In marketing, we are all told to clearly identify our ideal customer. We segment, differentiate and profile the people who we think are most likely to buy from us. Typically in any single industry, we have identified the same group of people as our competitors. That’s how it happens right? We all do the...
In hierarchical business structures, people will be promoted as long as they continue to work competently. This is the primary theory behind the Peter Principle as formulated by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in 1969. It goes on to say that eventually they will be promoted to a position that they are no longer competent – their...
It is so easy to become overwhelmed by Twitter. Once you start following more than a 100 people the timeline can quickly become a fast flowing “fire hose” of information. Once you start following more than 500 you could spend all day trying to keep up to date and informed. I think a lot of...
Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal. – Friedrich Nietzsche You have this great idea. It’s massive. One of those $100M ideas. Are you sure that you have it 100% right? Positive? What if you were 90% right – that would be ok wouldn’t it?...
I don’t listen to the radio. I dislike radio advertising for both the interruption, volume increases, and the overall quality. I also don’t like DJ’s generally – with the possible exception of morning radio shows. I just want to listen to the music – perhaps with some news every now and then. I listen to my own...
Sometimes, I think that businesses have the wrong attitude towards competition and the “competitive landscape”. I’m a very competitive person, but I don’t care about my competition – not in the way other companies seem to obsess about theirs. Perhaps it is where they see themselves and their attitude towards business strategy. Leader or Pack...
Yesterday, there was news that LinkedIn was hacked and six million passwords leaked on the internet. There were two main concerns for users: 1. Someone could log in to your LinkedIn account and make contact with your connections. LinkedIn is primarily a business network site and so the concern was with the potential damage...
I’m finally reading Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. I say finally because its been on my reading list for a couple of years now. This is a great book for anyone interested in business strategy and although many of the references are out-dated, the information is still relevant and compelling. There...
Personalisation is the big trend. Your window on to the internet will be different from mine – if not now, soon. This has been happening for years, but the momentum is increasing – especially with the rapid growth of social media. Companies are able to learn more about you than ever and the new dimension...
I posted back in February on how to schedule tweets and why. The main point was that if you read “shareable” content in batches, then you don’t want to overload your twitter stream and end up spamming your followers with loads of tweets in a short period of time. It is far better to spread these...