Lou Coutts

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View > Always ask: does this work for the customer?: Monday, 14 July 2008 Here’s a simple business model that we may have missed on our rush to incentivise. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Don’t be bean-counted to death: Monday, 7 July 2008 A salient story about shying away from innovation in tough times makes sobering reading. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Small things: Monday, 30 June 2008 Small things can be the opportunities for big reputations, or they can be stepping stones to disaster. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Market forces (a.k.a. customers): Monday, 23 June 2008 Who is pulling the strings of the global economy? Certainly not the ‘authorities’. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Robust information beats betting: Monday, 16 June 2008 Business conditions can change, so have a plan B, even in the midst of successful growth. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Never forget good communication: Monday, 2 June 2008 Managerial decisions make a lot more sense if the people who will be affected by them are consulted. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Never be frightened of feedback: Monday, 26 May 2008 Creating a culture where customers feel comfortable giving you feedback will help keep your business customer-focused. LOUIS COUTTS

View > It can’t happen to me (but it did): Monday, 19 May 2008 There is a bigger threat to business growth than budget changes or tax system tweaking, and mostly we are doing nothing about it. LOUIS COUTTS

View > You need all the help you can get: Monday, 12 May 2008 When you are growing or starting a business, accurately costing the risks associated with the process is crucial. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Cost leadership: Monday, 5 May 2008 Cost leadership isn’t about slashing your pricing; it’s about eliminating waste, encouraging constant innovation and boosting your margins. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Culture is the secret to success: Monday, 28 April 2008 As the economy turns south, companies need to realise that a strong culture is key to survival. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Meeting competitive threats in a tight market: Monday, 21 April 2008 Often the threats to our business emerge from unexpected quarters. Where will they emerge in this tight market? LOUIS COUTTS

View > The competitive strategies: Monday, 14 April 2008 No business can grow without being competitive, and there are only a few simple rules to stick with to make that happen. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Acorns, oaks, behemoths: Monday, 7 April 2008 What we can learn from Ikea and other big companies that were once small. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Don't let 'policy' kill growth: Thursday, 27 March 2008 Whenever you think of resorting to company policy to justify yourself to a customer, just down-grade your growth projections. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Planning mistakes that will lead to failure: Friday, 14 March 2008 Last week in Darwin I came across a shopkeeper who had made every mistake in the book. LOUIS COUTTS

View > Don't let process stifle product: Friday, 22 February 2008 I used to have four rules of management, until I met someone who had only two – and I see businesses prove these two every day.

View > Mind the gap: Friday, 15 February 2008 There are many SMEs that I come across that believe they have a monopoly and do silly things to protect that monopoly.

View > The Emperor’s new clothes: Friday, 8 February 2008 Ever heard of the Emperor’s new clothes? There's a financial institution that is hoping you haven't...

View > Just ask yourself a few questions: Friday, 1 February 2008 Reminder: If you don’t know where you are going, sure as hell you are not going to get there.

View > The forgotten art of the follow-up: Friday, 18 January 2008 A simple annual greeting card can do wonders for a business – all part of the art of the follow-up, which is neglected at untold cost.

View > Stick to the knitting: Friday, 21 December 2007 Today I will visit not so much ‘growth’ but what stifles growth, which these days is more likely to be a pin-striped financial spiv.

View > To push your point: Friday, 14 December 2007 As managers, should we encourage our staff to speak up or not? You bet we should. Without ideas, innovation, and growth, is just impossible.

View > If you want to grow, take your foot off the brake: Friday, 7 December 2007 Guess what balanced score cards, dashboard metrics and productivity statistics have in common? They're all lining your business's brake pads! Get rid of them.

View > Institutionalised mediocracy: Friday, 30 November 2007 Growth suffocated by management; ambition killed by idiots – heard this story before? This is not where our future lies.

View > The world from 35,000ft: Friday, 16 November 2007 At 35,000 ft, sipping a glass of Chardonnay, the world looks different. I can see what a lot of people are missing.

View > Child's play: Friday, 9 November 2007 Passion does not come from above. Rather, the passion that will help your business grow starts at a grass-roots level.

View > Focus and business fortunes: Friday, 2 November 2007 How to get things out of the too-hard basket.

View > Have a nice day: Friday, 26 October 2007 Think of the value chain like a bicycle chain – one broken link, and the bike won’t go!

View > Lift above your weight: Friday, 19 October 2007 Ah, the power of leverage: it lifts Australian companies as easily as English cars!

View > Who has heard of Deming?: Friday, 12 October 2007 Snake oil anyone? No? OK; here's an actual business guru, who developed some enduring business principles that we can all learn from.

View > Leaping limits: Friday, 5 October 2007 Stalled growth is common for entrepreneurs. There are a couple of decisions you have to make to get to the 'next level'.

