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Tag Archives: Operations
6 ingredients for SME success
The post on the 2 tools SME’s need in early August led to a comment that, whilst the headlines of focus and discipline made sense, the challenge is in implementation. Fair comment. So, how do you build the needed focus … Continue reading
Posted in Governance, Innovation, Leadership, Small business, Strategy
Tagged change management, competitive strategy, customer, Governance, Innovation, Leadership, Operations, performance assessment, SME, Strategy
2 Comments
Small businesses biggest problem
Cash flow is the lifeblood of every business, from the one person micro business working out of their garage, to the largest multinational. To call it “Lifeblood” sounds like a cliché, but the thing about clichés is that generally they … Continue reading
Posted in Governance, Management, Small business
Tagged Governance, great management, Management, Operations, performance assessment, SME
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Toyota’s tent joins Ford and GM in the boot.
As a little kid, the milkman used to deliver from a horse drawn cart. Even then, in the mid fifties it was outmoded, almost rustic, but endlessly engaging for a 5 year old boy. Much later, I was the … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Management, Operations
Tagged Change, change management, competitive strategy, Governance, Management, Operations, Personal Rant, Politics
2 Comments
Brand value of SPC and Peters.
If ever you needed convincing that investing for the long haul in a brand was worth the time, energy, risk, and money, there is evidence aplenty in the remnants of the Australian food industry. It has been reported that the … Continue reading
Posted in Branding, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy
Tagged Agriculture, Branding, category management, Change, competitive strategy, Marketing, Operations, Politics, retailer, Strategy
7 Comments
Give Charman Stone a medal.
The decision by the federal Government not to support SPC last week has opened a can of worms. This time, the worms have some grunt, as the head worm, Charman Stone has shone a light into the corners of the … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Governance, Leadership, Marketing, Operations
Tagged Agriculture, Change, change management, demand chain, Governance, Operations, performance assessment, Politics, retailer, supply chain
3 Comments
WCB spits the curd
It has been pretty certain that control of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter (WCB) would change since the opening bid by Bega Cheese in September last year. It rapidly became an auction as rival bidders emerged, and WCB shareholders struck the … Continue reading
Posted in Branding, Change, Governance, Management, Strategy
Tagged Agriculture, Change, change management, competitive strategy, Governance, Operations, performance assessment, Sales
1 Comment
Thinking “Lean” is instinctive.
It is amazing how people adopt to “lean” instinctively, without any planning, or knowledge of the cliches and tools spruiked by consultants (including myself). People are pretty sensible when left to themselves, they do not build waste into a … Continue reading
Posted in Customers, Lean, Operations, Sales
Tagged collaboration, communication, customer, demand chain, lean, Operations, performance assessment
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4 Challenges of Urban agriculture.
As our cities continue to suck people off the land, and grow bigger, swallowing adjacent farm land, we face the challenge of how we feed ourselves into the future. It may not be a problem now, or in 5 years, … Continue reading
Posted in Branding, Change, Marketing, retail, Strategy
Tagged Branding, category management, Change, climate change, collaboration, competitive strategy, demand chain, Marketing, Operations
7 Comments
Marketing debt.
I have just been a part of a post investment review with a client, looking at what a significant investment in capital equipment has delivered, compared to the planned outcomes, that underpinned the Capex. Not a pretty sight, and … Continue reading
Anatomy of a demand chain.
This is a far longer post than normal, motivated by some very sensible feedback from the previous post. Bear with me. The “tools” that add value to management of any supply chain, playing a role in the transformation into … Continue reading
Posted in Collaboration, Demand chains, Marketing, retail, Strategy
Tagged Advertising, analytics, Branding, collaboration, communication, customer, demand chain, great management, Marketing, Operations, retailer, Strategy, Value chain
4 Comments
Fire yourself.
Small business owners work harder, and often take home less than their employed peers. I see this all the time, again and again, in all sorts of contexts. Ever wondered why? In my experience, most go into business because they … Continue reading
Posted in Governance, Management, Marketing, Small business
Tagged Entrepreneur, Management, managing yourself, Operations, SME, Strategy
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Failing is not the same as failure.
It is often said that for successful innovation to occur, you must be prepared to” fail often, fail cheap”. Early testing and prototyping speeds up innovation cycle times, the longer a project proceeds with issues unnoticed or unfixed, the harder … Continue reading
Posted in Lean, Management, Marketing, Operations
Tagged category management, lean, Operations
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Productivity increase = Wealth creation
The maths are simple, do more with less, and you have more left over at the end. Productivity is not just something you aim for in the factory, the opportunities to do more with less are everywhere, in every activity … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Governance, Lean, Operations
Tagged Change, change management, Governance, lean, Operations, performance assessment
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Seeing the real cause
How often do we get sidetracked by several possible causes of an adverse or unexpected outcome? In the course of doing a fair bit of process improvement work over the years, one of the really successful strategies I have used … Continue reading
Posted in Lean, Operations, Small business
Tagged change management, lean, Management, Operations, performance assessment, supply chain
1 Comment
An Apple supply chain pivot?
Tim Cook, the Apple CEO has just come out and announced that Apple will restart manufacturing in the US, starting with an unnamed Mac computer model, some time in the near future. The driver of “offshoring” to sources of cheap … Continue reading
Posted in Branding, Change, Lean, Operations
Tagged Branding, change management, lean, Operations, performance assessment, Strategy, web stuff
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Rule of 3
There are three types of activity in any business, from the small one man service operators to BHP. Doing all the things that generate revenue, today, tomorrow, and into the future, Doing the necessary things that support the generation of … Continue reading
Marketing is demand generation
Sales forecasting is a common activity, you need to know how much revenue is going to be generated in the coming months. Usually it is done by sales, usually by a straight extrapolation with a few adjustments, and the only … Continue reading
Posted in Customers, Management, Marketing, Operations
Tagged Management, Operations, performance assessment, Sales
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Value adding ratio
Have you ever calculated yours? It is a pretty simple performance measure that carries a lot of weight, and contains the seeds of success, and destruction. In addition, if you know your industry well, it is pretty easily calculated for … Continue reading
Posted in Lean, Management, Operations
Tagged lean, Management, Operations, performance assessment
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Corporate imagination and compliance
The interesting and fun bits of our world are driven by the vision, imagination, and execution capabilities of people. Much of the capital and technical capabilities required to enable these great things to happen are tied up in our corporations, … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy
Tagged Change, change management, Governance, Innovation, Leadership, Operations, Risk, Strategy, value
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Socialising business
I have a new email address, one that allows me access to an enterprise social network, run off the “Yammer” platform that has been deployed by an occasional client. This is an innovation that will turn the time people spend … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Collaboration, Social Media
Tagged Change, change management, collaboration, communication, Operations, Social Media
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StrategyAudit 