On raising standards.......................

In a market which is increasingly open and increasingly global, businesses simply have to be better and good is no longer good enough. . . . everyone is your competitor.   

So what's to be done?  Raise your standards.  Ah - but how do you do that?  Firstly understand the scale of standards.  Your organization has a certain competence, talent, ability, call it what you will.  Use it, 'squeeze it to the max', whatever that might be.  But you can multiply its effectiveness many times by your decisions.  And one decision is to raise your standards.

Here's my standards scale:  Dire, poor, OK, good, very good, excellent, outstanding, awe-inspiring.

-Nicholas Bate,  Instant MBA:  Think, perform and earn like a top business-school graduate:  52 brilliant ideas