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...
How useful is your strategy statement?
It is the beginning of an uncertain new year, following two chaotic ones. Many will have found that performance has been stunted, not just by the chaos of Covid, but by the lack of a capacity to co-ordinate and align activities across competing needs. Often...
The unfortunate unintended consequence of Google.
Google has been a revelation, all the answers you need at your fingertips, or so it would seem. What is the consequence of this instant question gratification? Do we ask better questions, or just more superficial ones? Does the volume of questions we ask, to...
Top speed is irrelevant
While contracting as GM of a Federal body some time ago, I used to travel from Canberra to Sydney's western suburbs on a regular basis. I had the choice of driving which took a predictable three hours door to door, or catch a cab to Canberra airport, wait,...
The digital unicorns’ growth secret
Question: What has enabled the geometric growth rates of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Atlassian, and other digital unicorns? Answer: Wide and deep feedback from the market enabling them to aggressively focus resources on areas that deliver the best returns....
2022: here we go!!
There are more predictions posts than you can poke a stick at written at this time of the year. This is not one of them to add to the pile. The following is a review of the forces and trends I see at work that will impact on all businesses in Australia in the...
A final New Years eve quickie
I had not intended to publish another post until 2021 was behind us after the review a few days ago. However, the decision of national cabinet yesterday, coupled with today's Covid numbers changed my mind. In the back of my memory is an early Monty Python...