You probably do not have a competitive advantage, What should you do so you do have it?
For-profit companies are endlessly chasing the holy grail – competitiveness. Reaching a situation in which they are able to tilt customers preference to their products or services in comparison to those offered by their competitors. These efforts, sometimes are successful, however – seldomly. Why do I claim it is seldom? How would one evaluate […]
Our experience, friend or foe?
As we accumulate years of experience we also accumulate valuable knowledge. We learn from our mistakes (hopefully) and gain better intuition about things. This is excellent. However, experience is a double edged sward, on the other side it blocks our vision and narrows our width of thought. We believe that “we know” to the extent, […]
Supply chain performance – The key to success for the Consumer goods producers
Companies constantly seek ways to improve their performance and enhance their competitiveness. One of the most powerful areas for achieving that is supply chain performance, because: It is relatively simple to gain meaningful improvement in performance Any performance improvement immediately improves cash, cost, investment and sales Supply chain performance answers a highly important need of […]
What is the value of 1% availability improvement for a Retailer?
Retail is one of the interesting businesses. It involves huge amounts of money selling goods to extremely large crowds, but with relatively low profitability. This low profitability, due to the huge revenue is, cash wise, sufficient to enable retailers to thrive in a performance level that would normally bankrupt other type of businesses. When […]
Protect your cash, and it will protect you
One of the slogans I very much believe in says – “When you have enough cash nothing is important, when you do not have enough cash nothing else is important“. In the constant chase for growth and profits, it seems that cash situation does not receive the respect it deserves. At least not before the […]
Complexity vs. Simplicity a doomed battle… or not?
Life is complex, anyway we observe our lives whether personal, social or business it is complex. What makes them complex is the fact that whatever we set our minds to do (or at least almost everything) has so many dependencies, so many elements that have an effect on the end result. Some of these elements […]
Why is it that some excellent advice is so annoying
There is a lot of advice one gets that seems to be so true, so powerful, so undebatable, so smart and at the same time sooooo annoying. Things like: Turn obstacles into success challenges Focus on the one thing which is the most important to you Set goals and evaluate your actions against them Put […]
Our biggest obstacle to breakthrough growth is … US
We are born with the natural desire to grow engraved in our DNA, we are curious and we do not accept anything without challenging it. As we get older we slowly, yet surely, abandon this natural capability and replace it with solid truths. Some of these truths are a result of our own experience […]
Base your management decisions on solid foundations
In my previous post I tried to demonstrate how cost accounting based measures are leading you astray. There is a better alternative, sound, consistent and aligned with business objectives. I often wonder, why is it that we continue using things we know are not good enough, or even bad? I believe there are two […]
Cost accounting measures are leading you astray
A good friend and mentor told me many years ago that “If you ask lousy questions, don’t be surprised to get lousy answers”. I found over the years two facts: The first one is that this sentence is amazingly true and the second, is that with small adjustments this sentence can be rewritten to accurately […]
