Why is strategy so messy?
Strategy is an exercise of informed fortune telling. What will happen if we do this? Is that better than if we do that? How will others react, do the ducks really all align the way they seem to? A thousand questions we set out to answer, to allocate our...
5 measures of your supply chain resilience
Our supply chains are suddenly under great scrutiny given the frailties surfaced by Covid. Calls for a greater proportion of domestic procurement are now more common than ever, but is domestic availability the only answer? Most supply chains are actually...
MG. Is it a brand, or just a label slapped on a piece of junk?
It seems over the last year or two, I see MG's everywhere. Not the snappy sports cars of my youth, MGB, and MGA, nor the MGTC or TF of my youthful fantasies, but boxy little SUV's that look pretty much like every other boxy little SUV on the road. The...
The uncertain future of work and jobs.
Hemmingway observed in 'The sun also rises' that 'the future comes slowly, then all at once'. He has been proven right many times. Since the release in November last year, ChatGPT has proven the future of AI is here, all at once. That reality leads to...
5 Myths of referral marketing busted.
Few would disagree that the very best way to find a new customer, to build a business, is to have existing happy customers refer you to their networks. Even anonymous referrals are better than nothing. How often have you looked up a service provider on...
The ‘3 C’s and E’ method of selecting the best employees.
Lifelong employment is a thing of the past, casualisation, remote work, and the gig economy have consigned that idea to the dustbin of history. It seems to me that there should be a revision to the way we seek to employ people, on whatever basis that...
The elusive formula for winning and managing government grants.
There is considerable grant money being allocated to innovative solutions to technical and market challenges by all levels of government. Such a honey-pot attracts all sorts of characters with a whole range of motivations, along with the genuine applicants...
Bing takes a sniff of (AI enhanced) Columbian marching powder.
Bing and its sibling 'Edge' have been coming third in a one-horse race for a long time now. Suddenly the emergence of the AI equivalent of a plutonium battery powered race whip in the form of ChatGPT has delivered a proper kick up the arse. The world has...
The misleading myth of work/life balance.
The term work/life balance seems to have been taken into our commonly used language. It pops up everywhere there is a discussion about stress, personal development, post covid back to work, and many others. To me it is a deeply flawed metaphor. The term...
How will Google respond to the existential threat of AI powered search?
Never have I seen a more definitive example of Clayton Christianson's 'innovators Dilemma' than what is being played out right now, in front of our eyes. In summary, the dilemma is that dominating incumbent businesses are loathe to change the model that made...