Tag Archives | advice

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Blue Ocean Strategy: A game changer for SMEs

In today’s business ecosystem, where competition is rife and profit margins are thinning, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often find themselves swimming in dangerous waters. However, the Blue Ocean Strategy offers a lifeline—an escape route to untapped market spaces where competition is yet to intensify. Developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, this business […]

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The Innovator’s Dilemma: A Crucial Framework for SMEs too

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often find themselves in a paradoxical situation. On one hand, they experience success by fulfilling a specific market need; on the other hand, this very success can turn into a vulnerability. The reason? The Innovator’s Dilemma, a concept that explains how firms can become victims of their own achievements. While […]

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Pricing, value and the incentive to buy

Pricing your product or service is a difficult process that can involve multiple points of influence – cost, existing market, competitors, etc. But people frequently overlook or perhaps misunderstand the role that value plays in actually achieving any price ultimately set. The typical way we think about a sale Let’s look at both sides of […]

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Response flexibility

I am trying to improve my response flexibility. I came across this phrase last year and it has really stuck in my mind. Response flexibility is about creating a gap between a trigger and the response to that trigger – allowing you to make a conscious decision about who you respond. “Between stimulus and response […]

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Meetings are what you do

It’s all too easy to bash meetings as a manager. They can eat into your day and make you feel like you haven’t completed any “real” work. It’s what good leaders do But what can be more important than speaking with your employees and managers, checking in to make sure all is ok, communicating progress, […]

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Mastery is Progress

A couple of my employees were invited to speak at the local university recently to discuss their jobs and their career choices with students. They asked me if I had any advice for them that they could share; they may have regretted that question after 45 minutes of my response. You see, there seems to […]

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Meanwhile – how to use it for action

“Meanwhile” is a great word for helping you (and others) focus on action. Use it as a reminder that although one path may be blocked, there's usually something else that you can be accomplished. It also reminds you that not everything stops while you are waiting, or procrastinating with or without good reason. For example: […]

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The non-customer

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 […]

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