• SERVICES
  • ABOUT US
  • PROJECTS
  • PEOPLE
  • RESOURCES
  • CONTACT

Business Model

Leadership & Management

AI ... The Hammer looking for Nails

Andrew Penny, November 26 2024

Efficiencies:   Break your business down in processes and see which ones are taking the most time to create, complete or use. This might include – invoices, proposals, customer email response, sales reporting, market research, document updating, service manuals. Pick one and explore. Here are some tools to consider - depending on what the area...

Read More
Market Strategy

“It’s an ill wind that blows no one any good”

Andrew Penny, October 22 2024

Henry VI , Part 3 While working with clients we often use a mnemonic called P-E-S-T-L-E; Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental. The idea is to look at these areas through the lens of your company to see where the threats and opportunities may lie. Typically, this is done as part of strategy development sessions....

Read More
Leadership & Management

To Shift or not to Shift

Graham Birkenhead, October 15 2024

Mental models are rather ingenious - they form as a result of us being exposed to new or different situations as we progress through life (aka learning); very many are formed during our formative years and are influenced by things such as culture, faith, or whatever is going on in the world around us at the time.  We use what we already know...

Read More
Market Strategy

All Models are Wrong, but Some are Useful

Graham Birkenhead, August 13 2024

In my ongoing quest to explore coffee shops, I recently came across another of note in one of the small towns near me.  From the street, it wasn't too obvious, and on closer inspection, it had an eclectic mix of tables and chairs, curious décor, and other bits of furniture placed around the edges of the room - and so looked interesting.  It was...

Read More
Customer Sales

Stop Selling

Andrew Penny, May 28 2024

LET ME EXPLAIN It’s natural to focus on our well designed, thoughtful sales process. Most sales software has a pipeline management system that reinforces all the things we are supposed to do to move a prospect through the pipeline. Too often, these processes are sales centric and designed around an average situation that may not apply to

Read More
Market Strategy

Let's Talk About Competition

Andrew Penny, November 21 2023

No matter who you are or what you are, you have competition. We compete for food, for water, for attention, for mates, for… well just about everything. Businesses are no different – we compete for employees, for customers, for supplies, for financing and so on. Given that competition is as old as the planet, there are accepted ways of competing....

Read More
Leadership & Management

Every Link in a Chain is Critical

Graham Birkenhead, October 31 2023

Small and medium-sized businesses constitute the backbone of the North American economy. They make up a staggering 98% of all businesses and generate approximately 40% of total business revenue. Of those, around 60 to 70% are supplying other businesses (B2B) - as opposed to serving an end customer directly (B2C).  Therefore, most businesses are...

Read More
Customer Sales

Kano Coffee Shop

Graham Birkenhead, October 24 2023

I spend a lot of time in coffee shops.  I enjoy a good cup of coffee, fresh baking, ambiance, meeting people, and the opportunity to be somewhere different while trying to work.   Many coffee shops meet my needs, but I don't particularly have one that I always go to, I am indifferent to their differences. That was until recently. I found a new...

Read More
Market Strategy

Consider the Lobster

Andrew Penny, October 10 2023

Some companies soar to greatness while others plod along, slow and steady; steady that is until the world shifts and they become obsolete… Consider the lobster. The lobster has a tough exoskeleton that protects it from predators. It lets it live a relatively safe and steady life. However, that safety comes with a big downside - it can't grow. As...

Read More
Market Strategy

Making Circles Pay

Graham Birkenhead, September 5 2023

Last week, we talked about the circular economy, which is an alternative approach to the more linear ‘take-make-consume-dispose’ value chain.  We try to minimise the take and dispose elements, and repeat the ‘make’ element through things like reuse, recycle, and repurpose, while extending the ‘consume value’ element.  It creates a more continuous...

Read More
Next