How to understand the answer to a question.
I ask questions for a living. No, I am not a policeman, journalist, or a head-hunter, all of whom need good questioning skills, but in some regards I am a detective. My job is to see what can be done to improve the performance of businesses, and to do that...
Budgeting: The crappiest time of the year
It is that time of year again, budget time. In most businesses around Australia, at least those that will be around in a year or two, people are wondering where they will find the time to do the budget preparation for the coming fiscal. To make it easier, following...
Consider the moment of Opacity
We are all familiar with the 'lightbulb' moment, that time when suddenly, all seems clear, the idea that has been buried in the depths of your brain, unable to be born, suddenly sees the light. Ever thought of the opposite? The moment of Opacity? That moment when you...
The 70/25/5 rule of business turnarounds
Most of my time is spent working with medium sized manufacturing businesses that for one reason or another, and usually many reasons combined, find themselves struggling. The people running these businesses are often reluctant to spend money on consulting....
Are you solving the customers real problem?
Marketers spend huge amounts of effort and money trying to define the problems they solve for their customers and potential customers. Often they fail simply because they do not understand their customers motivations sufficiently well, or they are overwhelmed by the...
Decision time for manufacturers of ‘disposable’ items.
I have used the term 'disposable' to mean that the consumers investment is low, so purchase risk is limited. Buy one and find it does not deliver, and little is lost. Over the weekend I had a casual conversation with an acquaintance who runs a small business selling...
Why the accepted notion of ‘Brand Loyalty’ is rubbish
Brand loyalty, and one step further, finding those few users of the brand who will use no other, and demand their networks do the same, is the holy grail of most marketing. It comes up in almost every marketing brief ever written. However, there is almost always a...
4 foundation ideas for business improvement.
Having spent many years involved in one way or another in business improvement, as you may expect, I have some thoughts. Primary amongst them is the dismay I feel when I meet another medium sized business owner who has had a bunch of expensive Lean or Six Sigma...
How SME’s can get invaluable feedback, insight and coaching, almost for free.
As kids, most of us told each other our secrets when we were in a safe place. In the tree-house, in a tent in the backyard, under the house, wherever it was, we tended to open up with our fears and dreams. It felt good to confide, to open up and get the responses...
Does ‘Know, Like, & Trust’ still hold?
The only way businesses survive is to generate revenue in excess of their costs, consistently. Common sense. One of the oldest adages in revenue generation is that people do business with those they know like and trust. It was correct, and to an extent it still is,...