The talk about ‘recession’ has many owners rattled. Most of you reading this own small or medium sized businesses and by corollary have a small share of the markets you serve. If the overall market you serve shrinks by 1% it will have very little effect on your ability to expand. Your growth, or lack of it can’t be attributed to the overall economy...
Read MoreMost people think outward from themselves through their sales channels on then on out to their end users. That approach is wrong. It leads to a channel centric sales approach. Instead think about the ideal customer for each product or service you are selling and then think about the best way to connect with them. The channel is in fact a bridge bet...
Read MoreI spent most of last week with about 500 people at the North American MGB convention. Between us, there were about 250 cars - most of which were made before 1980. People came from all over the continent in a spirit of friendship and friendly competition. The highlight of the show was Wednesday’s “Car Show”.
Read MoreWe are in the process of running a series of webinars across the Baltic States and Scandinavia; this is part of our Look West program where we assist companies get a foothold or expand in North America. We are often asked if we know anyone in a particular industry. For example, do we know anyone in the marine industry? Have we got any connections w...
Read MoreOne of the most useful things in business is to know where to play and how to win. It would be great if you could stake your claim and then settle in for a lifetime of success. Unfortunately, someone, somewhere is trying to steal your business. So, what to do? I typically ask four questions when I meet a new company:
Read MoreOne of our clients is expanding quite quickly and hiring people. They are in the business of creating complex and highly sensitive sensors to measure everything that’s going on with our ocean waters. Naturally they’re looking to hire people who are interested and hopefully passionate about the same sorts of things. So what do they do if they want t...
Read MoreA recent UK employee study paints a rather troubling picture of company life. It found that: The study went on to identify that roughly half the people would leave a negative on-line review about their company, and that nearly 50% wouldn't even apply to a company that had negative online reviews. At a time when so many companies are struggling to...
Read MoreThere’s a great new book called “How to Make the World Add Up” by Tim Hartford. In it he gives advice about making sense of the deluge of facts, figures, statistics (and other lies) we receive every day. There’s a war in Ukraine, food supplies are in jeopardy, our supply chains are tightening, inflation is raging, no one wants to work, and, in Onta...
Read MoreWe intuitively know the correlation between company culture and company success (including success in attracting and retaining great people). Research shows that companies who’s staff describe their culture as good or excellent seem to be thriving in all respects. We also know how to build an outstanding culture:
Read MoreWe often use the term 'a square peg in a round hole' to describe someone that in some way just doesn't fit either in the role, the office, or just the culture. That interpretation comes from an early 19th-century philosophical treatise* that considered people and their situations as a wide range of shapes - including triangles and oblongs, and...
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