoopers, then with the specialised change consultancy Partners for Change Ltd and since 2002 as an independent management consultant via my own business….