Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: October 16, 2009
Most business processes are people dependent. That is, people are required to make the process work. However, some business processes are person-dependent, and that is limiting. To know if a process is person-dependent you just have to ask yourself what happens if that person, specifically, is not available temporarily, or permanently? Will the process fail? [...]
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: August 20, 2009
Your have probably read about the delays in processing the checks back to the auto dealers in the cash for clunkers program. The dealers pay out the rebate money to the consumer when the consumer buys the new car under the program. Then the dealer borrows that money from their credit line until they receive it from the [...]
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: July 13, 2009
Demanding accountability from Marketing has been the focus in many companies for a few years now. Metrics and dashboards have been the primary action taken by Marketing to respond to this pressure. (What better way to convince people you are “accountable” then with a cool, and expensive, dashboard which displays metrics of what you can [...]
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: July 10, 2009
As you undoubtedly know, General Motors exited from bankruptcy today. The new company will focus on “customers, cars and culture.” As part of the announcement they stated that “Top executives at the new company will focus on business results, new vehicles, brands and consumers.” Sounds good, but what on earth else would they think they [...]
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: June 3, 2009
In a prior post, I questioned the savings to be gained by Chrysler and GM from cutting the number of dealers they had. Clearly there would be some small savings in support costs, but most companies would rather be over-distributed than under-distributed, so those savings could not be a real reason. Clearly, also, there were [...]
Posted by: Mitch/Ralph on: January 11, 2009
In the January 5, 2009 issue of Ad Age, Al Ries published an insightful article entitled “The Difference Between Building a Business and Building a Brand.” We agree with virtually all of Al’s points in his article (as we usually do). The key messages in his article as we read it are:
1. Brand popularity/recognition and brand value [...]
