Management tax.
Not the latest desperate revenue raising measure from a proliferate government, but the cost to stakeholders of the multiple levels of management that infest most large organisations, but which add no direct value. Management manages, it manages those underneath...
Common language and common understanding.
In a recent negotiation, a good faith, and non confrontational negotiation conducted in English between one of my clients and a prospective investor from East Asia who spoke virtually fluent but non colloquial English, we suffered from a misunderstanding emerging from...
Marketing problem of the climate debate.
Marketing is all about defining the problem we want to solve, poor definition leads to poor analysis and solution implementation. In the climate "debate" to give it more credit that it deserves, we have absolutely failed to include the capital value of the natural...
Crowdsourcing electricity
On March 14, IPART, the NSW Utility regulator made public a decision that put a price of 6-8 cents for energy exported to the grid, compared to the current cost of 30-44 cents for any power consumed from the grid. The argument is in two parts, if I can put a complex...
Process, not outcomes.
It takes discipline to concentrate on the process, and to let the outcome take care of itself, recognising that there will be stumbles along the way, but in the long run, the results will come when the process is optimised. Business is filled with sporting analogies,...
Strategy leads to action
I am a strategist, with a marketing background, so sometimes the expectation is that there will be a lot of talk. Often, and too often with many of those I see, that is the case. Talk, talk, talk, and talk. However, a strategy discussion without concrete action...
Challenges of Produce Marketers
Produce marketers are not all that different to most FMCG marketers, except that the power of the retailer in produce categories is magnified by the total lack of proprietary branding, effectively insulating the consumer from the producer, making brand building and...
Go where your customers go
Rarely does anything happen behind a desk, so why do you spend so much time there? Just like the old saying "the harder I work, the luckier I get" small business owners should say "the more customers I see, the greater chance of an order" Most small business owners...
Margins Vs R.O.F.E. for retail
Retailing is under pressure, all the established retailers are suffering declines in profitability, and the media is full of retail CEO's bemoaning the eroding margins. Australians appetite for flat screen TV's over the last couple of years were is amazing, we now...
“We must be on Facebook”.
This is a pretty common call amongst the junior marketing staff of my clients, most of them are familiar with facebook, they use it in their personal lives to fill a whole range of functions. When asked "Why must we be on Facebook"? there is usually an awkward...