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.
“One of the UK’s leading value brands has more to offer than sausage rolls and stottie cakes.” At one time you could stand on any street corner in central Newcastle and see five Greggs shops just by turning your head. This Newcastle-based company is the largest specialist retail bakery chain in the UK with 1571 […]
“Ryanair will be the main beneficiary of the painfully slow restructuring of Europe’s flag carriers.” Even with the famously creative accounting that some airlines have used over the years, many are having a difficult time telling a compelling story about their financial performance. Air France-KLM, Europe’s second-largest “flag-carrier” by revenue, says its results will deteriorate […]
“Rarely do you see such a well positioned and aligned business.” Engineering group IMI is doing rather well. It has just posted pre-tax profits of £301.4 million, on revenues of £2.1 billion and says it is going to increase its dividends. IMI, formerly Imperial Metal Industries, was founded in 1862 and has had a fascinating […]
“Bedbug outbreaks are swarming all over Latin America and globalisation means we could soon see an outbreak here. That would be just up Rentokil Initial’s street, so why is it still bothering itself with its underperforming parcel delivery business?” Industrial conglomerates used to be in fashion. British Electric Traction was one until it saw the […]
Exceptional times require exceptional leaders and there aren’t many of those around these days. Isn’t it ironic that the company that invented the digital camera now needs some breathing room to sort out problems caused by the success of digital photography? Not only that, it is trying to sell off some of its most valued […]
Tough times can be a tonic to a business and an industry. Taylor Wimpey has had a ‘good’ recession. After a fairly big shake-up last year and marginal profitability, it has set about rebuilding its business from the bottom up. The company has changed how it works and it is no longer stuck in a […]
Does John Lewis provide a blueprint for a more equitable economy? Although it may not be doing quite as well as last year the John Lewis Partnership has had an “outstanding” Xmas. It is one of the winners, along with Next, on Britain’s rather depressing high street. John Lewis set up his first store in […]
Hanging around in the nation’s one-stop shopping experiment. I went into my local post office yesterday to buy some stamps. It was raining and there was a queue out of the door onto the pavement and a wait of about 20 minutes to get to the counter. This left me lots of time to contemplate […]
We are currently faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. John. W. Gardner. You may not have heard of the US politician J.W. Gardner but J.F Kennedy may be more familiar. Echoing Gardner, Kennedy once rather famously said: The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word “crisis”. One brush […]
