10 tips on how to build a ‘learning organisation’
'Learning organisation' is a cliché mouthed too often by those who have no experience with such a rare beast. The key is not to try and help the organisation learn, it is to help the people in it learn by doing, spread the good outcomes, and nip the...
What will happen after the Hayne report goes off the front pages?
Following the rather cynical post last Wednesday asking where the blame would be placed when the Royal Commission dust has settled, it seems only fair that I be prepared to stick my neck out to make some observations and suggestions, rather than just...
Finding victory over the deceptive demons of the marketing mind
Years ago I heard the great social researcher and author Hugh McKay describe every persons view of the world as the sight they see from behind the bars of their own experience, background, training and ideas. The more developed are all these barriers,...
How to find the ‘Zig’ when others are ‘Zagging’.
Being a part of the herd may be comfortable, but it is rarely sustainably profitable at levels greater than the cost of capital. Finding points of differentiation, the means by which you can be distinctive preoccupies most thinking marketers, those...
Who gets the blame when the Financial Services Royal Commission is distorted and ignored?
The release of Royal Commissioner Haynes final report into the Financial Services industry has been instructive in many ways. One that will not get much media coverage is the manner in which the various political and interest bodies respond and reflect on...
The four crucial cornerstones of a successful marketing plan
It is February, 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. A common question at this time, facing this challenge, is ‘How do I write a marketing plan’?. I am not...
The hidden magic of the triggering event
What is it that acts as the catalyst that initiates the journey a customer will undertake that may end up with a transaction? If you knew this, you would be in a situation to be very specific about your marketing, both the nature of the offer, the way you...
The cost of a fact free media
EEEERRRRHHHHH Excuse me, I just threw up on myself after being assaulted by another ad by a fat billionaire exhorting me to 'Make Australia Great Again' by voting for him and his dodgy party. That nasty experience got me wondering about the nature of...
Australia Day 2019
Comes around quickly doesn't it! Tomorrow! 2018 was a pretty ordinary year, with the revelations of the Financial Services Royal commission after the government was dragged screaming to the table, sandpaper making its (public) debut in test cricket, utter chaos and...
The 1,700th blog post: What I have learnt about writing!
Practise is said to make perfect, but that is wrong.
Practise without learning make even poor outcomes repeatable, not perfect. However, practise with learning can make perfect, or at least improved and optimised. Perfect may be a stretch!