After the crunch.
The world will look different when it emerges from the crunch, as we appear to be doing currently. The globalization and connectivity of the world are trends that will not go away, and the chaos of the last 12 months will have enabled trends at the fringe to build...
“Easy fix” is usually “poor fix”
Management activity often seems to be telling people what to do, then fighting the fires when it is not done, or not done to a standard you deem acceptable, or not done on time. A simple human reaction: "tell me what to do, and I will do it, but if you do not tell me...
The “useful meter”.
Having a good strategy scores 1/10 on the useful meter, the other 9/10 are allocated for implementation, adjustment, and learning. That is not to down-play the difficulty of developing a good strategy, and the crucial value of such an investment of resources, it is...
Nothing like free mailing.
At an industry round table a short time ago, a general conversation was bouncing around amongst a bunch of relatively senior executives about the uses their businesses had made of the internet as a marketing and communication tool. Few were vocal advocates of the web,...
Marketing has changed, have you?
# There is no longer a "mass market" in every market, so mass marketing usually leads to mass wasted resources. # Most customers who may be in a market are no longer anonymous, they can be "connected " with individually. # Your message only reaches people who are...
The tortoise and the hare.
It has become pretty obvious over the last 9 months (if it was not there for all to see before), that those businesses with conservative financial management, irrespective of size, are the ones that have the opportunity to prosper during the downturn, taking advantage...
Employees are your best marketing assets.
What happens when you meet someone…? "where do you work" is a common conversation starter. Someone who responds enthusiastically, extolling the virtues of their employer and the products they produce, will have a positive impact on those they meet, and the "word of...
Apostles and detractors
The aim of brand builders is to engage with consumers to the point where they become apostles for the brand, an much effort has gone into developing measures that use this notion as a measure of brand strength. On the other side of the coin are the detractors of...
Intellectual capital and return on assets.
Return on Asset calculations as a realistic basis of performance measurement for many firms is rapidly going out the window. On one hand we do the financial calculations, based on the accounting notion of tangible assets in the business, whilst on the other, saying...
Water and the carbon trading debate.
Over the last 10 years in the farming operations that make up a substantial portion of my client base, the foundations of the decisions being made have been radically altered by the rapidly increasing cost of water. Water productivity is a now common term, coined to...