I’ve written before on the issue of cash flow, its importance to business, and the potential for companies to use it as a strategic tool as a part of a supply chain. It was therefore interesting to read an article in the business section of the Sunday Times today which was describing the plight of…
You would have to have been isolated in a bunker for the last few years to have missed the number of natural disasters that have happened. It can be debated whether they are becoming more frequent or more violent, however, what is indisputable is that the impact of these natural shocks is of greater significance and impact on global…
One of the keys to successful innovation is to find an unsatisfied or poorly satisfied need. Whilst we often think of innovation as being about step change, it can equally, and more often, be a small improvement that has disproportionate impact. A great example of a company that consistently achieves this is Dyson. Dyson amongst other products…
When we think of subscriptions we usually think of magazines and health clubs. From a business model perspective they both operate a similar model where we agree to commit to pay a periodic fee for a period of time in return for access to an often perishable service or product. When we dig beneath the…
Earlier this year the IACCM published ‘The Future of Contracting’ which was the culmination of inputs from 2,000+ practitioners as to what contract management would look like in 2020. There were many themes that came out, however, two of them were: the role of automation and tools; and the area of skills, organisation, and proceses.…
Through the ages children the world over have used storytelling and game playing to learn and develop knowledge and judgement. Yet in everyday business we see so little focus on its use to help make sense of the increasingly complex and interlinked world that we live in. Latitude Research, who help clients create engaging content,…
As anyone who has worked in a consultancy, law firm, accountancy practice, or the like will know only too well, to keep your position you have to bill as many hours as possible. Managing a firm that runs a consultancy or partnership model relies on balancing order intake, sales, utilisation, and margin. Order intake and its…
With all of the publicity around insurance or legal referral fees earlier in the year it won’t surprise many people that the insurance industry is one of the largest spenders on legal services in the UK, about £5Bn pa, 20% of the market. Unless you’re in the legal services industry though it’s likely that the…
I listened to an interesting interview recently about a new service which brings airline style ticket pricing to restaurant booking. We are all used to seeing the cost of an airline ticket fluctuating with demand. What is going on in the background in simple terms is that the airline, with a fixed supply (i.e. number of seats), …
There have been many column inches spent over the last week discussing General Motor’s decision to move from an outsourced model to an insourced model in relation to its IT. What drives much of the debate is the skills agenda and can GM manage the transition. If you look at the reasons that GM gave…