An agile demand chain.
About the only thing we know about forecasts is that they are virtually always wrong, often drastically. This being the case, the ability to quickly react to short term changes in supply and demand, an advanced degree of agility would be a pretty useful weapon in the...
Forecast myopia (with apologies to Theo Levitt)
How often have forecasts been missed due to inadequate time being spent scrutinising the underlying assumptions. Often it seems to me that forecasts are exercises in optimism and opinion, rather than the outcome of rigorous analysis. For good forecasting outcomes,...
KISS me now.
The old chestnut Keep it Simple Stupid was never more appropriate. As confidence and with it activity collapses around us, simplicity is becoming ever more valuable. Simplicity is, however, anything but simple. Simplicity takes time , effort, and a sufficiently clear...
The DNA of marketing.
Marketing is not just the spending of money on some sort of media, it involves the development of the businesses "face" to customers, the development and management of the whole experience of interacting with the brand, and the organisation, or in the case of non...
Inventories and bricks.
In all businesses, the canary in the hole is deterioration in the cash position, and it is particularly important for small businesses to be sensitive to changes in their cash position as they have less "fat" to fall back on when things head for the bin. The largest...
Tell it like it is.
In difficult times, it would be a mistake to either make light of the difficulties you face, or to exaggerate them. Generally people look for leadership, and honesty is a fundamental component, so tell it like it is, people will understand, and be grateful, even if...
Value in advice.
Following the previous blog entry, "chief cook & bottle washer" and a phone call from a user prompted by it, I have been thinking about the value of advice, compared to the time it takes to provide it. Many SME owners are used to hiring extra labor they need on...
Chief cook & bottle washer.
How often have we heard this expression describing the role a small business owner fills? However, it trivialises the difficulty in remaining on top of the strategy issues and implementation, as well as the tactical demands of a business, putting out the inevitable...
Know your customers processes.
Spin Selling, written by Neil Rackham probably 30 years ago is the best sales book I have ever read, it has spawned an industry, along with the follow up books. However, it is not perfect. In my experience, most businesses of sufficient size to have a purchasing...
An orchestra as a metaphor for a chain.
Coordination and Control are the key words in managing demand chains, and an orchestra is a great metaphor for a demand chain. To work effectively a chain needs control in the sense of a conductor in an orchestra, who dictates the interpretation of a piece of music,...