What started as a presentation to Siemens turned into a classic business book published back in 1982 called “In Search of Excellence”. In their book the authors, Bob Waterman and Tom Peters, analyzed 62 organizations for financial performance and cataloged their best practices. Back then there wasn’t an Uber, Tesla, Google or Amazon and Apple…
Read moreCash, Credit or Ali Pay?
What is the difference between Sales and Marketing? Go online and you’ll find a lot of interesting answers that do little to quell the debate. In many organizations marketing is nothing more than sales support developing fancy brochures and placing media advertisements in traditional and online channels. Here’s one definition that might help clear up…
Read moreApple. All Play and No Pay.
Thinking of launching a new product? It’s important to have a keen understanding of the market forces that will drive adoption. What may work in one market may not work in another so it’s important to do your homework first. Presuming markets will be the same is often a bad assumption. Strategy is always situation…
Read moreCut the Red Tape
Ever been bogged down by the pace of bureaucracy? Many companies make themselves less effective by instituting too many internal rules and procedures in a vain attempt to keep the company on its strategic course. In today’s world where disruption is the norm and employees have access to market information via a smart phone, this…
Read moreGold Medals and Pop Icons
Ever tried to impress someone by being someone you’re not? It’s exhausting trying to swim against the tide that’s your own personality and if your experience is anything like mine it probably didn’t work out too well. The same can happen to a business; in pursuit of more profits businesses can stray from their core…
Read moreCrying Over Broken Glass
“Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door” said Ralph Waldo Emerson in the late nineteenth century. The statement, at times the mantra of scientists and engineers, contains a fatal flaw as it violates the first principle of marketing. If one expects to sell a mouse trap and…
Read moreSanta. The Mindset of a Strategist.
Ever wondered how some people can see their way through a problem that stumps so many others? How some people can step away and calmly assess a situation that has everyone else in a panic? This is called the strategic mindset and Santa Claus has it in spades. Remember Rudolph – his nose was so…
Read moreStrategy & Leadership… Like Peanut Butter & Jam.
As Forest Gump reminded us some things just go together like peas and carrots, apple pie and ice cream, bacon and eggs and chocolate and caramel … ok, I made the last one up because it’s my favorite but you get my point. In business some things just need to go together and at the…
Read moreA Fad is not a Strategy
Remember Porter’s five forces? How about TQM, Blue Oceans, Big Hairy Audacious Goals, Balanced Scorecard, Net Promoter Score and Six Sigma……need I go on? While each of these business tools may well have merit, its only in the right context that they can be successful. These ideas are generally presented by their authors as universal…
Read moreShooting from the Hip
Sometimes we get so locked into our traditional selling model we forget to step back and develop a “real” strategy. This is all the truer when launching a new product and you’re asking your customer to change the way they do business in order to derive the value. Take the case of a medical implant…
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