Let's get acquainted

I'm William Smith, and I'm an independent management consultant. I work with senior managers to solve complex problems.  (If you want to see some of the things I've done, take a look at my profile on Linkedin.com.)

Over the last 30 years, I've worked with many organizations in many different industries--and seen the same issues crop up time and again.  For instance:

• How can we make decisions that create real value?  
• How can we align all the parts of an organization around strategies and initiatives?
• Why do big projects fail?
• What is the real impact of major investments?

I've started this blog to share some thoughts on how organizations can deal with complex problems, and discuss some of my research into a few important areas--in particular, business decision making.  So often, what passes for conventional wisdom violates common sense and logic.  Common sense and logic have become, in fact, sources of unconventional wisdom.  Insights from other disciplines frequently ignored in business thinking--depth psychology and the study of language, to name only two--also serve as sources of unconventional wisdom.  I'll be posting one or two short articles a week.  I hope that they will entertain, as well as provoke thought. 

Please share your thoughts with me and other readers.  I'm a pretty blunt guy--and I appreciate straightforwardness.

Here's to a long and productive conversation.