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Monthly Archives: April 2009
Archimedes & the web.
Archimedes theorised that “With a long enough lever, you could move the world” It appears that the web is such a lever, as the world has changed as a result of the leverage applied by the development of the … Continue reading
Leadership & management.
There is a difference between telling someone what to do (management) and inciting a movement (leadership). Managers use organisational structures to get stuff done, leaders create momentum by enabling connections to be made amongst like minded people, and showing … Continue reading
Trust or truth.
Trust is often cited as the key in making relationships, personal or commercial work. What is sometimes poorly understood is that trust is an outcome of lots of other things, primary amongst them is truth, along with consideration of … Continue reading
Posted in Demand chains
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Engagement
The rules of the game have changed, marketing is about the engagement of customers. My definition of marketing, is” the recognition, building, protecting and leveraging competitive advantage” Engagement by consumers in the brand proposition is what that is all … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Horizontal and vertical chains.
The usual, and correct view of a supply chain is a number of competitors at each point in the chain competing to provide the goods and services necessary to send the goods along to the next stage. The classic … Continue reading
Posted in Demand chains, Marketing
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Independence and interdependence
Interdependence drives successful collaboration, and collaborative arrangements never survive without clear areas of interdependence. When individual collaborators judge their actions in the context of the best outcome for the group, rather than their own short term best interests, … Continue reading
Posted in Demand chains, Strategy
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Value add at half the price, the end of a market?
Yesterday I got a telemarketing offer for a half price newspapers subscription, delivered to my door from one of the major dailies. Of course I signed up, beats walking to the newsagent and paying double! The other major daily in … Continue reading
Posted in Strategy
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Share of wallet.
SOW is a simple but powerful concept for both consumer and B2B markets. How much of a customers spending on products you could supply, actually comes your way, Vs going to a competitor? how much of their “wallet” to you get? … Continue reading
This one or that.
Success always means making choices… which customer, which market, which price point, which channel, and so on. The key is to actually make the choice after the appropriate analysis, and commit to it, whilst remaining sufficiently alert and agile … Continue reading
Information itself is no longer power.
In the past, those who held the information held the power, no longer is it so clear cut. Now, we have so many options opened up to us that the sharing of information is the new power, as information attracts … Continue reading
Posted in Demand chains
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Them or us?
Many people who run businesses obsess about the competition to the extent that it impacts on their own strategic development. They watch what competitiors do, aggressively match them, and set out to beat them at their own game. Often the better answer is … Continue reading
Posted in Marketing
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5 steps to improving performance.
As a boy my dad used to say “everybody makes mistakes, only a fool makes the same one twice” There are now many learned tomes written and sold that offer similar advice, boiled down, “learn from your mistakes”. You do … Continue reading
what is a demand chain
Most are familiar with the notion of supply chains, and describe them as assembling product, of some type, and moving it through a series of points where it often receives further investment in packaging and processing, to a customer of … Continue reading
Posted in Demand chains
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berry jam and the long tail
The explosion of media options in the last 5-10 years is giving small businesses options they did not have in the age of mass media, mass marketing. The recession will drive a continuing growth in alternative media at the expense … Continue reading
Posted in Marketing
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Silver lining
In a downturn, the volume of low priced stuff increases, & as consumers reward themselves, some stuff a the “top end” also does well. Beware if you are in the middle, and not the lowest cost producer, both your … Continue reading
Posted in Marketing
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Marketing Audit
The following is a letter published in the Journal of thre Australian Institute of Company Directors in their December 08 Annual report. http://www.companydirectors.com.au. Very few businesses make a serious attempt at an audit of the returns from marketing expenditure. Why … Continue reading
Posted in Marketing, Uncategorized
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No longer masses
You can no longer market to the anonymous masses, they’re no longer anonymous and they’re certainly no longer masses, but an agglomeration of individuals. You can only market to people who are willing participants, so the marketing task is to identify that … Continue reading
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learn from sport
Being good at any sport takes practice, and significant effort to improve the way things are done to get better, and we constantly and consistently measure the outcome of the effort, review the impact of changes, and vary the training regime … Continue reading
The scalpel or the axe?
Take a scalpel to your costs , not an axe, make sure the costs you cut are not the ones necessary to add value to the 20% of your customers that typically deliver 80% of the profits. The temptation … Continue reading
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Is the customer always right?
The most difficult word in the English language for a small business owner is “no”. In most cases, it needs practice, the customer,(or worse) the potential customer is not always right, at least, right for you. Be careful, be … Continue reading
StrategyAudit 