Monthly Archives: February 2012

Talk is cheap

We are pretty well immune to those who make promises, as we have heard it all before, and having been burnt, and burnt, we tend not to believe the hype this time. Doesn’t matter if it is a colleague assuring … Continue reading

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Measuring leadership.

Leadership is often seen as a “soft” skill, hard to measure, and really only obvious with the benefit of hindsight. Perhaps not, the potential success of leaders can be at least partly assessed by looking at what makes people unsuccessful … Continue reading

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Indecision amplified.

I spoke to a few people in Canberra yesterday, curious as to the impact of the Labor leadership cat-fight on the rest of the place. Whilst I expected it to be the topic of the day, the consensus was that … Continue reading

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Sell the frog.

 Successful stories are always greater than the sum of their parts. Great stories engage, enlighten, inform, and inspire, so to dissect the sum to explain the parts may seem easier than selling the whole thing, but it usually does not … Continue reading

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The why and how of budgeting

Into the new year, most companies that have June 30 as year end will start the tortuous path of setting the new budget. I have seen the budget process take 6 months, and be as useless as a water pistol … Continue reading

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Product Disasters can be marketing gold.

Remember the Arnott’s case, in 1997 they recalled millions of packets, and showed them being crushed on TV, in the days before u-tube. Tylenol in the US went trough the same thing in 1882, 6 packets were laced with cyanide, … Continue reading

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Mobile Visual Search, MVS for short

Just a few months ago, QR codes seemed to me to be the answer to a marketers prayer, a simple way for products and services to connect with anyone with a mobile device, and an interest.  However, Aussies,  often quick … Continue reading

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8 Questions for business planning.

   Which customers? Which markets? What is the vale proposition? What are the processes that are required to deliver the value proposition? What capabilities are required to deliver the strategy? What technology is required to deliver the strategy? What are … Continue reading

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Open Vs Closed systems scorecard.

The world is full of paradoxes. Apple, the ultimate closed system is now again, the worlds most valuable company, but was started by two blokes, one of whom was, and remains an advocate of open systems, Steve Wozniak, and the … Continue reading

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Porters strategy do and don’t list.

Following up the post yesterday commenting on the changes the net has wrought in relation to Michael Porters ideas about substitutes. It seemed useful to add links to two useful articles by Joan Magretta, who has written a book on … Continue reading

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Porter’s analysis revisited.

Michael Porter transformed strategy development 30 years ago by  asking two simple questions: What are the drivers of industry profitability? What are the drivers of profitability of an individual firm in an industry? He then  provided a framework to analyse … Continue reading

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Social media code of conduct.

The risks, as well as the benefits of social media Social media are now slowly becoming recognised, particularly as the list of companies who “should know better” gets longer.  Given the potential for social media to trash a brand built … Continue reading

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Operational design paradox.

It seems paradoxical  to me that the most successful company on the face of the earth over the last decade, one that has been successful because of their astonishingly good product design, have not leveraged that innovative capacity into their … Continue reading

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Brand promiscuity

The net has changed everything. In the “old days” consumers brand choices were made from a small pool of acceptable brands that was defined by experience, limited access to detailed information, and advertising. Once a brand had been purchased, the … Continue reading

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4 Brand qualities for the future.

 Brand-building is an infinitely more difficult exercise in the current environment. Gone are the days when you could throw a bunch of money at mass media, and use it to drive distribution and consumer trial, and if the thing was … Continue reading

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The Kodak brand story.

So Kodak is broke, chapter 11 which protects a company from its creditors whilst it radically restructures in order to survive and pay back creditors.  It is only a few years ago Kodak was one of the most valuable brands … Continue reading

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Gaming on-line referrals

I purchased a set of Sidchrome tools as a 20 year old working on my first car, simply because a mate doing an apprenticeship told me they were the best tools, and 40 years later, I still think Sidchrome are … Continue reading

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Market to a mind-set

 I’m 60, an early adopter of marketing analytics in the 70’s. Demographics, U&A, and product positioning research all hooked into mass marketing media, the foundation of our mass market, consumer led social revolution. Now all that is irrelevant, or almost. … Continue reading

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