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...
How do retailers create irresistible ‘customer flypaper’?
As a very young kid, I remember my grandmother having flypaper stuck around her kitchen. From time to time she would smear something smelly on it, which doomed any flies in the neighbourhood. Wouldn’t it be nice to have ‘Customer flypaper' for your business?...
Australia Day, January 26, 2020.
Sunday is Australia Day, and the bushfires consequences, and the possibility of more in the next short period, is at the forefront of peoples minds. In recent days however, we have had dust-storms that have been truly frightening, and intensive storms,...
3 factors creating an existential crisis.
I recently found myself in the position of refereeing a 'debate' over lunch on climate change between 2 zealots, one from either side. One who was a passionate advocate of the argument that it was real, and would kill us unless we did some challenging things,...
3 questions to juice up your sales productivity
Word of mouth, the endorsement of a happy customer, is the best marketing you can have. We all know that, 'Word of mouth' is the gold standard, the original social media. Why then do we spend so much time and energy focussed on the next customer? Finding, engaging and...
What is the core KPI of Marketing?
The answer just has to be ‘Sustainable Margin’. An enterprise can only do three things to increase margin, however you choose to define that term. Lift prices. Expand sales. Decrease production and operating costs. Options 1 and 2 are often seen as mutually...
Very rarely am I embarrassed to be Australian
Craig Kelly created such a moment this week, spouting idiotic nonsense on British morning TV. Kelly is the MP for Hughes, at the southern end of Sydney's metropolitan area, which he won in 2010, succeeding well respected liberal Dana Vale when she retired. ...