Articles
How this work is actually done — the reconciliation nobody
checks, the report structures that survive an executive, the reason a
RAG status is amber for four months.
- How to write a one-page business updateWhy one-page updates end up three pages, and the four decisions that get them back to one.
- How to calculate attrition rate, and the denominator everyone gets wrongThree denominators give three different attrition rates from the same leaver list. Here is which to use and why it matters.
- Budget vs actual, and the sign convention that stops argumentsWhy half your variance column has the wrong sign, and the one rule that fixes it.
- What actually goes in a board packThe sections a board expects, in the order they expect them, and the three papers that waste everyone's time.
- How to run a quarterly business reviewWhat a QBR is for, what belongs in it, and why most of them are a monthly review with a longer deck.
- Why your RAG status has been amber for four monthsAmber is where a project goes when nobody wants to say red. Here is how to make the status mean something.
- Price, volume and mix: how to decompose a revenue missRevenue is behind. The useful question is which of three things did it, and mix is the one nobody reports.
- How to build a risk register people actually useMost risk registers are written once and never read. The difference is in four things.
- Span of control: how many direct reports is actually rightThe honest answer is that it depends on four things, none of which is the number itself.
- How to write OKRs that survive the quarterMost OKRs quietly become a task list by week three. Four rules stop that.
- Rolling forecast or annual budget? You need both, differentlyThey answer different questions. The mistake is running one of them as if it were the other.
- What a chief of staff actually doesNot a deputy, not an assistant, not a project manager. What the role is for, and when it goes wrong.
