Author Archives: Michael Carr

About Michael Carr

Specialising in Strategy, Systems and Organisational Design I've had a varied and rewarding career and been fortunate to work for some superb companies such as Courtaulds, Unipart International, Akzo Nobel and more recently Jaguar Landrover, all luminaries of a solid, disciplined and a conservative, though never lacking in innovation, approach to business management and development. Augmenting my career with studying for my MBA at Warwick in the early 90's has given me a balanced and I believe rich resource set to draw upon in my Consultancy Practice. My Clients have been good to me, tolerating my idiosyncrasies, giving me enough rope to go along the journey that I was taking them and hopefully in return I've been able to repay them by raising the bar and their business performance, giving them the results and achievements they were looking for. I really enjoy my work and love the challenge - isn't that what it's all about?

Lewis Hamilton Tweets – A Board Meeting Topic?

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Michael Carr

For those that missed it, this weekend racing driver Lewis Hamilton “Tweeted” his race car telemetry performance, detailing ride height, camber setting etc. Fascinating info indeed if you’re a fan, gold dust if you’re a competitor. I was incredulous that … Continue reading →

Posted in Organisation, Systems | Tagged Board Meeting, Competitor Positioning, Lewis Hamilton, Tweets, Walls Have Ears | Leave a comment

Trello Desktop Organiser

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Michael Carr

If your desk resembles a bridal pathway of yellow Post-it Notes then this could be the answer you’re looking for. Simple, effective and very versatile I think you’ll like it!

Posted in Systems | Tagged Desktop Organise, Organise, Project Management, Resource Allocation, To-Do Lists, Trello | Leave a comment

Lola Sports Cars in Administration- A Directors Perspective.

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Michael Carr

As a motor sport fan, I was saddened to see the announcement this week that Lola Cars were to be placed into administration. For those of you who are unaware of whom Lola are, they are a specialist sport car racing … Continue reading →

Posted in Finance, Organisation, Strategy | Tagged Administration, business planning, economic position, Lola Cars, Risk Management | Leave a comment

Market Research Data

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Michael Carr

Whilst researching market data for a Client, I headed to one of my favourite portals namely the corporate banks. There is a wealth of information and market data available, predominantly compiled as a necessity to manage their risk but of … Continue reading →

Posted in Finance, Strategy | Tagged Barclays Corporate Bank, business planning, Business Strategy, Charities Outlook, Corporate Risk, Manufacturing Outlook, Market Data, Market Research, Transport & Logistics Outlook | Leave a comment

Lean Systems Thinking

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Michael Carr

In the manufacturing world lean systems thinking has abounded for many a year and yet still there are many companies who have failed to adopt this philosophy. For those not familiar with this term it refers to the mindset that … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems | Tagged Hoishin, Kaizen, Lean Systems, Visual Management, Workplace 5's | Leave a comment

Website Update

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Michael Carr

If you care to hop across to the website you’ll find that we’ve updated it to more accurately reflect the type of work we’re involved with; it’s still work in progress with the more recent case studies to be uploaded … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged carr consultants, carr management consultants | Leave a comment

A Suprise and Delight

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Michael Carr

My colleague’s face was priceless to see whilst they were unwrapping their new iPhone. The packaging was crisp, the box almost hermetically sealed, whilst the phone inside was an engineering triumph of functionality that was lovingly caressed. I often refer to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged iPhone, Marketing, Suprise and Delights, Touch Points | Leave a comment

Good News Today

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Michael Carr

By way of levity to the doom and gloom mongers that seem to pervade our news broadcasts I thought I’d share a collection of good news that I have read this week from some of your colleagues. Glasgow packaging firm Macfarlane has … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Derbyshire County Council, Firstgroup, jaguar cars ltd, Macfarlane packaging, Nissan, Stagecoach, Tesco jobs | Leave a comment

Sage Software Survey

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Michael Carr

Business organisations are emerging from the recession with business processes and work flow cycles that are hindering their ability to make the most of the tentative economic recovery” so says a computing survey of over 150 IT decision makers in … Continue reading →

Posted in Strategy, Systems | Tagged BI, Business Intelligence, Exact Synergy Software, IT Strategy, Management Information Systems, MIS, sage accounts, sage software, sage software survey | Leave a comment

Business Model Generation

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Michael Carr

I have often written about how the world is slowly being turned on its head and how Directors need to think long and hard about how robust their own organisations value proposition is within the market place. Last week Kodak … Continue reading →

Posted in Strategy | Tagged Alexander Osterwalder, Business Model Generator, business planning, Kodak Bankruptcy, Nokia results, strategic planning, strategy, swot analysis, Value Proposition, Yves Pigneur | Leave a comment