Balancing Exploration and Exploitation
D. Brown Management
January 3, 2025
Exploitation involves choosing the best option based on current knowledge of the system which may be incomplete or misleading. Exploration involves testing new options that could lead to better future outcomes but drawing resources away from exploitation.
execution leadership planning
What Are You Optimizing For?
D. Brown Management
January 3, 2025
Prioritizing is about sequencing. Optimizing is about balance. Both are defined by your values, strategies, and objectives. Both are constrained by your finite resources including talent and capital. Start by knowing what you are optimizing for.
career strategy talent
Missing Person Protocol
D. Brown Management
January 3, 2025
One of the biggest challenges of growth is keeping an ever-increasing number of people aligned. With nearly everyone being over-scheduled and focusing on competing priorities, a missing person protocol is critical for successful meetings and decisions.
management
Directly Responsible Individual (DRI)
D. Brown Management
January 3, 2025
Defining a single Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) for an outcome is a foundation of effective process and organizational design. It is often misused when the individual doesn't have the right capabilities, capacity, authority, or management.
management
Short-Interval Plan (SIP) Workflow vs. Tool
D. Brown Management
January 2, 2025
Few things will improve project outcomes more than intentional planning and deliberate execution of your Short-Interval Plans. (SIPs). The SIP tool is the tangible task, the workflow is the much more valuable piece that creates great outcomes.
productivity schedule
Taxes - 4 Critical Aspects
D. Brown Management
January 1, 2025
Your taxes are most likely one of your top three expense categories. There are four critical aspects to them, starting with strategy, then modeling and planning, management, and preparation and filing. All are important and must work together over time.
accounting finance tax
Tax Deferral vs Tax Savings
D. Brown Management
January 1, 2025
Tax savings are very different than tax deferrals. Too often these are misunderstood by owners leading to negative surprises down the road with the most common being the switch from cash to accrual accounting in the earlier stages of growth.
accounting finance tax
Not All Growth is Visible Above the Surface
D. Brown Management
December 21, 2024
Deep roots equal strong trees, and the same is true for strong people. Those roots include relationships and skills that are largely invisible for years while they are being built. Like an iceberg, there is always a lot more going on under the surface.
talent development training
Leadership Combinations and States of Market Growth
D. Brown Management
December 21, 2024
There is a beautiful tension in leadership teams that is required for growth. That tension shifts with different stages of a market's growth and must be integrated with the contractor's stage of growth as a company.
market strategy Organizational Development talent
Profitability and Cash Flow: From Goal to Plan to Process to Prerequisite
D. Brown Management
December 8, 2024
Profitability and cash flow evolve with a contractor's growth, transitioning from goals to plans, to processes, and finally to prerequisites that sustain the business.
cash growth profit