Feb 13, 2013 | Governance, Management, Operations, Small business
Ever put off a difficult decision? asked for more information that you know will not change the outcome? shuffled the responsibility elsewhere?
Most of us have, at one time or another, but we generally tell ourselves that we delayed the decision, sought a greater level of certainty, or something else when deep down we know that we have decided not to decide, or at least, used an artifice to enable us to not to act on the decision.
If all you have done is to kick the “pain-point” down the road a bit, you also generally realise that the pain when it comes will be worse for the waiting. In putting off the pain point, you have actually made a decision, one that will often come back and bite you.
I was reminded of this reality recently when the owner of a small business I work with failed to take a hard decision in relation to one of his employees. The inevitable conclusion to that employees departure was repeatedly put off because it is a small business in a regional centre, and sacking someone is hard, it becomes everyone’s business. It has become clear that the employee concerned realised the position, and rather than behave honorably, has committed the company to expenditure that is unnecessary, wasteful, and possibly terminal.
The price for deciding not to decide can be very high indeed.
Feb 5, 2013 | Governance, Management, Marketing
This is definitely not referring to the pallet of old brochures gathering dust in the warehouse, although most businesses still seem to accumulate them.
I am referring to the sales leads, data bases, prospects, active conversations, existing customers and relationships, that together constitute the marketing inventory. When you think about these things as “Inventory”, an asset, you instinctively consider the means by which you generate a return, as that is what you do with assets.
The similarity of marketing inventory to physical inventory is that you can use the same sorts of measures for marketing inventory that you use for physical inventory, pretty much broken into the sorts of categories that Lean inventory management would require:
- “Flow” and Balance through the system of leads, prospects, active prospect, execute the sale, they are essentially “how many” questions.
- Conversion rates from one part of the system to another. Conversion trends are valuable pointers to both tactical success and emerging problems.
- Velocity through the system. As in physical inventory, the quicker the better, whilst maintaining flow and balance.
Considering the sales and marketing effort in this way encourages a sensible demarcation between the functions, and generally removes the argy-bargy that often happens. Importantly, it focuses attention on the cost and return analyses that enables resources to be used where they generate the best return. Having your expensive sales force out doing cold calls with a 1% hit rate now makes no sense, as the process has been completely disrupted by technology.
Jan 25, 2013 | Governance, Management
If I hear the sporting team metaphor once more this week, I think I will spew, although I have often used it myself over the years.
I’ve been contributing to a sales conference this week, listening to some intelligent, well thought out stuff from some surprising corners of the business, some crap from a few who should know better, and endless sporting analogies.
Lets examine the sport team metaphor realistically, looking for the shortcomings that are rarely mentioned:
• Sporting teams have a set number of players, and your ability to maintain a “bench” is limited. In contact sports, there is usually a few all-rounders who can be used as substitutes, but in most, what you start with is all you have. What would happen in a business if you could not adjust capabilities and numbers on the fly to respond to unforeseen circumstances?
• Sporting teams conduct the contest within a well known and understood set of rules by which each side complies. Try telling your competition to play be a set of rules agreed beforehand.
• A sporting contest takes place at a set time, in a set place, and has a set duration, and if you do not turn up, you lose. Fundamental to the commercial contest is the “faking” of the opposition to get them to expend resources doing something that can deliver them no benefit, and if you can do that and not even have to turn up, so much the better.
• Sporting teams know who their opponent will be next week, and the week after, have a pretty good idea of their capabilities, so therefore can train specifically to address the challenges as they arise in a predictable manner. Not so in commercial life, and just because you beat a competitor last week, does not mean they will not come back at you in an unexpected way tomorrow, not even waiting for Saturday! Sneaks.
The list goes on, but the point is that metaphors are great, they illustrate a point, but they do not provide a template, just a lesson.
Jan 12, 2013 | Change, Management, Small business
Below are 10 predictions I made at a meeting this week of owners of SME’s in Sydney’s inner west. It is a quick list I jotted down in the 10 minutes before the meeting, but on reflection, I actually thought they were OK, therefore I am prepared to live or die by them.
