How do you trouble shoot flow?
You never get this process of articulating flow right first time, or second, maybe third for simple tasks. People are always people, they are in a hurry, forgetful, negligent, or new to the task, so it has to be made as easy as possible. Toyota pioneered this idea of...
The core problem of calculating a return on an investment in marketing.
Return on Investment is a very simple financial equation. What you earned, minus what you spent, divided by what you spent. Earn $100 after spending $75, divided by the $75, and you have a 33% ROI. Put another way, for every dollar you spend, you get back $1.33....
The grassroots essentials of marketing
What do we mean by the term ‘marketing’? I suspect if I did a poll, there would be a scarily wide range of responses. So, let me repeat the definition I have evolved over 45 years, which would not be found in any textbook. ‘Marketing is the identification,...
Why most enterprises fail at cost effective marketing
It is budget time again, that time of the year when planning comes to the fore, usually as an added job that is just a pain in the rear. There is an easy way, and a hard way. The easy way is to download a template and get the intern to spend a day filling in the gaps....
How to make better decisions, more often.
A decision is a choice, made in the face of a problem. Problems, at their core, have only two sources: Uncontrollable events. Flawed processes and their application. These two sources have entirely different paths to a solution. Flawed processes need to...
How do you reconcile conflicting statements by geniuses?
'If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.' Peter Drucker. 'Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.' Albert Einstein. How can both be true? The first is half true, the second is absolutely true, which...
The biggest broom in town: #Scotty
Occam's Razor is now a relatively well understood term, coming from the 14th century philosopher and monk William of Ockham. It is a discipline that demands that facts about a situation be distilled down to their simplest form, and the extraneous cut out. Just...
Mistaking growth for optimisation can be terminal
Generating rapid growth in a business entails a constant choice that simply must be made, but is usually missed. It is the choice between 'growth' and 'optimisation'. They require different skills, strategies, and resources. Let me explain. 'Growth' implies...
The single best financial measure on which to focus improvement initiatives: Cash Conversion Cycle.
How long does it take you to convert your products into cash? This is one of the most important but overlooked measures in most businesses I see. It goes to the manner in which you manage all the processes and resources it takes to turn ideas, products...
What are the ‘tells’ of a failing culture?
A 'Tell' is an unconscious, usually inconspicuous, sign that something is happening. It is a term commonly used in card games, someone scratches their nose when they pull an ace, or looks over at their drink when a potential flush, is well, flushed. Cultural...