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?
Farmers and their suppliers have rarely had it so good, but who will be left holding the baby? The owners of John Deere, the world famous brand of tractors and other agricultural machinery, normally painted green with yellow trim and decorated with a leaping deer logo, can’t spend their capital dollars fast enough at the […]
“Excessive margins always come with a sell-by date.” The mobile industry is an interesting place at the moment. Blessed with license-based market protection, not available even in the wildest dreams of most business owners, mobile network operators have successfully held serious competitors at bay for some time now. But as this highly regulated market matures […]
“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 chain, more popularly known as “cutting out the middleman”. The world is currently coming to terms with the diminution of power of the traditional supply […]
“One market changing technology is bad enough for market leaders, but what would you do if two came along at once?” I’m not sure if you can buy a greeting card in Clinton Cards, the dominant greetings card retailer found on most UK high streets, that will encourage someone to “remember their mortality”, which […]
“Why my neighbour, Premier Foods, has had to go back to basics.” I live across the road from the headquarters of Premier Foods, owners of Hovis, Mr Kipling, Ambrosia, Sharwood’s, Lloyd Grossman, Oxo, Bisto and Batchelors. Which just happen to be most of the things I eat, but I guess I am not alone. […]
“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 no wonder we have had so many controversies and embarrassments recently. The government has been accused of incompetence over the 50p top rate of tax, […]
“How has Aquascutum gone bust when every other luxury brand is rolling in cash?” Sadly, Harold Tillman’s attempt to save the classic Aquascutum fashion brand has come to nought and it is being placed into administration. Mr Tillman, who also owns Jaeger, bought the brand in 2009 after the Japanese trading house that owned […]
“Look what happens when great brands do nothing as the world changes around them.” One of my fundamental building blocks of a great business is to “stay different”. This implies that you are different in some way in the first place and Mothercare and the Early Learning Centre (ELC) brand that it owns were, once. […]
“You can’t sustain profits whilst investing in radical change.” Having just spent the last two weeks in the United States, where I am working with clients and also starting an Austin-based business, it seemed highly appropriate to pick a US business to blog about today. Best Buy, that started life as The Sound of Music, […]
“The appointment of an American CEO is a very good move for Argos, as long as they listen to what he has to say.” Although Argos is the largest general goods retailer in the UK, with 800 stores, it is a pretty outdated idea for a business. As a catalogue merchant, it is unique […]
