Is online retail a business or a distribution channel? First movers often have a market advantage that lasts for a long time: Procter and Gambles’ disposal nappies, Pampers, spring to mind, and The Body Shop, and also Amazon, the first online bookstore and now multiple retailer too. These days though everyone in retail is taking […]
Archive | Leadership
These articles illustrate why leadership matters. Few great businesses are built without inspirational leadership and we can all learn from the people in the news who are doing this well. What can you learn from the people described in the articles below?
Meredith
Few companies adapt so well to the challenges and the opportunities of a changing world. As we see Reader’s Digest Association seek Chapter 11 protection for the second time in three and a half years, one of the beneficiaries of its gradual decline has become something of a poster child for controlled and focussed strategic […]
Time Travellers
Watch out, if more and more of your customers are living in the past. I recently moved to the country. Well, I do at least spend more time there, though my personal mentoring clients don’t, so I lead a rather nomadic life at times, but when I’m at home I live in a lovely village […]
Which Way?
Sometimes business leaders just get confused. The fundamental “purpose” of any business is to generate a superior economic return for its shareholders; to do that it needs to satisfy many other groups of people who have some skin in the game, not least of which being its customers. To claim that Procter & Gamble’s Purpose […]
Martina Navratilova’s Ham & Eggs
Isn’t it time for some committed leadership at Premier Foods? In 2006 Billie Jean King, who knew a thing or two about tennis, being once the World No. 1 player, said that Martina Navratilova was, ”the greatest singles, doubles and mixed doubles player who’s ever lived” Wow! Apart from winning 18 Grand Slam titles, Martina […]
A Strategy Masterclass
David Cameron has just made the defining strategic decision of his career as Prime Minister. Rarely do politicians do things that impress me but, yesterday, the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, did just that and there are several lessons that any business leader can learn from what he did. David Cameron has boldly re-positioned the […]
Chinese CAT
The financial and reputational costs of diversification can be too high. Half of the global demand for construction equipment now comes from China, so it might not be that surprising that Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, with a market capitalisation of $63bn, should want to play there too. The most […]
Ardagh
Leadership is always the catalyst of great success. Over the past fifteen years Ardagh, the Irish glass bottle maker, has gone from relative obscurity, with operations in just Ireland and the UK, to being on the verge of becoming the second largest glass bottle maker in the world and the largest in the US. That […]
What Business Are You In?
This surprisingly simple question can help you think more clearly about your business and how to improve its performance. Do you know that not many UK insurance companies make a profit on their insurance premiums? They provide insurance services sure enough, but profits come from related services, like referrals to car hire companies and lawyers. […]
The Survival Instinct
When cornered, businesses will overpay for assets they really want. Last November Hewlett-Packard wrote down the value of Autonomy by a staggering $8.8Bn, after buying it for $11Bn just over a year earlier. HP also acquired EDS for $14Bn in 2008 to help it to transform, from a commodity pc and printing player, into an […]