The single ‘Must-have’ to start a successful business.
There are many things needed to start and scale a business, the ones I bang on about all the time are cash and commitment. There is however another. Trial. Without trial, there is no business. Whether you are starting a business in a well understood and...
What key innovation lesson can we learn from bees?
We set out to measure things, to give us a sense of achievement, to allocate priorities, and simply to keep score as we proceed. It is an engineering perspective. We do not have any way of objectively measuring how we feel, but how we feel is what drives our...
Content is not king
'Content is king' is an expression that is widely accepted as a basic truth. Pity it is wrong. Creating content has become commoditised, everyone is doing it, you can now buy AI programs that will do it for you. (Let me know how that goes) The value of...
How to ensure your marketing plan delivers your strategic objectives
Marketing programs should always be driven by the combination of your current position and the agreed strategy. Your marketing objectives should be directly and overtly tied to the achievement of the longer-term strategy. In the absence of an overall...
10 essential questions for a marketing ‘Pre-Mortem’.
We all understand what a post-mortem is: an analysis of why something after the fact. It deals with history, then usually when something has failed. We review the drivers of success less often than examining the reasons for failure, then allocating...
Manage the drivers, not the outcomes.
Too often KPI's are all about the result, rather than the drivers that will deliver the result. When you are measuring just the outcomes, you have missed the opportunity to improve and optimise the actions that will lead to change the outcome being delivered. Take for...
The case for a Strategic Balance Sheet.
At a time when the market value of a business bears no relationship to the financial balance sheet, when PE ratios of market darlings are counted in geometric multiples, something is wrong. Currently the PE ratio of stock market darlings: Apple at 33,...
Where to find the best money machine
A business is like a money machine. Put a dollar in, and get 2, or 5, or 10 back, and you have a good business. Put a dollar in and get 0.90 back, is a big red sign that the machine is broken. The caveat is that it may be a start-up, in which case, a dip before...
Manufacturing success has a new driver.
The world of manufacturing is in a state of perpetual change. The rate of which is accelerating at a scary pace, and Australia is falling further behind. Manufacturing moved from being powered by steam to powered by electricity, a process that took over...
Are the marketing four P’s still relevant?
In 1960, E. Jerome McCarthy published his idea of the four foundations of marketing. Price, Promotion, Product, and Place. The world has changed in the intervening 62 years, so you must wonder if this idea is still relevant, let alone a foundation. To my...