What Business Are You In?
“If you don’t know what business you are really in you will find it hard to compete.” I came across the incredible fact the other day that British motor insurers…
All these articles illustrate why alignment is important. How making sure that all parts of your organisation are heading in the same direction in a coordinated way. Whist this is a very simple idea most businesses don’t put enough effort into making sure that all of their activities are aligned enough.
Cui Bono
“High street retailers have their PR spot on.” It is well known that when we buy things we tend to find relative price comparisons easier than global ones. It is…
Are You Working In The Past?
“Why isn’t your business as flexible, molecular, risk sensitive, segmented, team based, information rich, socially networked, transparent, responsive, adaptive and agile as it could be?” Recently I was asked to…
Alignment Is Essential For Great Success
“If you want to change the world, start by changing yourself.” In my blog post on 6 January this year I decried Footsie directors being paid one hundred times the average…
Benefits Need to be Credible
“IPOs have fallen out of favour because investment banks have broken the implicit deal with the purchaser.” Post Purchase Cognitive Dissonance (PPCD) is the phrase given to the state of…
How Not To Do It
“I have five fundamental principles that I believe underpin most successful businesses, rarely do I come across a company that flaunted them all.” Someone told me once that businesses tend…
CEO Games
“Isn’t it about time Hewlett-Packard had a strategy?” In spite of what people often claim about supertankers, they actually turn quite quickly; stopping though is another matter altogether. Hewlett-Packard…
Piggy in the Middle
“The same technological changes that have allowed disintermediation of the traditional supply chain have created an industry of intermediation on the demand side.” In economics, disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in a supply…
A Day Is a Long Time in Politics
“Don’t wait until you have a crisis to think strategically.” The public administration select committee has said that David Cameron doesn’t have a strategy for the country. Consequently, it’s…
Growing Pains
“Expansion is not always as easy as it seems.” Super Group, the international clothing retailer behind the Superdry clothing brand, is hiring some experienced management to help it continue to…