business
512 posts
How Much Runway Do You Need?
An aircraft must reach sufficient speed to take off. The pilot needs enough runway to achieve that optimum speed. The same is true of our projects and ideas. Velocity alone is not enough to make an idea fly. Ideas also need time. We often focus our energy on gathering speed and creating momentum, wh
Signalling
According to the Collins English Dictionary, a signal ‘is a gesture, sound, or action which is intended to give a particular message to the person who sees or hears it.’ We are sending signals to our clients and customers whenever they come into contact with our business or brand—even when we’re not
What The Best Communicators Do
Professor Daniel Kahneman has spent a lifetime researching why and how humans make decisions. His decades of work focused on the two ways we think and decide using one of two modes of thought, System 1 and System 2. System 1 makes fast, instinctive and emotional judgements and System 2 operates at a
The Immeasurable Benefits Of The Immeasurable
Joanne has no idea what the return on investment of sweeping her bakery floor is. And yet she does it first thing each morning before the first customer arrives. Harry has no way of knowing if the three hours he spends cleaning his taxi inside and out at the weekend makes a difference to passengers.
Bridging The Change Gap
We know that attention is the first essential step on the path to influencing others. We also know it’s not possible to inspire people to act or to create change with attention alone. There’s always a gap between gaining awareness, enabling action and gaining traction. You can buy attention, but you
The Right Story
What makes some bad ideas successful, and why do many good ideas fail? It turns out that there’s no such thing as a bad idea or a good idea. There is only the wrong story or the right story. The right story is one that is trusted. It is believed because it is told by…
Be Ambitious
In our culture ambition is both celebrated and frowned upon—not always in equal measure. Ambition is encouraged and rewarded, but only to a point. Perhaps it’s not ambition itself that’s the problem, but rather, our narrow definition of it? We aspire mostly to the ambition of accumulation. We want t
Necessary Work
Last week I reached out to two different digital companies for technical support via email. The first company promised to respond within 24 hours. Their eventual reply was a copied and pasted generic email, that likely went out to every person with a similar issue. It was obvious the busy person dea
Who Loves Your Work?
Who loves what you do? Who tells their friends? Who waits in line? Who buys the lot? Who can you help? Who makes you care? Who has the problem you can solve? Who is your muse, your right customer, your reason? When you know, you’ll be one step closer to doing your best work. Image…
How We Do Matters
One of the owners of Melbourne’s most iconic café died tragically a week ago. Sisto Malaspina had been serving espresso to Melburnians at Pellegrini’s since 1974. Tributes poured in from across the community about the impact he and his café had on people and the city. The one that struck me was the
The Right Customer
A lot has changed in the six months since I last walked through the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. New cafes have opened. Others have closed their doors. Some established cafes have queues of people waiting for tables, while several, just a few hundred metres down the street, are empty. There’s no
What Are You Promising?
Products and services are promises. A promise from the brand to the customer. The word of the maker given to the user. A commitment from the seller to the buyer. Sellers promise that things are fresh and safe, worthy and working—that they will meet spec and sometimes even delight. Whenever we make o
The Imperfect Plan
In our imaginations, we plan for perfect. Perfect products bought and loved by perfect customers—who only show up on our best days. The days when we are perfect. Of course, the reality can’t always live up to the imagination. So we need to have a plan for when we’re far from perfect. The companies t
A Matter Of Marketing
We live in an age when it’s easier than ever to get your message in front of people. Many businesses have a strategy for getting their message seen and heard—far fewer have a plan for being believed and understood. It’s one thing to get in front of people, and another for them to choose to…
The Art Of Differentiation
One day you will find a design you laboured over, taken and copied or several lines of copy you crafted, used and unattributed. And you will rant and rave until you realise, that there are things you can say and do that can’t be copied because those things are only true for you. We spend…
The Disciplined Marketer
It’s 6.30 am at the hotel gym, and the guests who are keen to get a workout in before breakfast are lining up. The receptionist is taking their room numbers before admitting them. As they turn to walk away, gym towel and bottle of water in hand, she asks if they’d like to book in…
The Best Fit
Sometimes we take on projects or clients that are a bad fit. Work that doesn’t energise us or customers that don’t value us. It’s hard to pay attention to the reasons why things aren’t working out when you’re knee-deep in the situation. But it’s important to try. We discover how we work best by payi
The Extra Mile
In a challenging marketplace, it’s tempting to compete on value by aligning with what other businesses do. The companies that will win and keep customers in the future are the ones who do the things their competitors won’t do. It’s easier to keep step than it is to go the extra mile. That’s why it’s
Another Time
During a high-intensity workout, the trainer reminds the athlete to treat every set as if it were the last. To train as if this was the only sixty seconds, he would cycle that day. In that moment, with that mindset he increases his effort, his performance intensifies and that changes his results. We
The Slow And Steady Advantage
The salespeople at our local gym usually interact with their customers once. A person who is motivated enough to book a gym tour, followed by the inevitable sales conversation is likely to join. The conversion rate is high. While designing the experience to optimise the quickest route to the sale wo
