Sep 12, 2012 | Change, Management
We have access to huge amounts of data, “Big Data” in current parlance, but wading through it all, and finding the few insights that will make a difference is a task our fathers really did not have, it is the tail side of the coin, the head being the value of the insights, and definition of opportunity that can be extracted.
What we think about the huge amount of data available is a bit conflicted, we understand we need it all to be competitive, but the task of aligning organisations to extract and leverage the potential in the data is a real challenge, one that often our organisations are not up to.
“Competing on Analytics” is one of the emerging bank of literature that highlights the challenges and opportunities of not just crunching the numbers, but using them to win.
William (W.) Edwards Deeming, father of the continuous improvement revolution, had a wonderful saying ‘In god we trust, all others bring data”. It says most of it, but just does not address the challenge of gaining insight from the tsunami of data being produced by the digital revolution, something he did not have to take into account.
Sep 11, 2012 | Management, Small business
The two “F’s” of life scare us all, Failure, and caused by the fear of failure; Finishing.
Because we do not want to fail, most of us avoid finishing. We procrastinate, take on “busy-work” or “easy-work” to avoid the necessity to finish the important things, and risk the failure that goes with it.
The net has given us a host on new reasons not to finish things, all those emails, the face-book and Linked-in contacts that need attention, and now even twitter takes on importance in the fight against finishing.
We all need to get “un-busy” finish stuff, get it out the door, risk that failure, then get on and potentially fail again, before we can really finish something that makes a difference.
Sep 10, 2012 | Change, Marketing, retail, Sales, Strategy
Would you rather do business with someone who knows a lot about you, and demonstrates they have your best interests at heart, or some stranger, enriching themselves?
Pretty obvious answer, so why do so few retailers seem to be able to respond?.
The ability to collect data is no longer much of a competitive advantage, everyone can now do it, the advantage has moved towards the analysis of the data, development of a customer proposition from the data, and most importantly, the capability to deliver on that proposition.
In Australia, both major FMCG retailers are busily copying international retailers, particularly Tesco in the UK. Tesco’s analytical and customer proposition development capabilities has driven the huge success of their category marketing initiatives. They have collaborated with researcher Dunhumby, leveraging the data emerging from their loyalty card to tailor their offers down to the level of to individual consumers, rewarding loyalty with compelling offers. The Aussie FMCG duopoly and other major retailers are still in the dark ages. The retail offer is still all about price, and a race to the bottom, but there has to be a limit, as costs are squeezed out of the supply chain at the expense of the weakest links, and on-line sales explode.
Tesco has, by contrast, moved beyond the numbers, and is concentrating on delivering to their customers, particularly their loyal ones, and the results over the last few years have been pretty good. They are managing by customer, not number, and other retailers have a lot to learn.
Listen up Gerry, stop whingeing as the business model that made you a billionaire becomes redundant, and make the changes that can keep the money rolling in by redirecting your efforts to your customers.
Sep 7, 2012 | Management, Strategy
Most enterprises are pretty familiar with project portfolio management, which always include a risk rating attached to each project. What happens if we turn the notion around, and consider the portfolio from the perspective of the risk profile of the whole portfolio, not just by the risk rating of the individual projects that happen to inhabit it.
Depending on many factors, everybody reacts to risk differently, most however, accept that a portfolio of projects is better than a one-at-a-time approach.
Why not a portfolio of risk whose profile is aligned with the strategic priorities?
The question that therefore needs to be asked is how that portfolio will be structured.
At one end you have a portfolio of incremental projects, essentially short term, low risk adaptations of existing technology or market positions. At the other, there is a portfolio of longer term, more challenging projects that seek to disrupt markets, and redefine the existing mind. In the middle can be a whole range of projects with differing risk profiles that together create a risk portfolio.
In my experience, little long term value is created by low risk projects, the real value comes when the status quo is overturned in some way, and having a balanced portfolio the captures the strategic priorities of the enterprise seems to make sense.
Sep 5, 2012 | Sales
In tennis, the simplest point, and if you do it well the most effective, is the serve and volley.
Put in a good serve, and follow up with a volley that puts the point away.
Same in selling.
The serve: Ask a simple question to which there is only one answer,
The volley: Follow up with a related question that closes the sale, or moves it to the decision point by a decision-maker.
“Do you believe that a machine that processes this task faster would help with the backlog?”
“Would the XYZ machine, with double the capacity of your current at a comparable cost be of any interest?”
Serve….. Volley….. Sale.
