How to deliver bad news, and be loved for it
From time-to-time leaders and managers must deliver bad news. Delivering bad news is one of the most stress inducing actions any manager and leader must undertake from time to time. My technique over the years has been what I call ‘delivering a Sh*t sandwich'....
A marketers explanation of ‘Burn rate’.
Too few people running manufacturing SME's understand in sufficient detail the value of understanding and managing their product portfolio with one eye (at least) on their break-even point and burn rate. To my mind these are critical measures that should...
Don’t fiddle with the rules, create a new game.
A phenomenon in my local area, Sydney's inner west. Suddenly, there are electric cars everywhere from manufacturers I had not heard of a couple of years ago. That is in addition to the venerable brands, Volvo, MG, Lotus, and others now owned by Chinese...
Is the ACCC’s Chemist Warehouse Decision a Monopoly in the Making or Market Evolution?
Should the ACCC have approved the $8.8 billion reverse takeover of Sigma pharmaceuticals by Chemist Warehouse? Chemist Warehouse is by far the largest competitor in the $17 Billion retail pharmacy market. Sigma pharmaceuticals is a wholesaler serving all...
How not to rebuild a venerated brand.
Brands are not built by superficial ‘Brand-building' marketing activity. Ever. They are built by doing hundreds of small things that matter to customers and those who aspire to be customers, well, time after time, after time. In this way, customers learn...
Are you considering the increasing value of intangibles?
When thinking about selling your business ensure you spend time and effort identifying the intangible components that could contribute up to 90% of the value of the sale Almost 6 years ago I wrote a post that identified intangible value at 87% of the...
Australia slips another 9 places down the complexity rankings.
The latest economic complexity rankings put out by Harvard were recently released. Australia dropped from 93 in the world to 102. One place ahead of Yemen, one behind that manufacturing innovator, Senegal. I had missed the report until an article in the...
The only 5 tools in a leaders toolbox.
We tend to think that the person on the top of the pyramid has the power to do whatever they wish within the boundaries of reason and the law. To some extent this is true but there remains only five tools they can use. Volume. Price. Costs. Culture. Strategy....
The large, uncalculated cost in your business.
One of the five costs in your business, in most cases, under recognised, under managed, and misunderstood, is Opportunity cost. Doing A, means we cannot do B. It is not always such a binary choice. Opportunity cost is impossible to calculate with any...
Oh crap: What have we done?
Last Wednesday evening I was at a small(ish) gathering of about 50 owners of SME's as news came through of the US presidential election result. It seemed everybody in the room was aghast. Not only at the result, but at the size of it, and the continued...