So, here goes:
- Marketing is digital and personal, mass marketing is dead! Get personal and get digital, they are complementary, not mutually exclusive.
- Social media will overtake traditional news dissemination channels. Just look at where the news about the current fires came from, those on the spot with mobiles and net connections. The rest of us get the dramatic pictures a few hours later if the cameras can get in, but the real “news” is reported by individuals on the spot using twitter et al. (Just think about that as evidence of empowerment for a moment)
- A few smart SME’s will do very well, but the rest will at best struggle, and many will fail. The scale of operations necessary for success is relative to the size of the niche occupied, and most SME’s try to be all things to all people, and fail at being relevant to enough to ensure success.
- The new “cool” for our kids is to train as a “tradie” as there are insufficient fulfilling jobs left for those with modest, non vocational degrees, to fill demand from the aforementioned graduates.
- The shortage of willing and able workers will continue, as we no longer train people to work, we train them to “expect”.
- The 40% of SME’s who do not have web sites, or have sites that act only as an electronic brochure rather than as a magnet to their target customers need to realise they are missing the opportunity to grab the lifeline. Failure to grab the lifeline, well, refer to prediction 3.
- “Big Data” the combination of traditional data bases and the behavioural and attitudinal data scavenged from social media will become the next big thing during 2013.
- Mobile will take over from fixed line, comprehensively, and across all communication channels.
- The economy will continue to slow, consumers are cautious and risk averse. We are caught between a European economy that is truly stuffed, a US economy that whilst showing some signs of life, is extremely fragile even after the dills kicked the “fiscal cliff’ down the road a bit, a Chinese economy that is still robust on paper but is turning inward to meet domestic demand rather than exporting manufactured goods, and so needs less of our commodities. These things together with the very high $A, and a determination by our “leaders” to continue to say how well we are doing while denying the caveat that we are doing well relative to the rest, who are really crap. (compared to blokes on crutches I am still a fast runner, but compared to anyone who can really run, I am nowhere near where I was 40 years ago). This is notwithstanding Bruce’s optimism, and correct assessment that his industry is a “canary in the mine” but look where the housing market has been in the last couple of years.
- Around July/August, the economy will stumble into a really nasty hole as we approach a Federal election. Never in my memory have we been “led” by two such unpopular leaders. Unpopular they may be, as have been others in the past who have in fact been successful leaders, but the flip side, respect, is not there either, and being unable to respect your leaders, even if you do not like them is a real problem.
There you go, my 10 predictions.
Hold me to them as we progress through the year, it may make for some lively debate at some point.
Jan 10, 2013 | Management, Operations
How often have I heard the phrase ” he needs to get his ducks in a row before he can progress”, or some variation thereof.
Often, and most recently yesterday, as a reason that less than expected progress had been made on a project. Unexpected distractions had prevented the foundation work being done, just as it had before Christmas, and in October.
I do not want to hear any more about the challenges of organising to get the ducks in a row, I want to hear what you are doing with the bloody ducks!
Are your ducks flapping, delivering value, in 2013?
Jan 8, 2013 | Management, Strategy
Ever heard of John R. Boyd? I hadn’t until I stumbled across this article in Fast Company magazine.
Observation, Orient, Decision, Action.
Instinctively it seems to make sense, Observing and understanding the pressure points, orienting your thinking to reflect the evolving situation, making resource deployment decisions to leverage the opportunities emerging, then executing on them, whilst going through the processes again, and again, as more information becomes available.
A variation on the Shewhart circle, which is now well known as the Plan Do Control Act (PDCA) circle in manufacturing, applied to competitive strategy with the wrinkle that the focus is not improving your own performance, but destroying the oppositions ability to compete effectively.
I have often said that getting inside your oppositions head is the best competitive strategy you could have. The OODA loop is simply a template to organise and focus the process.
Update: August 2017. I found this long article on Medium that also provides an outline of OODA. A useful addition.
