Should Marketing expenditure be capitalised?
Effective managers are sensitive to the differences between working capital and investment capital. The former is the money it takes to keep the business running, to generate the transactions, fill the...
View ArticleDitch the siren song of the vision cliché
Having a vision, mission, purpose, all of them has become top of the consultant pile of ‘must do’s’ for success. What a misleading crock of old cobblers! A vision in the absence of the resources,...
View ArticleIs ‘Go to Market’ a redundant strategy?
There are a number of common phrases used in marketing that should be redundant. ‘Go to market’ is often used before words like ‘strategy,’ ‘Plan’ and ‘Process.’ ‘Product/market fit’ is...
View ArticleDoes the Shewhart cycle still do the job?
Every improvement project at some point refers to the Shewhart cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Act. I have used it extensively myself, but never been fully comfortable with the language of the last two points...
View ArticleQ: What do you think is the biggest source of Innovation? A: ….
A gem of insight from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella happened in the last minute of this interview by HBR editor Adi Ignatius: ‘What do you think is the biggest source of innovation and why? Is it...
View ArticleIs your Pricing architecture treated separately to your tactical pricing?
Your pricing architecture should be driven by your business model. Your tactical pricing decisions should be driven by the immediate competitive and market pressures. They are different, and while...
View ArticleWill the Facebook Metamorphous just deliver another uglier duck?
I cannot let the name change of ‘Facebook’, to ‘Meta’, go uncommented. They are not the first to undergo a name change, for a range of reasons. Mostly they are to escape bad publicity, sometimes...
View ArticleWhen is a price ‘guesstimate’ good enough?
Many small businesses operate a job-shop business model for some or all of their revenue. They do not produce products, then sell from inventory, they sell a product as specified by the buyer, which in...
View Article4 rules to make you a successful dissenter
Too often dissent is seen as just negative. Sometimes it is, particularly when the dissent is from a course of action that demands change, but even that can be useful. The nature of dissent, when...
View ArticleHow do you overcome manufacturing’s WMB syndrome?
The term ‘Washing Machine Brain’ was used recently by a client as we sorted through all the competing tasks and priorities of his role running a small, rapidly expanding business. Everything was...
View ArticleThe problem with strategy
Strategy is an essential ingredient for success. Without a clear, unambiguous, and well communicated strategy, there will be wasted effort, sub-optimal decision making, lack of alignment between...
View ArticleTrain hard to improve sales and cash
Cash is the final arbiter of commercial success. You cannot live without it, too much of it and you get lazy, too little and you are wheezing, struggling to breathe, living moment to moment. There is...
View ArticleDo you tell employees when you decide to sell?
When the owner of a medium sized business is thinking of selling, the road in front to complete a transaction is a rocky one. On top of the pressure and tension of financial and strategic due...
View ArticleIs price the driver or outcome of where you choose to play?
Customers read much into the price you choose to charge, the architecture of your price list, and willingness to deploy price tactically. Price can also override all your other marketing activity, as...
View ArticleFive questions to build a ‘Cascadable’ performance dashboard
Communication of outcomes, from the strategic drivers of your business to what was produced in the last 5 minutes at a station on the factory floor, is increasingly recognised as the key to...
View ArticleThe day we went broke being successful.
On Friday last week, I had to go into the city. About 10.00am I turned up at Town hall station, and the shopping precinct around it was crowded, people lining up to get into shops that a few days...
View ArticleHow supermarkets have destroyed brands by promotional pricing.
Promotional pricing is often the only tool used to generate volume. Ask any salesperson ‘Why’ and they will say ‘because it works’. Go next door and ask a marketer, and their response is more likely...
View ArticleBest answer to the dumbest interview question ever.
How often have you heard the question ‘tell me about your weaknesses‘ in an interview of some sort? As a corporate bloke climbing the greasy pole I heard it a lot, and it has popped up from time to...
View ArticleHow do you foster ‘Radical Adaptability’?
The old way of thinking and working in silos, based on organisation charts, is gone. The key commercial question now is how to develop and commercialise innovative solutions to problems faced by...
View ArticleFive essential features of an effective bonus scheme.
It is bonus time again, approaching Christmas. Many businesses have some sort of bonus scheme that matures at this time of year and are wondering if it is worth the effort. Does it give you a return...
View Article
