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…
Read moreDon’t Let Your Career Stall
A few months ago we were fortunate enough to be doing a course for a major drinks provider in Asia. To kick off the programme we asked the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to say a few words to the marketing team. Expecting the usual presentation about how market share and profit is growing (or falling),…
Read moreTactics Follow Strategy
Tactics always follow strategy. That is to say that portfolio strategy, segmentation strategy and positioning strategy must be translated into something meaningful to the customer – these are the tactics (remember the four P’s?). Tactics must fit the target segment, not the other way around. In designing your tactics – Price, Product, Promotion, and Place…
Read moreWalmart vs. Visa… Enroll and Control
Ever heard of Thunder Bay Ontario? Didn’t think so; but there in a remote part of Canada, where the moose population outnumbers humans, the game of supremacy for the world payment market will tip off in mid July. As of July 18th the three Walmart stores in Thunder Bay will no longer accept Visa as…
Read moreCommunity Power
Anyone who’s attended a university business lecture has been subjected to Michel Porter’s Five Forces. If you were able to work in “bargaining power of suppliers”, “bargaining power of customers”, “threat of new entrants”, “threat of substitutes” and “competitive rivalry” into your university paper, profs would trip all over themselves to give you an A….
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