-
Archives
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
-
Meta
Monthly Archives: August 2009
The science and art of branding.
Isn’t the marketing job done by the Canterbury Bulldogs on Hazem El Nasri about the best branding game in town at the moment? Forget that he is an athlete, and that his personal credo appears to be beyond reproach, Canterbury … Continue reading
After the crunch.
The world will look different when it emerges from the crunch, as we appear to be doing currently. The globalization and connectivity of the world are trends that will not go away, and the chaos of the last 12 months … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy
Tagged Innovation, Leadership, Strategy
Leave a comment
“Easy fix” is usually “poor fix”
Management activity often seems to be telling people what to do, then fighting the fires when it is not done, or not done to a standard you deem acceptable, or not done on time. A simple human reaction: “tell me … Continue reading
The “useful meter”.
Having a good strategy scores 1/10 on the useful meter, the other 9/10 are allocated for implementation, adjustment, and learning. That is not to down-play the difficulty of developing a good strategy, and the crucial value of such an investment … Continue reading
Nothing like free mailing.
At an industry round table a short time ago, a general conversation was bouncing around amongst a bunch of relatively senior executives about the uses their businesses had made of the internet as a marketing and communication tool. Few were … Continue reading
Marketing has changed, have you?
# There is no longer a “mass market” in every market, so mass marketing usually leads to mass wasted resources. # Most customers who may be in a market are no longer anonymous, they can be “connected ” with individually. … Continue reading
The tortoise and the hare.
It has become pretty obvious over the last 9 months (if it was not there for all to see before), that those businesses with conservative financial management, irrespective of size, are the ones that have the opportunity to prosper during … Continue reading
Employees are your best marketing assets.
What happens when you meet someone…? “where do you work” is a common conversation starter. Someone who responds enthusiastically, extolling the virtues of their employer and the products they produce, will have a positive impact on those they meet, and … Continue reading
Apostles and detractors
The aim of brand builders is to engage with consumers to the point where they become apostles for the brand, an much effort has gone into developing measures that use this notion as a measure of brand strength. On the other … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Marketing, Sales, Strategy
Tagged customer, Marketing, performance assessment, Sales, Strategy
Leave a comment
Intellectual capital and return on assets.
Return on Asset calculations as a realistic basis of performance measurement for many firms is rapidly going out the window. On one hand we do the financial calculations, based on the accounting notion of tangible assets in the business, whilst … Continue reading
Water and the carbon trading debate.
Over the last 10 years in the farming operations that make up a substantial portion of my client base, the foundations of the decisions being made have been radically altered by the rapidly increasing cost of water. Water productivity is … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, Management, Operations
Tagged Alliance management, Innovation, Operations
Leave a comment
Putting the “I” back in Alliances
The following list was imbedded in an article “putting the I back in Alliances” by Rosabeth Moss Canter, one of the better management thinkers around. It creates a simple list of things any successful alliance requires. Individual excellence: Both sides … Continue reading
Posted in Demand chains, Management
Tagged Alliance management, performance assessment, Value chain
Leave a comment
Too few marketers.
Brands take years, often decades of work, investment, and insight to develop, but they can be destroyed in the blink of an eye. In channels where there is an imbalance of power between links in the supply chain, such as … Continue reading
Posted in Marketing, Sales, Strategy
Tagged category management, performance assessment, Sales, supply chain, value
Leave a comment
Knowledge flow in demand chains
Technology has multiplied the potential for information flows through a value chain, but often human behavior hampers it as individuals use the available information to enhance their own position. This happens internally, but is even more prevalent in the interactions … Continue reading
Posted in Demand chains, Management, Strategy
Tagged customer, performance assessment, Value chain
2 Comments
Marketing personnel productivity enhancement.
As a senior marketing executive in a previous life, in a business with a highly seasonal FMCG product range, I used to force the marketing department to spend substantial amounts of time in the field with our field sales force … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Marketing, Sales
Tagged category management, customer, Marketing, Sales
Leave a comment
The trouble with a “BHAG”
There is a growing trend, perhaps driven by the difficult times for management to set very big goals, the “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” proposed by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book “Built to last”, and hope to create the focus … Continue reading
Intuition & Instinct
That ability to make quick decisions that more often than not, turn out to the right choice is an envied and rare talent. How much is just pure talent, and how much is training, instinct, and experience? After 35 years … Continue reading
Sales lead generation and qualification.
Every business has in some form a process for generating, qualifying, and allocating resources to sales leads. In many businesses, it is a very expensive, resource hungry exercise, so finding a way to short circuit the process, would be offer … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, Management, Marketing, Sales
Tagged customer, Innovation, Marketing, Sales
Leave a comment
“Left brain: Right brain” and the status quo.
The usual interpretation of the function of the hemispheres of the brain is that left brain types become actuaries, and right brain types become artists. How then do you accommodate Albert Einstein, a great mathematician, and a great creative brain … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, Management, Strategy
Tagged Management, Marketing, performance assessment
Leave a comment
“Revenge” behavior stalls alliance growth.
The impact of current behavior of all who are engaged in an alliance on the perceptions and expectations that will drive the evolution of the alliance into the future is pervasive. Success breeds expectations of more success, and failure breeds … Continue reading
StrategyAudit 