How much should I spend on that winning that tender?
That is a common question, which requires some rephrasing to be answered with anything other than 'It depends' ‘How much should I invest to increase my chances of winning that tender’ is a better question. Would you spend 20k to have a 50/50 chance...
Content quality trumps quantity, every time!
Marketers have always created 'Content' as a means to raise awareness, motivate an action, build a brand. It is what they do in an effort to hook into the behavioural patterns of their customers in order to build a relationship and generate revenue. Human...
A simple measure of innovation
Innovation is a challenging term to define. One man’s innovation is another's line extension. About the only thing that is clear is that innovation is not R&D, the creation of original knowledge. Innovation is the process that takes that...
Customer value conforms to the laws of Thermodynamics
Theoretical Physicists disagree on a lot, but one thing they do agree on is that matter is constant, it does not disappear, it can undergo changes of form, and become something different, but is not destroyed. Value is like matter, it does not disappear,...
The online advertising fantasy revealed
The web gives us huge value, piles of stuff we want that we think we need, for free. Or is it? The web is fuelled by advertising. Pure and simple. The 'free ' stuff we get is really in exchange for our eyeballs, not because there is some benevolent...
‘Data Science’ in marketing is frequently bullshit
I started life as an accountant, and luckily, recognised before anyone else that I would be the world's worst. However, from my trials, I do have respect for numbers, proof, real outcomes tested and validated by the scientific method. As a marketer, I have...
What makes the perfect business?
A while ago after a networking meeting, a few of us went to a pub for a steak, and ended up solving the problems of the world on beer coasters. As you do. Given we all owned and ran small businesses, the main topic of conversation was around the nature of...
The 5 steps to optimise process development
Processes are the means by which we get stuff done, and are therefore an integral part of our personal and professional lives. Mostly we just allow them to evolve, usually in a pretty unthinking manner without much critical analysis. However, this...
The 5 ‘Literacies’ required for superior performance
Over the 23 years of working with medium sized businesses to improve their performance, the activities have all come from 5 common buckets. Financial Literacy Strategic Literacy Operational Literacy Business model Literacy Revenue generation Literacy...
A marketers explanation of Free Cash Flow.
The net flow of cash into and out of a business is to my mind the most vital measure of the success or otherwise of that business, captured in the cash flow statement. The P&L, and Balance sheet, vital as they are as performance measures, can be...