53. Michael Porter and Competitive Advantage for Small Business (Part 3)
Having looked at Michael Porter’s first three forces from his book, Competitive Advantage, the internal ones of Buying Power of Customers, Buying Powere of Suppliers and the existing Competitive Rivalry in the industry, we can now move on to the first external market force, the Threat of New Entrants. Some markets are inherently very difficult to enter, […]
52. Michael Porter and Competitive Advantage for Small Business (Part 2)
The third of Michael Porter’s Five Forces affecting market attractiveness identified in his 1985 book Competitive Advantage is the level of Competitive Rivalry in the Industry. The degree of competition affects the price a service can command and ultimately the survival of the players in it. Porter was thinking of large national and global industries […]
49. Tom Peters Thriving on Chaos for Small Business (part 11)
Tom Peters’ book, Thriving on Chaos (1987), which overthrew or updated his thoughts in In Search of Excellence, comes up with 12 keys to success in the new world he saw as emerging in the late eighties, and these are particularly relevant to small business and are still relevant now. Some of the ideas recently […]
48. Tom Peters (part 10) changes his mind
Driving from the rear view mirror doesn’t work too well and of Tom Peters’ 43 excellent companies identified in In Search of Excellence a large proportion had a lot of problems in the next few years. Now I am not saying you should therefore ignore the last 9 installments. The ideas he explored give a […]
47. Tom Peters searching for small business excellence in tough times No 9
Peters and Waterman’s eighth and last precept for successful businesses in In Search of Excellence was to develop what they called ‘simultaneous loose-tight properties’. What they meant by this was, be very rigorous in ensuring that everyone understands and follows the key principles and objectives but give flexibility to enable exercise of creativity and initiative. It is […]
45. Tom Peters searching for small business excellence in tough times No 7
Peters and Waterman’s 6th Precept from In Search of Excellence is “Stick to the Knitting’ – a homely way of saying ‘stick to what you know and are good at’. Many large companies looking for opportunities to expand have been guilty of getting involved in businesses they thought would fit with their business but did […]
43. Tom Peters searching for small business excellence in tough times No 5
Tom Peters and Robert Waterman’s fourth precept for successful businesses in In Search of Excellence was people productivity. Peters was very interested in the tendency of large corporations to focus heavily on and invest significantly in equipment in their search for improved performance and competitiveness, but to rarely give a similar focus on people. Automating […]
42. Tom Peters searching for small business excellence in tough times No 4
Tom Peter’s & Robert Waterman’s third precept from In Search of Excellence was focusing on Autonomy and Entrepreneurship, where he believed that many large US corporations at the time of the book were failing. For Peters this was about giving product or market champions their head, with a degree of authority and responsibility. Within policy guidelines […]
41. Tom Peters searching for small business excellence in tough times No 3
Tom Peters’ and Robert Waterman’s second precept for successful US businesses was: Stay Close to the Customer. Rocket-science it definitely is not, but it is very important and quite easy for large businesses to lose sight of, as Peters well knew. In large and mid-size businesses sometimes the senior executives insulate themselves from the customer. […]
40. Tom Peters searching for small business excellence in tough times No 2
Peters & Waterman’s first theme which characterised successful businesses from their study of 43 ‘successful’ US businesses was: A bias for action. What they meant by this was that they were companies that did not generally feel the need to spend years studying any development and months contemplating any action. They tended to get on with it, and […]
