Recharge On Air With Alan Hargreaves

Better balance doesn't mean less work. It's about enjoying the entire spectrum of your being, including what you do at the office.

The most important thing about buying a franchise is knowing that you'll be able to sell it.

Strategy is useless unless it leads to actionable tactics. Don't just think up great ideas; focus on how you can implement them.

Now backed by swathes of neuroscientific research, mindfulness is the latest business fad. What is it and why are they doing it.

Budget forecasts are always wrong. They are not meant to be right. The budgeting process can never forecast the unexpected. That's especially so in a startup or a new project, when there are too many unknowns. Their value lies in identifying the key elements that will make or break the idea.

There is a lot going on in any business. Position yourself so you can see the whole environment. And don't worry about being distracted by it. You need to be alert to the critical things that are happening when they happen, not later.

Mobile technology presents a challenge for many businesses, yet underlying commercial principles haven't changed. It's still about margins and volume. Alan applies simple business concepts to technological complexity.

The massive power of the smallest step.

What happens if you don't delegate?

Focus in more important than quantity. Doing a few things extremely well yields better results than doing it all.

In business, just as in sport, peak performance depends on your ability to focus only on the things you can control. The key to optimising results is work on the things you can actually do something about.

It's hard making good decisions when times are tough. Behavioural economics tells us there are good reasons for that. We need to find ways of seeing the situation from outside our own head.

App upgrades are a metaphor for the speed of product innovation. There are a lot of them and they are a feature of any business where change is a constant. What can you do to keep 'Up'?

Often the luck of the draw seems to determine the outcome. But good fortune can also be encouraged. Research suggests your attitude and your actions can increase your exposure to good luck.

It's easy in business to get stuck in the small stuff. Looking at the bigger picture can be both calming and inspiring. Try stepping back and observing you environment rather than being overwhelmed by it.

Do you have trouble keeping track of all your best thoughts, or all those things you are supposed to remember? Someone gave me a great solution. It's been working like a charm for seventeen years.

Management commentary is full of cute slogans. But do they make any sense? Often their opposite meaning is the way to go. Find out more at http://alanhargreaves.com

Strategic planning is a creative process; slavishly following the plan is not. For your strategy to work, its needs to be flexible and open to change.

The main mission for any business it to create value. Alan walks you through a simple process to start focussing on building value. Fully supported by free downloads and apps, this process leads to fast actions that get immediate traction.

There are several common element to the worst decisions I've made. A central one is not asking for help when I don't really know what I'm doing. You can avoid a lot of disasters just by accepting that some people do some things better than you. The art of management and the art of delegation are closely related.