Blog from the Bridge

THE BUSINESS ABYSS

There are many aspects of business that must be mastered. One of the most important is the concept of the ‘ VALUE CHAIN”. What this phrase attempts to do is encapsulate the activities inside a business which staff undertake to : 1. Design 2. Produce 3. Market 4. Deliver, and 5. Support its product offering So instead of looking at these activities separately, it is better to look at them together like a CHAIN where all the parts are linked together in providing customers with a point of difference, some special VALUE and thereby enhance the organization with some competitiveRead more...

BUSINESS PLANNING SERIES – Part 7

 There must be a ‘sunset clause’ or exit strategy in every business project. People die, or they want to move on, their marriage dissolves, their health fails, they want to sell the business, they want a succession plan, they want to retire, they want to start a family, they fall pregnant, they want to merge with a competitor……whatever the reason, businesses change because people change and the economic climate is always changing. So do not plan that the status quo will endure. It won’t.   Your plans must factor in multiple changes over time , right across the organization.

BUSINESS PLANNING SERIES – Part 6

There are a huge number of core issues that an organization has to look at to determine which ones should be monitored and prioritized in hopefully driving it effectively towards its goals. Identifying which activities deserve this attention can only be done after careful analysis. Each case will be different, each will have a ‘fog of data’ obscuring the important drivers of change. Around this tangle of activity will be good people who are committed to the status quo. They have a vested interest in supporting the current culture otherwise they can be criticized as being ‘counter-culture’, non conforming, outliers, blackRead more...

BUSINESS PLANNING SERIES – Part 5

One of the most important features of a business plan is the commitment to CHANGE. To facilitate that change you should also commit to a program of education & training. This improvement challenge is not only directed outwardly at the corporate level but inwardly too at the personal level. You have to try to become a lifelong learner. There is evidence that todays skills have a currency of about 2.5 years after which they will be superseded and to some extent be replaced by better knowledge or technology. Standing still is not an option in todays fast paced economic climate. ThatRead more...

BUSINESS PLANNING SERIES – Part 4

At this point you have gathered a skilled supportive team around you, the situational analysis has been done and you know where you want to go. You now have the impetus for ACTION. Hopefully there is not too much corporate dysfunction to be addressed but all of the following ‘silos’ will have to be addressed with specific strategies to get to your goals: Financial goals Marketing goals People/HR goals Production/product goals Organizational structure goals Within each of these categories there is a myriad of sub-groups that could be ‘the elephant in the room’ that has to be examined in muchRead more...