How to easily solve the strategy jigsaw
Imagine, your task is to complete a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle with one of your kids, but the puzzle is an old one, in a bag, so you do not have a picture of the end result to work to. It is further complicated, as some of the pieces in the body of the picture are also...
How to set a marketing budget that works
Pretty obvious question, particularly at this time of the year when organisations are starting to think about the preparation of the 2017 budget. In many enterprises, the marketing budget is set by the boss and the finance people. They see marketing as a cost, so...
Should we be rethinking our Unique Selling Proposition?
From the dawn of marketing time, the Unique Selling Proposition has been a foundation idea. I wonder if it holds the same attraction now, post the digital reconstruction of marketing, or should we be rethinking our approach. The USP was intended to communicate what...
Requiem for a master poet.
My first year at University, 1970, was marked by many life defining events. Call-up to Vietnam and the resulting awareness of the world around me, an opening of my mind to thinking beyond the surf, sport, beer and meat pies of my youth, meeting Harvard Professor Jim...
The essential 70/20/10 rule for business optimisation.
Most of my time is devoted to improving SME manufacturing businesses. I do it for a living, mine and theirs, and I have an ulterior motive. I want my grandchildren to have a better life than me, and while I have had a great life, the pace of improvement has faltered...
11 rules to ensure customers love you
Customers and potential customers always remember how their needs and expectations were managed through the sales process. It is all part of the experience of doing business. However, In my experience, B2B businesses are often poor at effectively managing these...
Are you Ready to Buy?
Reality TV is about as far from Reality as you can get, but sometimes something useful emerges. Just for the record, I do not watch this stuff, there are thousands of better ways I can think of to waste an hour. However, judging by the ratings and water cooler...
The A – Z of personal branding
In 1997, Tom Peters wrote an article for Fast Company, titled 'The brand called You' which was probably the first articulation of this idea. In it he wrote 'It's time for me — and you — to take a lesson from the big brands, a lesson that's true for anyone who's...
5 crucial parameters of the Value Equation.
Some time ago I wrote a post that listed the 4 questions every business owner should ask themselves: How do we create value? How do we deliver value? How do we capture value? Will it be the same tomorrow? In a recent workshop I was asked to expand on the rather brief...
What is Intellectual Osmosis?
Definition: 'The process by which a great product is conceived and 'launched' to the market, with the developer believing that its greatness will be so obvious that the world will beat a path to his door'. Never happens. That bloke with the better mousetrap is still...