Can you trust innovation to drive growth?

Innovation is becoming increasingly popular. People seem to think it is the key to successful growth. Yet Jim Collins most recent book Great by Choice, which is definitely worth reading, shows that this is not the case. Let us stand back and ask: “What do we really mean by innovation?”. Is it: creating something totally […]

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On pain, business success and becoming unstoppable

Yesterday I met a Managing Director whose company grew at 1% last year. Like most companies today, she thinks that that is all she can expect “in this economy.” Yet she asked “Some companies are growing far faster than that- how do they do it?” I call them the “one percent”. There are businesses out […]

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Silo thinking will stop business growth dead

I have been lucky enough to work for some of the world’s largest companies. It always amazes me how senior management bemoan how their teams work separately, in silos, yet do not realise this problem comes directly from them and kills business growth. It also concerns me that they do not do whatever it takes […]

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Unless you are customer centric your business will not grow

It is amusing how many companies tell me they are really customer centric. Strangely, when we do some analysis, which always shows that this is not the case, they are then quick to see their claim was incorrect. All the fast growth companies we track have several things in common. One thing they are all […]

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Avoiding a Titanic style business disaster

The Titanic, recessions and even possibly the UK’s recent decision to leave the EU have a lot in common. In both instances, the people in charge made rash decisions that drove major destruction. How can you ensure you always avoid business disaster? While extreme, these examples can help us understand why 99% of companies are not […]

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Why your business cannot afford to get customer experience wrong 2

OK. So I will assume you have worked out the customer experience touchpoints (from your customers’ point of view) and that you now understand at which touchpoints your company is exceeding their expectations and where they are disappointed what emotions they are experiencing at each point Making the key decisions So, where are the biggest […]

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Why your business cannot afford to get the customer experience wrong

Consider for a moment a recent shopping experience you had- either good or bad. What do you remember about it? I bet it was the customer experience itself – and not so much about the product.[1] Am I right? Poor customer experience is fast track to business failure A certain large telecommunication company in the UK […]

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Don’t throw your money away on wasted marketing

Companies do not seem to understand what marketing is really about. They think it is about brochures, advertising, PR, social media, web sites etc. Actually, unless a company has the true elements of marketing in place, these activities will bring minimal rewards and be pretty much a total waste of time and money. On the […]

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Rollover – Hotdogs, a business success? Really?

David Sangar, when he was Managing Director of Rollover, fell into hotdogs. He had totally other plans for the business. Yet strangely, thanks to hotdogs, he ended up being far more successful and becoming a multi millionaire. David started the business by setting up sandwich shops. Then a pub coerced him into supplying them with […]

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