There are lots of businesses run by devoted owners, many for the lion’s share of their working lives but, as these owners look to retire and neither succession nor a trade-sale seem likely, how could value be leveraged, in preference to a ‘fire’ or retirement sale?
We often see mature businesses, with solid reputations, finding it harder to grow than it should be when demand is there. Good internal capability is often diluted by vague or ambiguous strategy, an opportunist sales culture delivering perpetually bespoke products, most of which don’t make any money, and R&D’s too busy ‘chasing their tails’ doing specials to get on with predicting the future. Does this sound familiar?
Delivering growth and profitability in commodity services is a tough ask and huge strategic bets have to be placed but, with bold and astute strategic choices, it’s possible. What are those choices?
Independent food retail is under considerable pressure from the supermarkets who have procurement, distribution and marketing monopolies and dominate both market and consumer behaviour. How can independents compete?
Increasing volumes with already razor thin margins should be a real wake-up call. Growth is great but what changes do you need to make to be sure that the more you produce the more money you make, not the other way round?
Boards and company leaders have always had a number of different ways to grow their businesses and deciding on an approach which satisfies stakeholders, exploits market opportunities, outperforms competitors and leverages the accumulated assets, whilst keeping customers happy is a perennial conundrum. Here’s one such example…
Manufacturers using cheap(er) labour as a means of reducing costs to help remain competitive is well-documented but usually short-lived. UK manufacturers could do more to exploit our indigenous innovative mindset, but which routes will give best returns?
ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) embody many of the elements of modern marketing; customisation which can be overlaid onto a constant and reliable foundation, dramatically shortened times-to- market, relatively small production runs and an intense focus on customer service. How do you tame these apparent contradictions?
As both existing and new technologies drive opportunities for automation which can result in the commoditization of services, how do you know when, where and to what extent you should invest in automation?