Set objectives by deciding what not to do.
We usually look at objectives and goals as the things we want to achieve. We then set about figuring out the path towards achievement. There are always hundreds of ways to achieve a goal. Often we find ourselves bewildered by the options, and procrastinating or...
What do Einstein’s theories have to do with your job?
Most manufacturers seek to cut costs, a reasonable response to the increasingly tight margins available in all but very few manufacturing enterprises. There is an alternative, hard to see and act on, but viable. It involves thinking about the paradox that exists in...
Is your website the digital equivalent of a camel?
As we all know, a camel is a horse designed by a committee. So it is with many websites. Digital camels. Every page on a website should have only two objectives: Provide the catalyst to 'convert' to the next step. Make the conversion easy. Not every page is a...
The three inevitable stages of successful entrepreneurial activity
Every business starts small. The biggest on the planet all started somewhere, in a garage, dorm room, lab, somewhere between the ears of the entrepreneur. Most fail, or at best deliver a return that would have been dwarfed by the interest on the same investment in a...
The demarcation of Accountability, Responsibility, and Authority.
'How can I be held responsible when I do not have the authority'? Anyone in a management role has probably heard, and perhaps asked that question after some 'do-do' hits the fan. 'Accountability', 'Responsibility', and 'Authority' often become entangled in ways that...
Is pain always the best catalyst for rapid change?
Covid vaccines have been in development for 50 years.
How can Australian manufacturing leverage Wright’s Law?
Moore's law is well known, understood, and has stood the test of time since published by Gordon Moore in 1965. Wright's Law is less well known, and has also stood the test of time since the mid 1930's. Formulated by Theodore Wright, a pioneer aeronautical engineer,...
A marketers explanation of the ‘Price Elasticity of Demand’, and its implications.
'Elasticity' is something most of us did in economics 101. Why have we not used it more than the evidence of my eyes would suggest? The price elasticity of demand is usually defined as the relationship between changes in price and the resulting changes in...
Why the better mousetrap rarely wins.
One of the most quoted of quotes is attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson: 'Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door' Unfortunately, Mr Emerson got it almost entirely wrong. The better product, on its own, never wins. Just being...
Winning the branding war of the decade.
There is a massive but unrecognised marketing and branding war going on right on front of our eyes, unseen by most, but substantially funded by taxpayers. It is the Covid vaccine marketing war. Which brand will you choose? The development of these vaccines has...