By Andrew Pearson
As we know, it is a lot harder for companies to increase revenue and profits today than it was. As we moved into the 21st century the business model was quite straightforward; invent a great product, launch it, sell it hard, go international, make an acquisition or two, grow market share and create efficiencies to cut costs.
Companies searching for growth opportunities relied on classic product-focussed growth strategies including; core product enhancements, brand extensions and new product introductions. For many companies, revenues from each of these pipelines has shrunk and turned into a trickle.
Even though these strategies are important and relevant today, they don’t at the moment represent a platform for driving large and sustained growth. Read more here…
From the Reinvent the Business series
Here’s a question! Just how can a company invent a business changing model in its industry?
Well there are a number of ways that a company could systematically analyze its markets and identify new and different forms of competition. A central theme is space.
Click here to read more…
Having presented the imperative for a dynamic approach to strategy formulation, we come now to defining what is meant by a superior strategy.
In the end a superior strategy, or business model, is all about finding and exploiting a unique strategic position in a company’s current business while, at the same time, searching for new unique strategic positions on a systematic and rolling basis.
Click here to read more…
From the Reinvent the Business series
In the last post we noted that well before a successful business reaches its revenue peak, the basis of competition on which it was founded has already begun to expire. Competition in the cell phone industry, for instance, has changed several times—for both manufacturers and service providers—from price to network coverage to the value of services to design, branding, and applications.
Click here to read more…
From the Reinvent the Business series
How many companies can you think of that have enjoyed a long history of growth and profitability, then slip into decline? Then ask yourself why this happens? Well there’s no shortage of explanations for this. Here are a few; a failure to stick with the core business, to problems with execution, an unhealthy focus on scale for scale’s sake, entrenched thinking, over confidence, failure to see changing customer demands taking place and the ingress of competition that innovate fresh and superior offers of value!
Click here to read more…
I hope the principles and practices you have seen over the past 6 weeks or so have encouraged you to think about your business differently than you did before. Here’s a quick recap of the main principles you have explored over the past few weeks: Click here to read more…
I want to wind up this series of articles on management with a single RECOMMENDATION, one that speaks of the character of the manager. It is to be found in the tale of the business leader, Andrew Cook.
Here is an individual who applied the skills we have covered here, but who in addition characterises what is best in human endeavour in the business world. This factor we would suggest is the ultimate recommendation for real business success! But judge for yourself! Here is the story again but with more detail. Click here to read more…
Do you measure the results of your business building tacticts? You probably do. But you might be interested in being aware of a couple of really essential metrics. Click here to read more…
Some time ago, I heard a story about two people that ran a furniture business. The company decided that because it was doing so well, it should expand into the piano business and also sell pianos! They went out and purchased a Steinway and took it apart to study how each individual piece was made. Then they made the same pieces themselves and built a piano. When they played it, nothing but thumps and bumps came out it! Click here to read more…
When you think about it franchise businesses are among the best run businesses of all. Why? My rational is that successful franchisees ran businesses with sound process, systems and procedures. This gave them consistency. And not only that – time to get on with managing the business. Here is a business model you could replicate give you more time to spend on the business, develop your business reputation, achieve more productivity, reduce waste, and better customer service and so forth. Click here to read more…
