Forced Focus

General George Patton once said ‘A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.’

It is this type of action oriented approach that led to the development of Forced Focus thinking. Time and again, Penny Burke witnessed firsthand the growing disease of information overload leading to the fatal outcome of analysis paralysis. Whilst people are immersed in process, analysis, the search for more data and evaluation, the market around us steadily changes and evolves. Suddenly one day you wake up and the world around you has irrevocably changed and you suddenly have a battle on your hands to maintain your position, let alone advance.

In marketing, this is fatal. Yet it happens all the time.

Penny developed Forced Focus thinking to help guide actionable outcomes for a variety of issues and problems. Indeed, the process applies beyond marketing solutions, to any type of problem that requires a rethink because circumstances have changed.

Get your FREE E-Book on the four steps of Forced Focus thinking.

If you think some clarity around your facilitation would be good but you’re not sure what type of help would be best, then complete the Essence on-line questionnaire to help isolate your key questions and concerns.

Penny has developed a range of Forced Focus books that profile areas of change and help you focus on actionable solutions. The first in the series is - Forced Focus – The Essence of Attracting and Retaining the Best People. Through her consultancy and research projects with a wide range of clients it has become clear there is a growing need for better Employer Branding; a need for employers to place as much emphasis on internal branding as they do on external branding. This book uses Penny’s wisdom and experience together with purpose built research conducted amongst the various generations to understand what today’s employees want out of their work life, and to help employers focus on the urgent need to build a more engaging workplace brand.

Download your FREE E-Book about attracting and retaining the best people.

If you would like help in identifying what type of branding strategies would be best, then complete the Employer Branding on-line questionnaire to help isolate your key questions and concerns.

Purchase Forced Focus

Penny Burke's latest book Forced Focus – The Essence of Attracting and Retaining the Best People is now retailing through popular bookstores for $34.95!

Or for your convenience order your copy now and start forcing your focus!

Reviews of Forced Focus

• ‘When it comes to branding and marketing, there is no one more passionate and knowledgeable than Penny Burke. In this book, Penny brings together her passion and depth of knowledge with great insights, practical tips and humour. If you care about your brand as an employer, then this book is a “must read” – it is simply outstanding!’

Renowned public speaker and winner of the HR Lifetime Achievement Award in Australia, Avril Henry

• ‘Penny outlines succinctly what she believes talented people want from the workplace... There could be no better time for business to hear and heed this message’

Generation Y Expert Peter Sheahan

• ‘I am not a fan of many business books. I tend to find them glib and gimmicky and, in the end, of limited practical value. Not so ‘Forced Focus’. This book, with great clarity, tackles the critically important subject of how a company should position and market itself to its own employees. Penny takes the reader step-by-step through the processes involved... At the end of the book there are fascinating case studies from a diverse group of companies... I could give it no stronger recommendation’

David Blackley, Former National Creative Director and Chairman of Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne

Forthcoming Titles

Book Two – Forced Focus - The Essence of Facilitation from Confusion to Clarity

How often have you been involved with full-day off-site meetings that have really just been jabberfests with more questions than answers, no true team unity and no actionable outcomes achieved? The second book in the Forced Focus series explores the complex process of facilitation of group meetings and workshops. In Forced Focus, The essence of facilitation from confusion to clarity, Penny shares some of the secrets of facilitation that applies forced focus thinking to ensure usable and actionable outcomes. Written in the same easy style we have come to expect from Penny Burke, this Forced Focus book is due out November 2009.

In the meantime, she has written an ebook on the 7 Secrets to Facilitation. Please also sign up to the Free Newsletter, for a monthly dose of insightful marketing thinking from Essence, and we can let you know the moment Forced Focus is ready for delivery.

Book Three – Forced Focus - The Essence of Social Marketing

It is a well known behavioural fact that we humans generally don’t like change. Which is a problem for social marketers, because more often than not social marketing is attempting to encourage some form of behavioural change. Whether it be saving water, losing weight, driving safely or giving blood, social marketing encompasses a whole raft of behavioural change aspects for a largely unwilling populace. So how does one undertake a successful social marketing campaign? In this, Penny Burke’s third Forced Focus book, Penny explores in detail how to deliver a well thought out and successful attitudinal and behavioural change campaign. Using the key aspects of forced focus thinking to re-frame the nature of the debate in the eyes of the public, Forced Focus, The Essence of Social Marketing contains valuable learnings applicable to a wide range of social marketing projects. Due August 2010.

Please also sign up to the Free Newsletter, for a monthly dose of insightful marketing thinking from Essence, and we can let you know the moment Forced Focus is ready for delivery.