Smart men, smarter women

How diversity counters complexity.

The real driver behind the diversity debate is not social justice for women or minorities; it’s the need for better decision-making. The business environment is not just more complicated. It’s also more complex. Managing complexity requires diverse input.

Click to read more ...

Are you growing or ageing?

Strategy and the business life cycle.

As a young boy growing up in Sydney, my mother would take me on shopping trips to the city. We would visit at least two of the eight department stores that dominated retail. Housed in monolithic buildings, they had multiple floors of high-ceilinged departments, reached by ornate elevators driven by liveried humans.

 Shortly after, retail changed dramatically. Discount houses arrived; developers discovered suburban malls; big department stores either shut down or were taken over by competitors. Today, only two large players remain.

Some facades still stand. Heritage listed, they form quaint streetscapes at eye level. Look skyward and there are high-rise towers climbing out of the skeletons housing multiple stories of apartments or offices. Retail has left the building.

Click to read more ...

The most powerful profit lever

We need to talk about prices

Price is the most powerful profit lever. The arithmetic is simple. If costs are $9 and you sell for $10, your profit margin is 10%. Raise your price 10% to $11 and your profit doubles to $2.

It’s also the loss lever. Cut that price by 10% and profit disappears.

Price is the quickest thing you can change in the margin equation. Reducing expenses requires careful planning and execution. Prices can be shifted overnight. Want to move idle stock? Put it on sale.

Price is also the most flexible marketing tool. It can be bundled with other offers. It can make a statement about your quality, attract customers or build loyalty.

Click to read more ...

Handling negative situations

To feel better, feel worse.

How hard is it to keep that sunny outlook going when you are surrounded by negative people?

For some reason, we feel we should be above this, that we can maintain our personal dignity despite the environment conspiring to press all our buttons.

Can we actually escape it?

I wonder. Many people learn to not react. That gets you part of the way. It also avoids escalation. In the words of my daughter, a closed mouth gathers no foot.

Click to read more ...

Starting up in the global marketplace

Staying realistic when all those around you are billionaires.

One statistic doing the rounds is this: to build an audience of 50 million, it took radio 38 years; for TV, it was 13; the net took four; Facebook was there in six months.

The drama is not so much the audience growth; it’s the speed with which new communication channels have become dominated by the few.

The early automobile industry consisted of thousands of producers. It was 50 years before it was down to a dozen or so global players. Once the assembly line forced up capital costs, the number of players started to shrink.

Not so with the internet. Most of us could set up an online presence in a few hours, probably for free. Yet a handful of large firms already dominate the space. Facebook. Google. Amazon. When it comes to delivering content, the new elephants are already in your living room.

Click to read more ...