Sep 12, 2012 | Change, Management
We have access to huge amounts of data, “Big Data” in current parlance, but wading through it all, and finding the few insights that will make a difference is a task our fathers really did not have, it is the tail side of the coin, the head being the value of the insights, and definition of opportunity that can be extracted.
What we think about the huge amount of data available is a bit conflicted, we understand we need it all to be competitive, but the task of aligning organisations to extract and leverage the potential in the data is a real challenge, one that often our organisations are not up to.
“Competing on Analytics” is one of the emerging bank of literature that highlights the challenges and opportunities of not just crunching the numbers, but using them to win.
William (W.) Edwards Deeming, father of the continuous improvement revolution, had a wonderful saying ‘In god we trust, all others bring data”. It says most of it, but just does not address the challenge of gaining insight from the tsunami of data being produced by the digital revolution, something he did not have to take into account.
Sep 10, 2012 | Change, Marketing, retail, Sales, Strategy
Would you rather do business with someone who knows a lot about you, and demonstrates they have your best interests at heart, or some stranger, enriching themselves?
Pretty obvious answer, so why do so few retailers seem to be able to respond?.
The ability to collect data is no longer much of a competitive advantage, everyone can now do it, the advantage has moved towards the analysis of the data, development of a customer proposition from the data, and most importantly, the capability to deliver on that proposition.
In Australia, both major FMCG retailers are busily copying international retailers, particularly Tesco in the UK. Tesco’s analytical and customer proposition development capabilities has driven the huge success of their category marketing initiatives. They have collaborated with researcher Dunhumby, leveraging the data emerging from their loyalty card to tailor their offers down to the level of to individual consumers, rewarding loyalty with compelling offers. The Aussie FMCG duopoly and other major retailers are still in the dark ages. The retail offer is still all about price, and a race to the bottom, but there has to be a limit, as costs are squeezed out of the supply chain at the expense of the weakest links, and on-line sales explode.
Tesco has, by contrast, moved beyond the numbers, and is concentrating on delivering to their customers, particularly their loyal ones, and the results over the last few years have been pretty good. They are managing by customer, not number, and other retailers have a lot to learn.
Listen up Gerry, stop whingeing as the business model that made you a billionaire becomes redundant, and make the changes that can keep the money rolling in by redirecting your efforts to your customers.
Aug 22, 2012 | Branding, Change, Innovation, Marketing, Social Media
People are always looking for answers in their lives, whilst mostly not being in a position to frame the question sufficiently to enable a search as specific as one on Google. It is a factor in our lives that contributes to the context in which we live where we go, who we interact with, what we buy and where, what we think of our jobs, partners, and future for our kids.
It is not too much of a stretch to think that a picture of these things can be built over time by a personalised version of the search and browse capabilities now available to us. It has been called the semantic web, web 3.0, and a bunch of other things, but it is really a bank of information about us, evolved by emerging AI that reflects out lives.
Imagine you were walking down a street, near a car dealership with a new French model, your semantic web planted in your device knows you like French wine, your current car is due to be changed, you favor sweeping lines in design, your kids have left home, so there is some money in the bank, you always hankered for sporty, a bit “left field” experiences, and you have a bit of time before the appointment that brings you to this location. Bingo, a personalised invitation for a cup of coffee, and a chat about the new model comes to you from someone in the dealership vaguely linked to you via a social network.
It is only a small jump away from where we are now, but changes the way the marketing process will work.
Aug 2, 2012 | Change, Personal Rant
The much waited review of the” Work Choices” legislation will be released today, after the Minister has had it for a month considering the implications.
It will be absorbing to watch and listen to the “argy bargy” and strident demands of the various union dependent officials and politicians speaking out against the measures increasingly being taken by management that have as their objective recapturing their right to manage, and to reflect the current reality in those decisions. The recent Qantas lock-out and the current noise about labor visas for mining workers spring to mind.
Overall union membership in the economy is around 18%, only 13% if you take out the unionized public sector, against figures of mid 30’s in the 1990’s, and immediately post war, 65%.
Are these noises the last gasp of the doomed?
It is hard to think otherwise than that the power of the 18% is entirely because of the formal ties with the labor party, and the compulsory voting system in this country forcing donkeys to vote. I wonder what the voter turnout would be in a voluntary voting system, and what that may do to the existing two party structure.
As an advisor to a number of small businesses, I see every day the depredations emanating from the absurdly biased regulations surrounding employment. Were they to be removed, employment would immediately increase.
There are structural changes in employment going on, specifically there are far more self employed than even just a few years ago, many would not go back to the dark side, and self employment is a disincentive to the employment of others.
At the recent ACTU congress in Sydney, while trying to absorb the reality that less than 18% of the workforce is unionised, and this number is dropping, propelled by the structural changes in the economy, dumb regulations, and the odious nature of the implications of the Craig Thompson revelations, the union officialdom stood on the podium ,collectively looking like King Canute.
It is in the county’s interest to have many self employed people they are more entrepreneurial, risk takers, they produce value, not consume it, and yet the policies being pursued seem to mitigate against contractors and the self employed.
Jul 3, 2012 | Change, Innovation
Fast Company’s 50 most innovative companies of 2012, a pretty impressive list, but most are tech companies in one way or another, which I guess reflects the domain of Fast Company magazine.
However, I think the omission by implication of a broarder definition of “Innovation” does a disservice by making light of business model or process innovation, both of which add enormous value. Google may have started as a disruptive technology, but the reality is that it succeeded because it was a disruptive business model, as was Facebook, Alfred Sloans divisionalisation of GM in the 30’s to customer based categories, after Ford totally disrupted the horse and buggy industry, the list can go on.
Then there is this WSJ article that addresses the “what is innovation” question, and presents a view hard to argue with, but is still a narrow view.
We can present stories about disruptions that changed existing industries, or about the many ways in which the network effect, and collaboration that creates the environment for innovation, and all would by themselves be right, but wide of a basic grasp of the nature of innovation.
My view is that innovation is a process that adds value where none existed before, anything that adds real, new value to a market or opens a new market, can carry the tag “innovation”.
Jun 25, 2012 | Change, Leadership, Operations
Much has been written about the management of change, and it usually focuses on the challenges, acknowledging just how difficult change really is.
When you turn it around, and consider what happens in successful change programs, there is very little management, and a lot of selling.
Leaders lead from the front, demonstrating the behaviors necessary, whilst managers push from behind. Demonstration is the oldest, and still the best form of selling, so when those whose work place, and the processes they operate are subject to being changed seeing those with the decision making power demonstrating the altered behavior makes the change easier.
You do not manage change, you sell it.
You sell it to your employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, and anyone else who will stand still long enough to listen, and most importantly, believe.
