Business Imagination

It's grey and dull, dull, dull in Warwickshire today, damp and chill is all around. There are some beautiful spots still with rich brown fallen leaf, bright pink late afternoon skies, interesting lights on an evening but unlike some supporters in the crowd at Wembley last night, this is not shirt-off weather.

I won't bore my non-football readers, but the England footballers underperformed last night against a young and inexperienced French side. Were it not for the underrated Peter Crouch scoring one minute after he came on as a substitute, it would have been a whitewash. Therefore my prediction that there may be something to cheer about today was woefully misguided.

There are times in every course where the day seems long and irrelevant. Today was close to one of those days. A visiting speaker got a difficult time because he represents a dysfunctional government quango who was trying ever so hard to justify their existence and purports them to be perfect and value for money - whilst treated with respect, he got the message that they ain't!

We also talked about 'futures,' which is about what's coming round the corner in the short and longer term and how to 'Scenario Plan.' That's thinking about and anticipating the unknown future through analysis, trends, statistics, history etc., what will be coming and allows the organisation to adapt and change in readiness using experts and imagination to get ahead of the game. The official phrase used is "The philosophy is to proactively think and plan for future developments instead of being a passive victim of change."

The lack of imagination was demonstrated by the following famous quotes:

• "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" HM Warner, 1927.
• "Space travel is utter bilge." Woolley, 1956, Space Advisor to HM Government.
• "Atomic energy might be as good as present day explosives, but it's unlikely to produce anything more dangerous." Churchill, 1939.
• "The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication." Western Union, 1876.
• "X-rays are a hoax." Lord Kelvin, 1900.
• "640k ought to be enough for anyone." Bill Gates 1981.
• "Everything that can be invented has been invented." Commissioner of Patents, 1900.

Looking forward to the weekend!

Chat soon

Ta-ra.