Rule of thirds
Sitting around many board and advisory tables over the years, I have observed that those that are successful follow what I have started to call the rule of thirds. Actually, there are four rules, but the first is generic to all meetings: have an agenda, follow it,...
Bringing it home
Perhaps I am dreaming, but there appears to be a "nudge" (not yet a trend) amongst the manufacturing firms I talk to towards a review of the cost/benefit of overseas sourcing of manufactured products. At the end of the spectrum where ownership of IP, and innovation...
Politics is just marketing.
Watching the current federal election campaign from both major parties, it seems they both should go back to marketing 101, and consider what it takes to engage with those to whom you want to sell something. Both to my mind are failing badly to create a brand that...
Our political failure
The accepted "cabinet" processes, where robust, non-personalised debate occurs in camera leading to a conclusion, hopefully based on a combination of qualitative and qualitative data, followed by all members supporting the final determination appears to be gone in...
Information scales
Access to information before anyone else has it is Gold, access at the same time as everybody else is just staying in the game, essential, but it will never be a winning edge. A small advantage at some point, can be built into a substantial advantage quickly as the...
3 ways to market through the cycle
Many businesses are sorely tempted to drastically reduce marketing expenditure during a downturn, it is often the most visible, and usually the least understood item in the P&L. The evidence indicates that you should be keeping spending up. Time and time again we...
Awareness needs to be earned
Social network marketing is a fundamentally different beast to "traditional "marketing. When talking to marketers, they usually see social media as being in effect free, the challenge is to get the message spread, often by being outrageous, generating awareness for...
Win Win.
We have all heard the term, anyone who has ever read anything about negotiation will have it burned into their brains, but what does it really mean in this age of digital collaboration?. The rules have changed, the old days when you saw an opportunity as a potential...
Social networking as Knowledge management
Knowledge Management is all about collaboration, making the 3 + 3 equal > 6, but the challenge has always been how do you codify the knowledge for dissemination and re-use, implying the existence of both strategy, and a management mechanism for the knowledge. By...
Manage through people, not contracts.
Contracts are the point of last resort, they define the exit, should it become necessary. Believing a written contract that details how the dynamics of an evolving relationship will be managed is as dumb as believing the lady in the tent can tell the future with any...