Collaboration and Autonomy
Is there a paradox here, or are collaboration and autonomy complementary? On one hand we are seeking to encourage collaboration to engage everyone and maximise chances of optimum thinking to occur, whilst usually discounting the potential for "groupthink". On the...
SME’s and Quantitative easing.
It seems to me that the geniuses making economy wide financial decisions around the world, but particularly in the US and Europe are making the same mistake many of my SME clients make. They are failing to distinguish between the short term, tactical decision making...
What is, what it should be
Creating a sense of commitment to an outcome is the job of anyone who seeks to lead. Perhaps the most powerful way of achieving this is to build an understanding in an audience of what the current looks like, and articulating the shape of the future. This should be...
Brand building checklists
Building a brand takes time, resources, and determination, but more importantly, insight. Whilst it is impossible to break insight down into a checklist that is useful for all situations, picking the brains of experts is always useful, and provides if nothing else, a...
The most important profit centre
Peter Drucker often condensed seemingly complicated concepts into pithy quotes of the blindingly obvious. One I came across the other day is "There is only one profit centre that counts - customers" It seems this statement of the obvious is often lost in the razzle...
Customer churn and the quality of sales
One of my clients is in a pretty difficult spot. Having lost a major contract, simply on price from an offshore based competitive supplier to his supermarket customer, he finds himself in the position where his overheads will eat him alive quickly without very painful...
A fine line between flattery and robbery
If imitation is the best form of flattery, domestic FMCG suppliers, the few left, should be very flattered indeed. Any lingering doubts about the pressure being applied to them by the two retail gorillas should be blown away by this video from ad agency Mumbrella,...
FMCG duopoly under pressure?
It seems that new ACCC chief Rod Sims is getting serious about the reality of the power of the two major supermarket retailers. At the same time, Andrew Reitzer MD of Metcash is giving the ACCC a headache over his presumptive execution of the purchase of Franklins...
Net Cash Consumption
This is a simple measure I try to foist on all my SME clients, the Monday morning "NCC meeting". It is just as important to larger businesses, but my clients are mostly SME's. It involves a meeting of the key cash sensitive executives, (generally the MD, Beenie,...
Amplification and social media effectiveness.
Following on from yesterday's post, on quantifying the value of social media, a couple of further thoughts. Like any activity, it is crucial to undertake activity utilising social media in the context of achieving an objective, a commercial activity of any type is...