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Monthly Archives: November 2009
Lessons from the cat.
The Victorian era threw up some extraordinary characters, amongst them Charles Dodgson, better known by his pseudonym, Lewis Carrol Here was a man who is best known for a children’s story, one that has deep messages for adults together with … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, Leadership, Marketing
Tagged communication, Innovation, Marketing
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Marketing as a system.
Firms are successful when all the elements of strategy development and execution are ‘aligned”, when functional management works in a synergistic manner, and when personal best interests are best served by serving the best interests of the firm. When … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Innovation, Marketing
Tagged change management, Innovation, Marketing
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Planning saves work
Small businesses often do not spend the time to develop strategy, agreeing priorities, developing a point of difference, and a plan to execute in the marketplace, and as a result find themselves running harder and harder just to keep … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Marketing, Small business, Strategy
Tagged change management, SME, Strategy
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Depth Vs width.
How do you engage with hundreds of people as “friends”? On a personal level, you may engage deeply with a few, maybe a few dozen, electronically, there may be a group with a specific interest, and you engage with them … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Marketing, Small business
Tagged communication, managing yourself, SME
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The only sustainable advantage.
The evolution of the commercial and legal frameworks within which we live has left us with the notion of the firm as a legal entity, responsible for its debts, its own destiny, and to its owners for a return on … Continue reading
Forecasts are not predictions.
If you want a prediction, go to the lady in the tent at the local fair. If you want a forecast, talk to those who have an intimate knowledge of the drivers of the outcomes you are seeking to forecast. … Continue reading
Posted in Demand chains, Management, Operations, Sales
Tagged Management, Operations, Sales
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The unanticipated benefit of experimentation.
The innovation process has many faces, the one becoming increasingly accepted is that of constant, small scale experiments to see what works in the market, and what can be learned to improve the next iteration. Sometimes when you experiment, something … Continue reading
Qualitative or quantitative.
Market research now has a pretty sophisticated set of tools, all sorts of ways to tell you what to do, to provide a crutch for decision making, to take away the responsibility for making a courageous decision. However, it boils … Continue reading
Posted in Branding, Change, Marketing
Tagged Branding, Change, Innovation, Marketing
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Marketing to “friends” on the net
The notion of marketing to “friends” on social networking websites has great superficial attraction, after all it is a free audience, with presumably something in common. This has led to an explosion of banner ads and offers of various types … Continue reading
The world of Moore’s Law.
Not just the “bits”, the original target of Moore’s Law are halving in price every couple of years, lots of other things are as well. For many goods and services, the whole notion of charging at marginal cost has been … Continue reading
What did Henry Ford know about twitter?
In the welter of new media arriving almost daily, is there an element of individuals being empowered to exercise their right to make their own choices after a lifetime of being told what they want by others. Boys are taught … Continue reading
Identify the advocates first.
It is easy to create something, post it on u-tube and sit back and hope it goes “viral” giving you a turbo charged marketing program for not much money. This rarely happens, as the punters know an ad when they … Continue reading
Brands engage people.
November 10 was the 40th birthday of “Sesame Street” perhaps the most influential television program ever produced, and it still brings adults a laugh, amongst the serious messages to kids. I noticed early in the day that Google had Big … Continue reading
Elimination of risk = boring
Our society is obsessed with the elimination of risk, even little ones that really make no difference, and we spend huge resources insuring ourselves against the possibility that something will impact on us in a way we do not like. … Continue reading
The two dimensions of a brand.
Every brand to be successful has two dimensions. Generic attributes, those things it must do well to survive in its category. A car must have 4 wheels, be reliable, and not leak in the rain, a watch must tell the … Continue reading
Why are we here?
Various expressions of the basis for an organsations existence, Vision, Mission, Purpose, and others, all have different meanings, and certainly different meanings to different people, and have all been misused for years. Some time ago running an agricultural industry workshop, … Continue reading
The fad and fact of transparency.
Suddenly, post GFC, transparency has become a buzz-word. Regulators are calling for “transparency” in financial products, shareholders (and regulators supposedly on their behalf) are calling for “transparency” in executive remuneration schemes, and so on. Those of us who have been … Continue reading
Posted in Demand chains, Leadership, Strategy
Tagged demand chain, Management, value
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If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it. Right?
It is a truism that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Largely those who have practiced measuring and then managing for improvement have done well, Toyota with their TPS have taken over the world auto industry, and … Continue reading
Loud Vs right.
New communication mediums have allowed small groups, and individuals to make a lot of noise, but the volume of noise does not necessarily relate to the logic or accuracy of their position, just to their ability to make noise. … Continue reading
A point of view.
We talk about vision, mission, and all the rest, but at a more fundamental level, evolving a point of view, shared throughout the firm, about the “shape” and trends of the industries we are in, and those of the industries … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Innovation, Leadership, Marketing, Small business
Tagged Innovation, Leadership, Strategy
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