The London Olympics - One for the “flops file?”

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One of my relatives, a UK-based small business owner, has argued for some time that the London Olympics would come to represent a balooning cost burden for taxpayers and the reality of just what it will take to host the Games sets in.  “Add two zeroes to those estimates” he argued when the city won the initial bid.

Well, it sure is starting to look as though the events are going to be a lot more expensive than was originally planned.  According to one articleI found on the topic, the costs admitted to so far look something like this:

2005:  £2.4 billion later revised upward to £3.3 billion

2007:  £9.3 billion, including a contingency fund of £2.7billion.

2009:  £12.9 billion

Indeed, another highly critical article calls the financing story an “Olympic Sized Overspend”. 

It’s a familiar pattern—initial optimistic projections fail to survive contact with reality.  By the time more accurate information comes in, the spending decisions are made.  Some pundits have even suggested that the UK could be looking at a £20 billion price tag before the final reckoning has been done. 

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Growth back on the agenda!  From Davos

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George Colony (CEO of Forrester Research) noted the following on his post-Davos blog:

I always go to Davos with one question to ask all of the luminaries. This year’s question was: “Coming out of the recession, what is your number one priority?” Nearly every leader answered the question in a similar way: “Focus on growth.” As one executive said: “My organization has been hunkered down for two years – now is the time to get moving again.” I think that’s about as bullish a signal as I could have imagined coming out of Davos.

Can’t come fast enough as far as I’m concerned!

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How to foster innovation in a large organization:  Interview with Ron Pierantozzi

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In this interview in Enterprise Leadership, Ron Pierantozzi, the former Chief Innovation Officer at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., explains how he and his team helped jump-start innovation led growth programs.

Ron has been a huge supporter of discovery-driven growth, and this interview does a nice job of walking through the steps he took to get his company on the right track, including finding the right tools and setting up the right structures.  I think you’ll find it interesting. 

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A great deal for my subscribers on my Columbia Executive Education Course:  Leading Strategic Growth

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Those of you who follow my blog are obviously interested in driving growth and managing to be strategic in high-uncertainty environments.  What you may not know is that myself, Ian MacMillan and a great group of faculty and practitioners are part of a one-week Columbia Executive Education Course Leading Strategic Growth and Change.  I direct the course and am there with its participants for the whole week that it runs, which will be next from April 18-23, at a beautiful conference center in Norwalk, Connecticut.

What can you expect if you were to attend?  Firstly, a fantastic group of international participants who are all wrestling with growth issues—particularly in this economy.  Recent classes have included participants from Wal-Mart, Berlitz, Siemens, Nokia, Start-ups, Emirates Bank Group, several banks in Nigeria and Boeing.  Each person in the program prepares and brings a ‘personal case’ involving a growth challenge, and we set aside good blocks of time for teams to work on taking each others’ cases forward.  In terms of content, we get in-depth on many of the tools and techniques you’ve told me have been helpful, including opportunity portfolio mapping, discovery driven planning, MarketBusting, leading major changes, handling politics, and a lot of other great ideas.  We also bring practitioners into the course to provide real-life examples of how firms have used the material.  Principals from design firm IDEO are going to be with us in April for that segment.  We’re also going to have a special lecture from one of our young Columbia superstars on social networking and social media.

Interested?  Well here’s the good news - I persuaded Columbia (very nicely, thank you!) to offer readers of my blog a 20% discount from the price of the course, which includes lodging, all meals, course materials and of course sessions with all those great faculty.  Here’s what you have to do if you are interested:  Register on-line and make sure to note “RGM blog” in the box that asks: What are your objectives in attending this program?”

Intrigued?  Want more information?  Email me at and I’m happy to answer questions.  It is a really magical week, and I hope that the discount might make it easier for some of you to join us. 

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Questions to help you place projects on our Opportunity Portfolio

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I had a most enjoyable day yesterday teaching in the Punch Sulzberger program, a joint venture between our Journalism and Business Schools at Columbia.  The program seeks to help news journalists figure out what the future holds for them, and it is always a highlight of my year.

One of the tools we use in the course is our Opportunity Portfolio, featured in Discovery Driven Growth.  I am often asked for copies of the questions that one might use to place projects on the portfolio, so here they are for download.  Uncert_Handouts.doc.

I would really welcome feedback on how you used them or modified them - and examples of what you did with the tools would be fantastic!

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