RWC Blog

In two recent blogs (past few days) I’ve talked about the fundamental importance of Small Medium Enterprises becoming more predisposed than ever to the notion of combining strengths and resources with aligned businesses in order to achieve an increased scale of operation – which in turn can produce overall increases in revenue and profit. And with improved profits comes the opportunity to use available reserves for reinvestment in further resources – to drive/ fuel further scale and growth. Scale builds…

We each came into this world knowing nothing. We were essentially a “blank canvas”. As we evolved from being babies to toddlers to fully-fledged children to adults through our life’s course (education, experiences, interactions with the world) we amassed a wide and deep knowledge of the world around us. This knowledge base and skill set is what defines us as an individual – it is in fact our unique gift to the world. I grew-up in a teaching family –…

Growth is on the lips, and in the hearts and minds, of thousands of Small Medium Business owners around the world, as everyone in the business realm tries to find ways of increasing sales revenue and profitability – to only then realise reserves that can be used for investment in further resources that will drive growth.  I have made it my mission for the balance of my working life to talk with open-minded people who own Small Medium Enterprises –…

While a commendable growth strategy used by many businesses is to diversify their product mix, be careful as to the extent (and speed at which) you diversify. Product diversification typically means adding one or more new product to your existing offer…which typically requires a financial investment (e.g. for research & development, if the product is a new innovation). Before you diversify your product mix, review your Cash Flow Budget to make sure that you can realistically afford to proceed with…

For those Small Medium Enterprises that are wanting to re-structure themselves in order to increase their scale of operation, there are options available to you that don’t involve merging. Here are a few alternatives: Add one or more additional shareholder. Often this is done in order to increase venture and/ or working capital, or to introduce a range of skills/ expertise that isn’t otherwise available among existing personnel. Crowd funding to raise venture capital for expansion and/ or new product/…

A few years ago I was working as a CEO across 3 x organisations concurrently. It was an interesting time for sure ! One of the issues one of these companies was facing was its business brand not being embraced by Licensees who were located in various parts of New Zealand. The owners of this company were doing a good job of developing a professional brand image, but the people in the field (i.e. the Licensees) were not embracing the…

Following a hockey match involving my daughter this morning, I ambled along talking with my Mother about various things. One recent experience that Mum brought into the conversation was her search for a game (mahjong) by firstly choosing to ask at a range of local bricks and mortar retail stores. What astonished her was the response she received from all three well-known (nationally represented) retailers. None of the three retailers currently were stocking this particular game, but instead of thinking…

I was watching our daughter’s hockey team play their Saturday morning game, this morning. It was clear to not only myself, but to other parents around me, that our team was being overwhelmed by the opposing team – largely through: a) not pushing themselves to be “competitively aggressive”…to go in for the ball and contest hard for possession of the ball. b) not staying with the opposition when the opposition took the ball from them…in a bid to try and…

A fantastic way of injecting robust structure into your business is to ensure that you have a written Operating Procedure in place for each key function that is required to be performed. Operating Procedures are a key tool to use to: Set your team up to win. I believe that no person deliberately sets-out to do a “bad job” or work at odds with an employer’s expectations. Rather, I think it is more the case that when an undesirable outcome…

Too many times (particularly) small businesses fail to gain (or maintain) good momentum due to the owner(s) finding themselves erecting or fixing their structure as they concurrently pour time and energy into contributing towards the generation of revenue. On each occasion where I have seen the above practice, the business concerned has typically been close to becoming dysfunctional in terms of: Communication breakdown Stakeholder relationship breakdown A company culture which is characterized by distrust and disharmony Internal stakeholders threatening to…