Innovators think differently
Nothing new ever happens when the past is just repeated. When Apple was at the bottom of its life-cycle, when they basically ran out of cash, and survival was improbable, Steve Jobs, just reinstated at the company he founded took a step that redefined the persona of...
Poor service encourages customer revenge
Dave Winer, one of the earliest bloggers, prolific web publisher, and a key developer of the RSS technology so many of us use daily, has made many pithy statements worth remembering, but I was reminded of one over the weekend as the silly GASP customer complaint...
How to make Twitter useful
The value of Twitter is still grossly misunderstood by many of my aged peers, whose view is generally from the "why do I need to know what someone I do not know or care about is doing now?" school of thought. Following are some very simple ideas that may make it...
How stupid can they be?
Earlier today, Sunday, about 4.45, just before the League grand final kicked off, I got a phone call on my mobile from Optus. Well, sort of phone call, it was an automated call, some recording telling me they had something important to talk to me about, and it would...
Almost gone
The news that Fosters will be sold to SA Miller Brewing represents almost the last Australian food and beverage business with a global brand has now disappeared. I say almost, as I can think of no other, but some may argue that a few sales in Fiji or NZ constitutes...
The most valuable question
Complexity is strangling us, paralysis by analysis has become pretty widespread, and the paradox is that we are all trying to do more with less. In that context, creating an environment where everyone can contribute to the maximum of their capability seems like a...
The APP report, a great idea squandered
Years ago as a senior manager in a large organisation, part of the monthly routine was to write an APP report: Achievements, Problems, Plans, kept to an A4 page, used as a scene setter for the more detailed monthly report. At the time it was a pain in the posterior,...
Carbon emotionalism
Am I the only one, or are others getting as sick as I am of the shallow, cliché ridden utterances of both sides of this "debate"? The government is pushing their carbon tax, which will become law on July 1 next year, making the fundamental mistake of calling it a...
The organisation as a village.
Thinking about they way organisations work, the "industrial" model of hierarchical functional management, expertise and knowledge hoarded, and little transparency of effort and outcomes is way past its use buy date. We are social animals, who evolved in a village,...
SME’s take heart!
Ask a SME manager in packaged goods, "would you like a phone call from Woolworths ordering stock of your new product for every store in the country?" and you will most likely get a tear with the nodded head. Enter the "Orabrush" story, they got the call from Walmart...