Jul 7, 2014 | Change, Innovation, Marketing, Small business
www.thefarmery.com
How we deliver good quality food and water to an urbanised and growing population around the world is the challenge of the 21st century.
We have gone from a largely subsistence existence to a highly urbanised one in 200 years, a “blink” in the context of human evolution, and some would argue that in the process we have lost some of the “connection” to the food we eat, to our collective detriment.
The last few years have seen the beginnings of a movement back to food basics, and a greater interest in the sourcing, preparation and presentation of food. The “Masterchef effect” if you like.
Some consumers are starting to look for the source and provenance of the food they eat, as a way to ensure they are getting both quality and value. It is far from mass market, but not so far from the mainstream.
However, all change starts at the fringes, as a challenge to orthodoxy, and can rapidly become mainstream as the merits of the argument become known. Technology is changing our lives on a daily basis, but to date the manner in which we grow and distribute our fresh produce has been relatively untouched, but the change is now coming at us at warp speed with urban hydroponics and retail being combined in fascinating ways, like The Farmery, and almost all driven by innovative SME’s
Jun 24, 2014 | Change, Communication, Management, Marketing, Small business, Social Media
I asked that question a week or so ago of a group of SME’s, most of whom did not have any digital presence.
None said their businesses would survive without a phone. Why is it then that they think they can survive without a website and social media presence? These tools are as integral to success as the phone, but like the phone, need to be used well, as they are just a tool.
Last week (July 19, 2014) the ABS released a report “Summary of IT use and innovation in Australian Business”
web presence by size
Web presence by industry
Businesses with 4 or less employees 35% penetration, 19 or less employees, 60% penetration, overall about 50% of enterprises have no web presence.
Lowest web penetration is, obviously in industries with many SME’s, agriculture, transport, and distribution.
It is a report that highlights the paucity of digital capability amongst SME’s, which are the backbone of the Australian economy, and back up previous reports by Sensis and others pointing out the shortfall.
The building of digital capability by SME’s is not just necessary to compete, it is vital for survival.
Social media use
The pattern is repeated in social media, but is more pronounced, most SME’s do not even use the simplest forms to market their business.
I remain “gobbsmacked” that so many still seem not to have got the message,
That is where your customers are!!!
But what opportunities there are for improvement and leverage, it just takes a bit of energy and time.
Jun 3, 2014 | Change, Governance, Innovation
Solar tower. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_thermal_power_stations
It seems to me that the most important emerging driver of success in the economy that must drive innovation and value delivery, is the intersection of technical capability and power generation.
Oil has driven the geo politics of the C 19 & C20. The US became a manufacturing giant by finding oil, and was a net exporter until the 70’s, then became an importer. Now thanks to the technology commonly called “Fracking” enabling (for better or worse) the extraction of gas reserves the US is again an exporter, and cheaper energy is in the early stages of revitalising US manufacturing.
Early C20 imperialism was driven by energy, the French and British in The Middle East, British and Dutch in SE Asia, The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour because of the oil embargo, Hitler went after the Caucuses for the oil, it is a long story.
Now we have another revolution on our hands.
We are no longer looking to conserve energy, which has been the mantra since the 70’s oil shock, now we are seeking to harness it from other sources.
The tops of our buildings with rooftop PV, which has dropped 80% in cost over a real short time, wind, tide. Solar however is the most obvious, and potentially sensational advances are being made that will transform economies.
In this state (NSW, Australia) we are arguing about the sale of the “poles and wires” of the power distribution companies to fund public works, schools, and so on. Vital projects, but at the same time we are cutting the R&D that will deliver us the world of tomorrow.
Any idiot who has thought about this stuff (even I could figure it out in a number of posts over the years) would come to the conclusion that just like computing, power generation will become distributed, so, rather than argue about the disposition of yesterdays assets, we should be considering how we build a leverage those of today, let alone tomorrow. Moore’s Law in reverse, combined with the explosion of adjacent technologies.
Companies like IBM with their Deep Thunder and Smarter cities initiatives are driving the research agenda, Germany outdoes the US in spreading the impact of innovation from the lab to the manufacturing operations, and in Australia with the abundant easily accessible sunlight in a politically stable country we are ignoring all this in favour of short term political tit-bits, trivia, and populist bullshit, mixed in with the occasional poorly sold but sensible objective.
Will we ever wake up????
