Foresight, hindsight, and common sense
On the surface, these appear to be the same coin, different sides, albeit three sides?. Not so in business. Foresight is often little more accurate than the musings of the gypsy at the local fair, whereas hindsight is capable of being 100% accurate. Modelling has...
Weddings as a metaphor.
Planning for your business takes up a lot of time and resource, which is often hard to allocate, particularly in small businesses. It is a bit like the planning that goes into your daughters wedding, many things seem trivial at the time, but when it goes right on the...
Strategy as an organic system
The notion of an organized, planned, tidy strategy development and implementation process, whether it be for a multinational, or a small local business is profoundly flawed by the simple fact that it requires forecasting accurately a number of things, including many...
So, what do sales people do now?
The sales job has changed substantially with the emergence of the web. In the past, many sales people were mobile, human brochures, the keepers of the information. No longer. Most of the mundane information on specifications, performance, competitive advantages, and...
Role of the web in revenge.
A short time ago I purchased a new pair of black "Julius Marlow" shoes from a major retailer. Within a month, the body of the right shoe had separated from the sole, hardly a reasonable result from a purchase worn around the benign environment of a carpeted...
Good news and bad for sales professionals.
Selling is a tough job, and getting tougher, as the number of ways a potential customer can purchase expand with the web, and consumer confidence is fragile, despite the stunning Australian figures a couple of days ago. No longer can sales people fulfill their...
Consumer confidence and recession-proofing
Yesterday, some astonishing figures reflecting consumer confidence were published by the Melbourne Institute and Westpac, with the attendant clichés about the success of the governments actions coming from all parts of the government,applauding the "cash-splash" in...
Fear of the unknown is greater than certainty of an unwelcome outcome
Much has been written about the value of giving people as much information as possible about the organisation, including any unwelcome news. In the absence of certaint, rumor will fill the gap, and it is usually worse than the actual. I was reminded of this recently...
Isaac Newton’s laws not always hold true?
Newton is one of the real genius's of history, he promulgated a series of laws that form a key part of the foundation of following scientific success. However, he did not get it all right. "To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" he said. Any...
Word of mouse.
It used to be word of mouth, it still is in its essence, but the need for face to face contact has been removed by the emergence of the web tools now in front of everyone. Ideas spread on the web like a virus, even quicker than "pig-flu," a good idea spreads...