Are you considering the increasing value of intangibles?
When thinking about selling your business ensure you spend time and effort identifying the intangible components that could contribute up to 90% of the value of the sale Almost 6 years ago I wrote a post that identified intangible value at 87% of the...
Australia slips another 9 places down the complexity rankings.
The latest economic complexity rankings put out by Harvard were recently released. Australia dropped from 93 in the world to 102. One place ahead of Yemen, one behind that manufacturing innovator, Senegal. I had missed the report until an article in the...
The only 5 tools in a leaders toolbox.
We tend to think that the person on the top of the pyramid has the power to do whatever they wish within the boundaries of reason and the law. To some extent this is true but there remains only five tools they can use. Volume. Price. Costs. Culture. Strategy....
The large, uncalculated cost in your business.
One of the five costs in your business, in most cases, under recognised, under managed, and misunderstood, is Opportunity cost. Doing A, means we cannot do B. It is not always such a binary choice. Opportunity cost is impossible to calculate with any...
Oh crap: What have we done?
Last Wednesday evening I was at a small(ish) gathering of about 50 owners of SME's as news came through of the US election result. It seemed everybody in the room was aghast. Not only at the result, but at the size of it, and the continued failure of...
11 questions to ask to assess a competitive response.
How do you anticipate the reactions of competitors to your initiatives? First you must understand them holistically and well. The better you understand them, specifically the strategic and tactical frameworks they work with, the better able you will be...
The key difference between brand loyalty and situational preference.
There is a big difference between a customer who always chooses your brand because they genuinely love it, and one who may prefer it as one of a group of acceptable products, but picks you just because of a good deal. A truly loyal customer will choose...
Positioning: The Secret Weapon of aspiring market leaders
Imagine you're at a bustling cocktail party. The room is filled with chatter, each person vying for attention. Now, picture your company in that room. How do you make sure it's the one everyone remembers? That's where positioning comes in. What is Positioning?...
Innovation: How to see the invisible problem.
Evolution has given us this ability to act on 'autopilot', or habit, while subconsciously remaining attuned to our surroundings. Our brains have limited capacity, so it needs to save as much as it can to allow it the space to deal with the unexpected, crises. Our...
9 questions to avoid a poor hiring decision.
The cost of a wrong hire is huge, and for an SME can be devastating. Not only do you lose the money put into the process, but you also lose the time of those engaged, the opportunity to find that perfect candidate, and perhaps most importantly, the...