-
Take a few minutes to learn the two-minute drill
I could fill volumes about chance meetings that have changed people’s lives, led to jobs, business opportunities, partnerships, new ideas . . . all because people sought other people with similar interests. The secret is to seek them out. Every time I’m in a line, on a plane, at a sporting event, wherever … I…
-
Marketing Focus – Essays on Management & Marketing
READING THE CUES Seeking out, analysing and reacting to the multitude of cues that abound in the economy, marketplace and competitive sectoral segments can be, and is, exhausting, frustrating – and often futile. Deliberating about, and conducting informed “right” decisions are beyond the scope and capacities of many. Much of the available information, perspectives and…
-
The best lessons are short, sweet and useful
Readers of this column are remarkable when it comes to telling me what they like most about my weekly musings. Of course, I’m honored when they tell me they have posted my words on company bulletin boards or used the lessons as motivation. But without question, the most frequent feedback I get is that the…
-
Marketing Focus – Essays on Management, Marketing & Business Strategies
It’s July, and the start of a new financial year for businesses operating in Australia. Perhaps more significantly, the change of month and focus heralds the end of seemingly countless, inappropriate and largely ineffective End-of-Financial Year Sales. The era of door-buster sales events has lapsed, a product of too many sales, a lack of consumer focus…
-
The worst failure is the failure to try
That is the message I hear every spring when I attend the Horatio Alger Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C., where 10 new members are inducted annually. I was honored to be one of them in 2004, during the short speeches given by new members to the audience, which includes more than 100. Failure can become…
-
Marketing Focus – Six Essays on Management and Marketing
1. Cuts in Expenditure and Resources Cuts in expenditure and resources, to address economic downturns, waste and to achieve enhanced productivity are, in the main, mutually exclusive, Addressing or achieving one does not necessarily impact on the others. Removing waste and accelerating productivity are laudable goals, which are relatively constant ideals. Ironically, the current…
-
Setting up an Open Innovation Program
Let’s face it – community pharmacy is in a knowledge transfer bind. It can no longer function under its own self reliance. It is bogged down because pharmacy leadership has developed hardening of the arteries and finds itself immobile inside each of its traditional infrastructures. The primary cause is twofold: * Information is being collated…
-
Marketing Focus – 1. Mixed Messages 2. Fabulous Fads 3. Future Retail Trends – Closing Stores 4. Ageism 5. Amazon – River of Change
1. Mixed messages. That is the essential characteristic of the current marketplace. Depending on the information source, differing perspectives, forecasts and analyses are shared. Little wonder the currency of the term alternative truth. In recent weeks scientists around the world marched in support of truth. Unbelievable. The number of participants was disappointing. Now is the…
-
Optimists see opportunities in challenge
Two hikers were camped out overnight in the mountains. A thunderous voice roused them from their sleep. The voice said, “This will be the saddest day or the happiest day of your lives,” then instructed them to pack up their belongings, make their way to the river, gather stones in their backpacks that they couldn’t…
-
Ransomeware Attacks Reported in Australia & Globally
A recent alert from an Internet security organisation: “For a few hours, bad news is spreading quickly about a massive wave of infections by a new ransomware called “WannaCry”. We are still trying to collect more information about it. It seems that 45K attacks were detected from 74 differents countries: Big targets have been telecom…