Sales is a $900 Billion spend The amount invested in sales forces (including salaries, benefits, and other components of SG&A—selling, general and administrative expenses) is about $900 billion annually. That is more than five times the $170 billion spent on all media advertising in 2012 and more than twenty times the $40 billion spent on
Aligning sales with strategy Read More »
Strategy and reputation economics We have a lot of clients in the financial sector, including banks. When we do sessions on strategy and future trends, we have recently included “Reputation economics” by Josh Klein Reputation is key In “Reputation economics” he sets out why he thinks reputation is becoming increasingly important. And it has nothing
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The employer-employee relationship is broken, and managers face a seemingly impossible dilemma when dealing with talent. The old model of guaranteed long-term employment no longer works in a business environment defined by continuous change, but neither does a system in which every employee acts as a free agent. The Alliance Reid Hoffman gets to the
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The root of the problem Niraj Dawar argues is that for a couple of decades now, marketing hasn’t been seen to be delivering competitive advantage. Tactical Since the heyday of mass media and mass brands, marketing’s strategic contribution has progressively diminished. The function has become increasingly tactical. The CEO wonders how marketers spend their time.
Has marketing lost its way? Read More »
Reinventing organisations Reinventing organisations is one of the best books we have read in a long time. Staff development We are working with a lot of organisation on their staff development, which invariably gets combined with innovation, strategy and change management. Counter-intuitive This book takes a complete counter-intuitive approach. This is engagement by being completely self-organising.
Not change management, just staff engagement Read More »
You don’t want to be in marketing I “The moment of clarity” talks about anthropology as a key science to really help understand your client. Market research does not work, Emotionomics and Kahneman have shown us that we are barely rational. Brian Solis talks about “moments of truth”. “The Shallows” explains our diminishing attention span.
The marketing principles, purpose, people, personal, perception and product Read More »
Niche businesses What do Baader, 3B scientific, McIlhenny, International SOS, Hoganas, Tetra, Bobcat, Gallagher, Seas Getter, Hamamatsu,Arnold and Richter, Petzl, Lantal, Tandberg, WET, De La Rye, Belfor, Ulvac, Orica, CEAG, Gartner, Zimmer, Technogym, Gerriet,Embrear, OC Tanner, Klias, Electro-Nite, Sappi, Essel Propack, Plansee, Dickson, Molex, Jungbunzlauer, Nivarox, SGS, Brainlab, Delo, Enercon, Omicon, Beluga, Nissha, Amorim, Jamba,
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Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work. Crazy? An idealised notion? Today’s workplaces tend to be full of cynicism, paranoia and self-interest. But the best organisations foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a Circle of Safety. It separates the security inside the team from
Why habits exist In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. He takes us to visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains.
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Overview There is something in this for everyone. Small business owners, project managers, large organisations, public bodies, the lot. The main theme is that, while many good practices exist in organisations, they either get lost or there are difficulties when attempts are made to spread them (scale them) across the organisation. They discuss when a
Scaling Up Excellence: Get more without settling for less Read More »