View > Fickle finance: Friday, 28 September 2007 “Neither a borrower nor a lender be!” So wrote Shakespeare, and he seemed to know a lot about management.

View > The H in HR: Friday, 21 September 2007 If only more companies would treat their human resources more like humans and less like resources.

View > A matter of trust: Friday, 14 September 2007 Consumers today can find out all the information they want. Now they want something more from business, and this time it’s personal.

View > Customers determine strategy: Friday, 7 September 2007 The best laid plans of managers count for nothing if the customer has not been consulted.

View > Businesses don’t fail; people fail: Friday, 31 August 2007 Blame who or what you like, but the truth is that when a business goes under the owner will probably find the reason in the mirror.

View > Will growth pay the price of security?: Friday, 24 August 2007 There will be a real cost to business from terrorism – but the insidious impost will come from within.

View > Don’t worry about US sub-prime, worry about China!: Friday, 17 August 2007 Our growth is so intimately involved with China that it worries me. For Australian SMEs, some salient steps need to be taken now.

View > A slice of a bigger pie: Friday, 10 August 2007 Instead of bemoaning a lack of expansion capital, business owners might consider taking an equity partner.

View > The Bermuda triangle is an ever present threat to growth: Friday, 3 August 2007 Upon suffering a hiccup, if the response is ‘we need to improve our marketing’, it may be better to have a serious look at the effectiveness of the resource of leadership

View > The devil you know!: Monday, 30 July 2007 The hardest sell is of a new product to a new customer. A better sell is an existing product to an existing customer – with a little leverage.

View > Speaking a different language: Tuesday, 17 July 2007 What my granddaughter reminded me about leadership. Do you have bad students or a bad teacher?

View > Tune into the ground swell: Friday, 6 July 2007 When I have gone into an organisation to turn it around, I have found that the greatest help has come from the staff.

View > Trouble in the pipeline: Friday, 29 June 2007 Signs of dysfunctional organisations show up every day, as people interrupt the work of others to satisfy their own needs with no thought to the company’s “value chain”.

View > Fundamental as anything: Friday, 22 June 2007 When business schools don’t bother with what I consider the essence of business you have to wonder.

View > Think about a discretionary stock take: Friday, 15 June 2007 My time is valuable, and so is yours. Just how much you are worth to your business can be sometimes lost in a complacency of "stock". Let me explain...

View > Segment of opportunity: Thursday, 7 June 2007 The quiet of wintertime Bicheno gave me time to reflect on some basic business questions.

View > Start with the right product: Tuesday, 5 June 2007 If you want your business to grow and make a profit, having a product consumers want is a very good start. It’s a point some big car makers have forgotten.

View > Rules of engagement: Friday, 25 May 2007 I cannot think of too many rules of management that hold true in all conditions, but some are better than others.

View > Frustration: Friday, 18 May 2007 I recently found that an empty goal is unachievable. Any outcome requires stripping your company's potential of its frustrations.

View > Engage with people, not computers: Friday, 11 May 2007 I was enjoying a quiet visit to the library when it struck me – business needs to engage with more than a computer screen to be truly innovative.

View > Heartfelt growth: Friday, 4 May 2007 I've also been guilty of only measuring growth by hard KPIs, but there is more to it than that, and more at stake.

View > Brand, and the value (and danger) of speciality: Friday, 20 April 2007 I recently came across a law firm where the partners themselves didn’t realise the importance of product definition.

View > Simple steps to productivity: Friday, 13 April 2007 Recent calls to spend vast amounts on improving productivity overlook gains that would cost very little.

View > Quality at every step: Friday, 30 March 2007 The better wine makers of Burgundy have a simple recipe most businesses could adopt: achieve quality in every step of the process.

View > Keep those Kleenex handy: Friday, 23 March 2007 Leadership and good management should include listening to staff. Too often, leaders fail to learn what they need to succeed.

View > The budgets loom — and so can disaster: Friday, 16 March 2007 Don't let budget-time slip by; it's a great time to write some solid growth into your plan.

View > Peddling hard on the cash cycle: Friday, 9 March 2007 Sometimes you can make more money by cutting your charges. How does that work? Let’s do the maths.

View > The guru’s recipe for growth: Friday, 2 March 2007 The guru's recipe for growth: there are three ways to beat your competition.

View > Curse of the fine print: Friday, 23 February 2007 A danger of growing companies is losing contact with customers and worse: hiding behind fine print.

View > Always look at the balance sheet: Friday, 16 February 2007 Things may seem to be going swimmingly, until a check of the balance sheet shows you are up the creek.

View > Just which business are you in?: Friday, 9 February 2007 Instead of owning your business premises, imagine how much growth that money could generate.

View > Cutting edge graphs: Friday, 2 February 2007 Saw-tooth graphs can tell you a lot about a business, especially your business.

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