May 22, 2014 | Change, Governance, Marketing, Small business
The future prediction business has so far failed to find a sustainable business model, apart from the fun stuff in the tent with the funny lady with the cards and crystal ball.
About the only serious people who still profess to be able to predict the future with any accuracy are politicians, and we all know how that usually turns out. The rest of us set about controlling what we can control, and preparing for the unexpected from the things we cannot.
By contrast, with some effort, staying on the leading edge is possible for all enterprises. Information is now so freely available, and consulting services whose stock in trade is “leading edge” whatever you want, so ubiquitous, you can stay in front of most if not all of your competition, and be aware of changes occurring so you are in the best position to leverage them.
Small and medium sized companies are best placed in this game of staying current, should they be prepared to make the commitment to do so.
Smaller companies can try stuff out, see if it adds value, and deploy in the time that their larger competitors take to organise the conference call to test if there may be a good idea in here somewhere. The only hurdle is that it does consume scarce resources, but when you see that consumption as an investment, the payoff can be huge.
In the marketing space, my hometown, the cost of testing has fallen so dramatically over the last decade that there is no longer any valid excuse not to be testing extensively.
So get on with it, apart from being strategically and competitively sensible, being at the front is where the fun is.
May 21, 2014 | Change, Governance, Leadership, Strategy
Courtesy www.theage.com.au
Years ago I worked as a junior marketing bloke for Allied Mills, which became Meadow Lea Foods, then Goodman Fielder. I returned 25 years later as a contractor running a specialist unit of the ingredients division in a pre-sale “polish-up” as they struggled to manage their assets and generate a sustainable profit.
Finally, it seems GF, the last really significant Australian FMCG business has dropped the last hospital pass, and is being sold overseas.
What a shambles, a litany of strategic bumbles and crap management over a long period. It is also a report card on the whole Australian food processing industry. The sale reflects the result of the challenges that have finally led to the demise of large, Australian owned enterprises in the food industry. One day a Phd student will document all this, and perhaps the mistakes many of us saw evolving over a long period will be articulated in the hope we learn something.
I have written about this progressive failure to retain domestic ownership a fair bit over the last few years, the fiddling, the missteps, stupid stuff by both management and regulators, and now just feel sad rather than angry as I have been before.
The undoubted opportunities for Australia to become the food basket of Asia will not go away, we will still get some of the benefits, but just those bits that multinational conglomerates give us, almost none will be because we can make the decisions that have a long term impact on the shape and nature of the enterprises. Those decisions will all be made overseas in someone else’s best interests.
Vale Australian value added food processing.
PS. May 28.
It has been announced that, as expected, Peters ice cream has been sold. to UK based R&R icecream, funded by a French private equity group. Despite a checkered ownership history in the last 25 years, Peters is a brand of my (long ago) childhood.
Sigh.
May 20, 2014 | Change, Communication, Leadership, Marketing, Small business
“Serendipity” . Luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for. Websters Dictionary.
My old Dad used to say “Son, the harder I work, the luckier I get” and it has usually worked out that way.
It follows then that if you combine the definition of Serendipity and Dads old chestnut, Serendipity can be managed.
How you ask!
- Recognise that Serendipity is a state of mind rather than a quantitative outcome, and should be managed that way.
- It requires a management culture that has everyone working together, “alignment of strategy and activity” as a popular management article would probably purr. A utopian notion, but doable.
- Ensure there is “spare” time allocated to staff to pursue ideas, contribute to collaborative activities, and look for improvements. Personnel whose performance measures are quantitative box ticking exercises are unlikely to risk compromising their KPI’s by allocating time to potentially serendipitous pursuits.
- Provide the forums for casual and social interaction. This can be done in all sorts of ways from the way the offices are designed to organising staff picnics.
- Encourage the behaviours you are seeking by publicly recognising it when it happens. Financial and organisational rewards are of little value, but is the social rewards that really count.
- Trust and respect are critical components of productive collaboration. Neither can allocated, both need to be earned. “Ideo“, the creative agency has it nailed, one of their core values is “Make others successful”. When everyone works to make others successful, trust and respect follow, and the culture tends to expel anyone who does not work with that culture and its behaviours.
The great benefit if success in these endeavours is that it will make your place a great place to work, and that ends up attracting the best talent, attracting interesting, challenging and rewarding customers, and making good money. A virtuous circle.
That’s how.
