11 trends that will influence success in 2018
This is not really a set of predictions, those are around at this time of the year aplenty. Rather it is a mix of the things I am thinking about, the trends I see underlaying the performance of both the public and private sectors, and the performance of...
Einstein’s formula to calculate business value
Our world is being broken into bits, powered by algorithms, few things appear to be immune to the pervasive intrusion. One that has been largely immune is strategy development, a subjective hold-out in a world of programmatic automation. Einstein told us...
18 ways to make the most of your large investment in trade shows.
Years ago as GM Marketing of the Dairy Farmers Co-Op, I had a significant chunk of my marketing budgets taken by the involvement Dairy Farmers had in the Sydney Royal Easter Show, and associated conference sessions. This was an institutional investment,...
Reflections on my 2017 observations.
Each year for the past few, I have looked at my prognostications for the coming year and given myself a score. It is now 2018, so time to do it all again, before I rub the crystals to see what might be coming down the track this year. As a lead in,...
Understanding your break even point.
Understanding the break even point in a business is a crucial but often overlooked piece of the financial puzzle. It is particularly important in a manufacturing business where there are both overheads to just keep the doors open, and the marginal...
7 Mental models for business planning
Business planning, when you think about it is a bit of an oxymoron. The only thing you know for sure about your plan is that it will be wrong. George Patton said ‘Without a plan, you are just a tourist’ and even that great social philosopher Mike Tyson...
Optimising does not always deliver results: Re-frame.
Lean thinking, and the lean toolkit have changed the manufacturing landscape around the world. The elimination of waste in processes is now standard practice in every successful business, and the tools of Lean, 5 why, 5S, and all the rest play a key role,...
Red flags to business failure.
The November 2017 issue of the magazine of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) contains a very insightful and useful article by Phil Ruthven dealing with the industry cycles that IBIS research has been cataloguing for 40 years. Ruthven...
Indifference is the killer of businesses.
Successful small and medium sized businesses are always on the lookout for opportunities, which can be a problem. All businesses, and especially small ones do not have the operational and management 'bandwidth' to take on too many opportunities,...
The strategic wisdom of Donald Rumsfeld
Strategy is all about making choices, often difficult ones in situations where you are setting out to assemble the resources and capabilities to deal with the future. In days past, those who claimed to be able to tell the future were burned at the stake,...