The three accounting skills essential for success.
Not all accountants are created equal, and not all do the same job. All businesses have two types of information required, for which they need three types of accounting functionality. There is the regulatory and compliance accounting, which can be a simple as...
Two key questions to get stuff done.
Do you ever struggle to do something you know how to do, and should be easy, at least that is the way it seems, but never get past the first hurdle. I do. Disturbingly often. For some years I have toyed with writing a book, becoming one of those liberated by...
Does familiarity really breed contempt?
When you do something over and over, you get better at it, the actions become automatic. Remember the first time you drove to that new job? You looked up the route, probably put the address into the GPS (if you are under 30) and concentrated all the way,...
Technology Intensive Differentiation: The new marketing El Dorado.
There is a reallocation of capital from advertising to R&D evolving. Elon Musk may be the typifier. Tesla spends nothing on advertising, relying on Elon and social media, plus all the commentary he generates. Meanwhile, Tesla put $1.5 billion (in 2020) into...
The seven levers of management control.
Successful people will tell you to concentrate on the things you can control, be aware of, and prepared for those you cannot. Stressing about those you cannot control adds no value, the best you can do is anticipate the impact they may have, and shape your...
How will an inexperienced management respond to inflation?
The Reserve Bank released the latest inflation figures a week or so ago. The year-end number was 3.5%, significantly influenced by a few highly volatile items like petrol. Stripping those out, the underlaying rate was 2.6%. These numbers do not bode well for...
NDG: The critical supermarket supplier KPI
Life in FMCG world is, almost unbelievably, becoming more competitive than it has ever been. However, the nature of competition has changed radically over the last 25 years. Performance measures that we have relied on in the past no longer serve as well,...
Australia Day 2022. Monty Python must be laughing fit to burst!
I am sitting here on January 26, 2022, contemplating another year gone, with the new one coming at us, wondering if anyone in power has ever heard Henry Ford's quote: "If you always do what you have always done, you'll get what you've always got’ Such was 2021,...
6 hidden characteristics of successful manufacturing businesses
As I observe the better performing manufacturing businesses around, I see some components not spoken about in any of the verbiage that comes from the various interest and political groups. These common themes are: They are close to customers. This means they...
Is decision making momentum a competitive advantage?
Momentum as we all learnt in high School physics is Mass X Velocity. Decisions made have no mass, but they do seem to have the characteristic of building momentum. Those businesses in my experience that have an overt bias for action make more decisions, get...