Jan 4, 2012 | Change, Communication, Innovation, Operations, Social Media, Strategy
In the communication revolution going on currently, the infrastructure to carry it all is vital, but how relevant will the 2010 infrastructure be to the world that greets it when it is finally completed roll-out in, when?, what was the last projection? ever?. The world is changing almost daily, the NBN as conceived by our political masters will be obsolete before it is 10% implemented.
In the October issue of “Wired” magazine is a fascinating analysis of the “Tech War” going on between Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. It is a must read for anyone in business, it puts a competitive context around the maneuvering we all see happening, but do not necessarily connect the dots.
We, the Australian taxpayers, are making a multi-generational investment in the NBN, billions of dollars spent by those well known, fast moving, tech savvy innovators in Canberra. Lets hope they know what is going on outside the cocooned environment of the “bush Capital that are all so pleased to live in.
Somehow I doubt they have any idea, and that is truly scary, and there will be a whole lot more of this sort of failure, and the accompanying spin before anyone in Canberra admits to a huge boo boo.
Dec 21, 2011 | Leadership, Management, Operations
The best management tool available is amongst the cheapest, a pair of shoes.
Hierarchies are vertical, they filter and modify information as it goes up and down an organisation, but real things, those that customers pay for, get done in an organisation horizontally, and generally at lower levels, at the “coalface.” So, for someone at the top to really understand what is going on below, they must be where the action is, not in the boardroom.
In Lean parlance, a “Gemba walk”.
Get yourself a pair of shoes for Christmas.
Nov 10, 2011 | Management, Operations
Writing a business plan is usually a priority in business, some do it well, some do it poorly, but what most do not do is write a business plan that evolves.
Effective business planning considers the long term context in which the business operates, and how the resources are to be allocated against the priorities, but shorter term, most tend to be fixated on a period, and the plan becomes a “set in stone” folder articulating financial outcomes that are as often as not wishful thinking, and in which all but the short term tactical stuff is dismissed as “too busy right now” to do.
Really effective planning engages with the reality of the environment right now, considers how the longer term direction will be impacted, makes judgments about emerging trends, and marshals resources and capabilities .
So, in summary to be effective:
Revisit the plan often
Reevaluate the risk assessments
Experiment and evolve.
Nov 2, 2011 | Management, Operations, Strategy
Yesterday’s question time, a childish brawl over who knew what and when about the Qantas decision to ground its aircraft, lock out staff, and leave customers around the world stranded, got me thinking. Not just about the pointless squabbling amongst the pollies over a point of history that legally is none of their business, but about the way a business can be subject to expectations way out of line with their competitors, and its legal obligations.
It is obvious that Qantas had considered grounding as a tactic in their industrial dispute, it is completely stupid to think Alan Joyce woke up on Saturday with a bright idea, there would have been a deep consideration at board level of a very aggressive and disruptive tactic that was almost of a “bet the farm” nature.
The real question is, what obligations does Qantas have to act in what politicians consider to be the public interest, when Qantas is a public company, and the Government sold their shareholding years ago in order to free themselves from the demands of being the major shareholder?
Qantas is fighting for its survival, the competitive world of aviation has moved on, and Qantas must adjust or disappear, and yet, there are clamourings for it to ignore the probability of its demise without change.
What gives the pollies, and a large portion of the public the right to demand that Qantas shareholders take a bath to satisfy an emotional attachment that is not backed by any financial commitment? If this was almost any other company in the top 100 listed companies, the tactics in an industrial dispute would be of little general interest, only the stakeholders directly involved would be making their points, and then within the legislated framework.
Why is Qantas different?
Oct 27, 2011 | Lean, Management, Operations
What a great phrase to start a debate around the board table, often heated, as most still see the two as a trade-off, the better the quality, the higher the cost.
How much better to beat the bean counters at their own game by quantifying it:
Quality cost = the number produced outside specification X the total cost of rework & disposal.
Simple. The cost of quality calculated, and how often will you find any added short term cost during production will be dwarfed by the costs of managing the out of spec production.
Sep 30, 2011 | Change, Leadership, Management, Operations, Personal Rant, Small business
The news that Fosters will be sold to SA Miller Brewing represents almost the last Australian food and beverage business with a global brand has now disappeared. I say almost, as I can think of no other, but some may argue that a few sales in Fiji or NZ constitutes global. To my mind, it does not rate.
Why is it that we seem to be unable to build and sustain food businesses from this country?.
Australia is now a net importer of packaged food, according to the AFGC 2010 report, and yet we are an abundant producer, particularly of broadacre commodities, grain and meat. Most people when told we are a net importer go into a state of disbelief, and yet the march of imported food, and the decline of Australia’s manufacturing base has been happening slowly over a long period.
It’s pretty easy to blame the evolution of globalisation of supply chains, the domination of Woolworths and Coles, regulation imposing costs overseas competitors do not have, the geographic spread and relatively sparse population denying the economies of scale, but the reality is that it is a management failure. The failure is shared by boards and shareholders who have tolerated a complacent management, discouraged long term strategy in the chase for short term returns, and simply disengaged with the basic drivers of competitiveness over a long period.
The only hope left is that a few SME’s will emerge from the heavily culled pack that remains, but it seems to me that they have missed the boat, and the barriers that the businesses that existed 30 years ago, and should have breasted, are now simply too high for the small guys to tackle without the scale and capital resources necessary. Our one hope is that there is a processing breakthrough, technologies like the CSIRO High Pressure Processing technology offer some hope, but they are unlikely to be the savior by themselves.
Almost gone, down to the last gasp, what on earth will we do then? Or don’t we care?
