There is a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) issue that pervades most companies, and they try to be attractive to as many buyers as possible. And when I say attractive, I am not referring to their product or service alone – I am including the whole package: product, price, packaging, brand, support and so
Read MoreFulford Place George Fulford was a pharmaceutical manufacturer who made his large fortune with "Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills for Pale People"; these were sold in over 80 countries around the world. The 'pink pills' were actually, essentially, iron tablets. And the 'pale people' were those suffering from anaemia of which there were many resulting...
Read MoreAnd conversely, the power of strong, lived values A company's values are becoming an increasingly important part of a market's buying decision making - and that market is made of up thousands or millions of individual people. And, in a world where people are losing trust in governments and other traditional guiding institutions (Edelman Trust...
Read MoreIn today's rapidly evolving business landscape, complexity seems to be a persistent constant. As business owners and CEOs, the challenge is not just to navigate this complexity but to thrive within it. We humans have been running businesses for a long time (several thousand years), so you'd think we would have a good handle on how to do that....
Read MoreYou don't build a business – you build people – and then people build the business. Zig Ziglar I was recently running a workshop for a client to address the way they worked (their processes and organisational structures) and they way they worked together (communications and culture). During the energised conversation, I was reminded once again...
Read MoreWay back in the swinging '60s, Jane Ball pioneered the first digital dating enterprise in London, England. Her secret sauce? Unconventionally successful. Instead of probing about desires, she asked what people decidedly ‘did not want’. It turns out that individuals had a foggy view of their wants, but a crystal-clear vision of what they did not...
Read MoreIn previous years words like volatility, instability, steady state were often used to describe the business economy. But this year, the big thinkers are using the word uncertainty which is a polite way of saying they haven’t got a clue. Why is this? We have a rise in the number of powerful dictators, ungoverned by rule of law, which means things...
Read MoreUnless you've been living under a rock, you've probably noticed that AI, Large Language Models, and ChatGPT are the talk of the town. I've been to a number of conventions, seminars, and conferences over the last month, and almost every session, every conversation, every panel includes some reference to
Read MoreOne of the first things I ask of an audience when running my Strategic Thinking workshops is "raise your hand if you think you are a strategic thinker". I am always amazed at how few people raise their hands straight away - probably about a fifth if that, and then a few do the slight raising lowering thing which implies they think they maybe,...
Read MoreSome companies soar to greatness while others plod along, slow and steady; steady that is until the world shifts and they become obsolete… Consider the lobster. The lobster has a tough exoskeleton that protects it from predators. It lets it live a relatively safe and steady life. However, that safety comes with a big downside - it can't grow. As...
Read More